GREAT FALLS -- The Montana Coaches Association all-sports clinic returned to Great Falls this week, and the event got to take care of some unfinished business
At Thursday morning’s awards ceremony, the MCA honored Hall of Fame inductees and Coach of the Year awards winners from both 2020 and 2021, after last year's clinic was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year's inductees included former Fairfield football coach Les Meyer and longtime Cut Bank mentor Dell Meuchel who were honored to be recognized among some of their longtime peers.
“I worked at Cut Bank for 37 years and there are seven coaches from Cut Bank in the Hall of Fame,” Meuchel said. “So I had some great mentors.”
Meyer, who stepped down at Fairfield in 2019 to take a position as the Superintendent of Frenchtown schools, was floored to be standing alongside coaching mentors, colleagues and others. His longtimeFairfield assistant Charlie Brown was also honored as the Montana Assistant coach of the Year, so Meyer likened the event to a family reunion.
“It can get pretty emotional just to be in that group, it’s unbelievable,” Meyer said. “Larry Henderson up here was my coach for the 1988 Class C All-Star game. To be able to see some of these people, it’s a special, special event.”
Meyer and Meuchel were joined in the 2021 class by Larry Henderson (Scobey), Cindy Farmer (Hardin) and George Nelson (Roberts).
