Sentinel Football Finds Strength in Numbers

Identity means everything in Montana high school football. And while the identity of this year’s Sentinel Spartan football team remains unknown, players and coaches are confident that their next-man-up mentality will become their calling card in 2019. “It’s the thing that I love about this program is that so many young people are willing to step up and fill those spots,” senior offensive tackle Jarod Duvall said. “A lot of kids have had to wait their turn for years and it’s finally their time to shine and I can tell they are super energetic and excited for the season,” senior wideout Preston Jones said. The purple and gold will look different this year offensively after losing starting quarterback Rylan Ortt (Montana State), running back Elias Dewaters (Montana), and receiver Jace Dewalt (Montana) to graduation. Head coach Dane Oliver remains unphased. The second-year head coach believes that the depth of this year’s team will be enough to replace the graduated seniors, it will just take time. “When you sign up to be head coach, you have a vision of where you want it to go and it’s a longer process than people think,” Oliver said. “Everyone wants stuff immediately now and I feel like we have the wind behind our sail, and the program from Freshman, JV, Varsity is not where we want to be, but it’s a hell of a lot closer than where we were.” Helping to speed that process along will be explosive wide receiver Jaxon Lee who transferred this past off-season to Sentinel from 8-man champion Flint Creek. Lee, as well as battling quarterbacks Zac Crews and Dayton Bay, are expected to carry the offensive workload in the absence of Ortt, Dewaters and Dewalt—something that Duvall looks forward to in 2019. “We have some empty gaps in the beginning of the season, but I’m not worried at all because we have tons of young players that are willing to step up and they are energetic and confident players,” Duvall said. The Spartans will travel to play the Great Falls Bison next Friday in Great Falls.