BOZEMAN — One former Montana State football player is coaching high school girls' flag football this year, and he called in another former Bobcat to help train his team on Friday morning.
Evin Groves was recently named as the head coach of Bozeman High's first girls flag football season.
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"I just wanted to bring some of the Bobcat culture to our program from day one and set a strong foundation to do this," Groves said of Friday's practice.
Groves, a running back at MSU in the mid-2000s, called on Clevan Thomas Jr., who played wide receiver for the Bobcats in 2022 and 2023.
"CT is a winner," Groves said. "He knows what it takes to win and to get these girls moving in the right direction."
Thomas said the workout went well.
"It literally puts a smile on my face giving back, especially giving back to the community that done so much for me," Thomas said. "I'm not from here, I'm from Miami, far as heck away from here and for the community to bring me in and I don't feel like an outsider did wonders.
"So much that I live here now, so if I could do any little thing, the youth is where I'm going to start."
The players enjoyed the workout and said they learned a lot from Thomas in the hour they trained with him.
"It was good, it was really fun," sophomore Madsen Scharf said. "I liked all the drills we did, they were helpful and he definitely knows what he's doing, so he can help us a lot."
"It's not just like a dad who played high school," sophomore Tenley Barker said. "It's more helpful when you have someone who did the training and knows what he's doing and is really like smart about it."
Thomas credits flag football for the success he later found in tackle football.
"I would not have went as far as I did if it wasn't for flag football," Thomas said. "Flag taught me agility (and) speed, because I had to do the hips. I was learning different things with flag that I took back to tackle football and I went from an offensive lineman to tight end to then receiver because you've got to be agile to move in space, and flag is so much harder than it is in tackle football. So I love flag football."
Groves and Thomas both complimented the players' abilities to learn quickly, and the team has a better base after Friday's practice to take into its inaugural season.
