New Year, New Bison

After a successful 2018 campaign, the Great Falls High Bison returned to Memorial Stadium with a new look and a new attitude. “To give you an example of what these kids are like, we were supposed to be out on the field at about 4:30, and at 4:05 kids are already out here doing stuff,” said head coach Mark Samson. “I think we were very anxious for this day to get going, I think everybody is finally - especially the coaches, especially Coach Samson, we’re glad to be out here.” The Bison return several key players to the gridiron this year, including veteran linebacker Ben Held, who says this year’s team is looking to build off last year’s success. “It feels really good to run around again. I mean there’s a lot of excitement,” said Held. “Those guys that left us [last year] were great athletes, we have guys who can replace them, and we’ll build off of it. Like I said, we’re just as excited this year as we were last year, but we’re even more louder this year I’d say. So we’re really hyper, we’re really excited for the season and I think we’re just gonna go up from here.” But the burning question on everyone’s mind: who will be the new Bison quarterback? Samson says it’ll be Andrew Almos who will take snaps as the Bison play-caller, and while Blake Thelen was a household name in the Electric City, let’s just say there’s a new sheriff in town. “In the weight room, on the field - everything. [Andrew] is a very smart kid,” said Samson. “I gave him a challenge though, I said ‘Blake Thelen got a lot of publicity last year, and rightly so,’ but I said ‘What your goal should be, is to make people forget about Blake Thelen.’ Everyone’s gonna walk into that season in game one and they’re gonna wonder, is Andrew Almos gonna be like Blake Thelen? And I don’t want him to be like Blake Thelen, I want him to be Andrew Almos.” While he has big shoes to fill, Almos is ready and accepting of that challenge. “I don’t know, I’m excited to do it, but I’m just gonna take it one play at a time,” said Almos. “I’ll probably run the ball a little more, but we’ll see. We’re hoping to start off the year right, have the right, nice mentality where we know we can take any squad anyplace and then just whoop them.” The public will get their first taste of Bison football at Memorial Stadium on Friday, August 23rd for their annual Blue and White scrimmage. Game time is scheduled for 6:00.