Athletic Accolades

Glasgow High School held their annual awards banquet May 30, in St. Raphael's gymnasium and featured 1998 GHS graduate Kami Malnaa.

According to GHS activities director Brenner Flaten, Malnaa was a three-sport standout during her time at GHS, leading the Scotties to two state volleyball championships and a runner-up finish at the 1997 State B Basketball tournament, where she garnered tournament MVP honors. She was also a two-time first-team All-State selection in both basketball and volleyball.

Following high school, she attended MSU-Billings to play basketball, where she was a two-year team captain for the Yellow Jackets and earned first-team All-Conference Honors. She ranks sixth all-time in career three-pointers made in MSU-B history.

Malnaa earned her bachelor's degree in health promotion and her master's degree in athletic training, and after graduation entered the coaching profession. She has been coaching Division 1 women's basketball for the last 11 years, with a two-year stop at Wichita State, and the past nine seasons as an assistant for the University of Nevada Wolf Pack.

During her speech to the 300-plus attendees, Malnaa talked about her love for coaching and touched on the amount of time it takes to effectively lead a team. She assured the crowd that high-school coaches put more time into their jobs than people probably know, and they definitely don't do it for the money.

She also stated that she has witnessed a general declining interest in high school sports across the nation, but noted that northeast Montana communities are still very enthusiastic in comparison to that trend. "It's very special to be a Scottie," she said, and stressed to the students that they need to be true to themselves. "Be the best you that you can be."

Following Malnaa's address, recognition of the 2016-2017 athletes began. In addition to announcing the varsity letter winners, academic all-state, all-state and all-conference selections for each sport, Flaten also noted senior athletes that will be moving on to compete at the next level and those that have or will be participating in some of the "all-star" events.

In addition, a representative for each sport announced and presented individual honors for their teams.

Notably, head wrestling coach Jory Casterline presented an award in honor and memory of the late Jim Holter. Holter, who lost a courageous battle with cancer late in 2016, was a longtime coach and mentor in the wrestling community.

Casterline explained that the award isn't necessarily about how a wrestler performs on the mat, it can also be about how they manage things in their lives. This year's recipient of the award, which Casterline expects to be given annually, was Gabe Hallock.

Following those presentations, Flaten took to the podium again for some final awards, presenting three "Golden Scottie" awards and the outstanding senior athletes – male and female – for the 2016-2017 season. Golden Scottie winners must have participated in 12 complete seasons of sports during their high school career, and not have had any training rule infractions, among other things.

Golden Scotties were awarded to three seniors this year: Trent Herbert, Khloe Krumwiede and Luke Breigenzer.

The outstanding senior athletes receiving recognition were Benji Phillips and Khloe Krumwiede.