STEVENSVILLE — In the Stevensville High School weight room, the whiteboard brands a simple message: #SwarmIsBack.
It’s a fairly standard high school football summer workout. Not too intense, not too rigid, the Yellowjacket players joking around and chatting through the exercises. It’s a remarkably happy group, though, considering Stevensville suffered a 1-8 record last season.
The impetus for the rejuvenation is a new head coach. Gabe Brown, most recently the defensive line coach at Carroll College, took the position this summer and has been fast at work rebuilding his team’s identity and laying groundwork for a successful future.
“It’s nice to come back here and reinvigorate the community, the players, the coaching staff and see what we can do,” Brown said.
Brown faces an uphill battle in bringing the Jackets back to relevancy. Stevensville hasn’t enjoyed a winning record since 2011, posting a mark of 5-22 across the past three seasons that prompted the departure of former head coach Trae Williams.
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The Stevensville athletics hall of fame hangs over the the weight room; just two of the 14 members are from the football team. Against its two Class A opponents in the Bitterroot Valley — Hamilton and Corvallis — Stevensville lost by a combined score of 90-7 in 2023.
“With the success of Hamilton the last few years and traditionally, and Corvallis coming around the last few years,” Brown said, “Stevensville has been the odd duck out.”
Despite the lack of success in recent years, the infrastructure is in place to field a quality team. The weight room features Yellowjacket-branded squat racks and more weighted plates than the team would ever need. It’s a bigger weight room than the one Corvallis uses, according to Brown.
“I think we have a really good stadium,” Brown said. “It can get rockin’ when you get everybody in there.”
With every tangible asset the program could need, what has been holding it back?
“Every program goes through cycles, but we’ve really struggled with numbers,” line coach Sean Lenahan said.
Lenahan recalls the late 1980s and early 90s when Stevensville was consistently competitive with its peers. A lack of available and interested boys is difficult to overcome, and it’s been one of the biggest obstacles in recent years.
Transfer-outs after recent frustrating results turn a big issue into a dire one. Stevensville’s 2024 roster features just three seniors.
“The kids that are here didn’t transfer because they wanted to build this up,” offensive assistant Brock Paldi said. “They want to go through the grind.”
While Brown coached the defensive line at Carroll, Paldi played for the Fighting Saints as a kicker and punter. After graduation, Paldi moved to Missoula when he got a call from Brown asking him to come work on his coaching staff.
A physical embodiment of the experience Brown brings from Carroll, Paldi adds to a staff that is otherwise mostly men, like Lenahan, that have coached at Stevensville since before Brown’s arrival. The mix might help complement the collegiate experience with the community-focused mindset Brown wants to implement.
“(The coaches) have the same energy — we call it the Carroll juice, and I’m a big juice guy,” Brown said. “They’re fully invested in the community, and that makes my life so much easier.”
Before his time at Carroll, Brown coached at Corvallis for a time on defense. He remembers the Stevensville squads from the time; though the units were under-manned, “You knew you’d have a battle.”
The previous experience in the region should help him acclimate to his new position quicker.
“It’s always nice to bring in a different perspective from an outsider,” Brown said. “Going outside the Bitterroot, coming back into the Bitterroot.”
More than any other factor — facilities, coach experience, staff, team numbers — what will determine the future of Stevensville football is the buy-in from players.
So far, the returns are promising. Lenahan said one of his first impressions of his new head coach came in a team meeting.
“(The players) weren’t paying attention to him out of fear or discipline,” Lenahan said. “They were listening because they wanted to hear him and his ideas.”
Dylan Gould-Mestrich, the team’s center, said the energy around the team is improved from years prior. After losing so many games, the young men are seeking to change the expectations and attitude of Yellowjackets football.
“We’re really hoping for a shot at a good record,” Gould-Mestrich said.
Even with the team’s hunger, there are false ideas about the process that rebuilding Stevensville will be. Hamilton and Corvallis don’t appear to be losing any steam, so reaching their level will assuredly take time.
The focus on building towards an end goal years down the line is why recruitment and gathering better numbers is so crucial.
“Getting those kids involved, getting those kids to tell the freshmen, to tell the younger kids, ‘We’re gonna turn this around,’” Brown said is most important. “Maybe not this year, but in the next three or four years.”
At the end of the workout, the players head out onto the practice field for a team-led practice session. The coaches provide no help — it’s up to the players to lead each other.
The activity promotes the kind of leadership and accountability Stevensville will need in the coming months. The team begins practice Aug. 16 before its first game against the reigning Class A champions, Dillon, Sept. 9.
Above the door to Brown’s office, on the frame, a simple message is written that is just what the Yellow Jackets need to hear.
Carson Cashion is a sports writer for 406 MT Sports, primarily covering the Bitterroot Valley. Follow him on X @CarsonCashion or contact him at carson.cashion@406mtsports.com.
