BILLINGS — Welcome to Beyond the Box, a weekly look at the people, personalities and stories that make Montana high school sports special — beyond the scoreboard.
This week we head to Glasgow, where a senior track athlete has been writing her goals on sticky notes since eighth grade — and signed a college scholarship to prove they weren't just wishful thinking. We also get to know a Shepherd senior in our debut of The Real, a new segment where Montana prep athletes share some things about themselves you probably didn't know. And we stop in Lewistown, where a 16-year softball coach has strong feelings about two Montana venues.
Let's get into it.
LEAD STORY
Injuries don't prevent Glasgow’s Kimber Dulaney from leaving a lasting legacy
The cluster of sticky notes on Kimber Dulaney's dresser — scribbled in teenage handwriting since eighth grade — tell just part of her story.
The notes are straightforward. Get college scholarship offers for running; break Glasgow records for the 800 and mile (times are written down and crossed out as Dulaney set new personal records on those); miles-run goals for cross country training.
But Dulaney's story is more than numbers. It's about perseverance. And about making an impact.
Now a senior, Dulaney’s only true injury free year came when she was a sophomore. Hamstring injuries and foot surgery have been the norm, and so the sprinter/middle distance runner/jumper has modest goals for her final two months, even though she’s feeling 100% now.
Through all of it, one thought never crossed her mind.
"The thought of quitting never came to me because I knew that, like, pain is temporary," Dulaney said.
"Definitely try and place at state," she said of her final season goals.
The gaps on her results sheet might make it surprising to an outsider that Dulaney has signed to run track and field at Rocky Mountain College. To Glasgow coach Paul Yoakam, it's no surprise. This spring already she's qualified for state in the triple jump and is one inch shy in the high jump.
“She’s a talent,” he said. “I mean, if you watched her run, you’d be like, ‘Wow, she is talented.’ She’s just struggled with injuries, but it seems like she’s finally healthy and going to have a pretty good season.”
Dulaney has had a lifetime of never taking a season off. She started hockey at age 3 and eventually added cross country, swimming and track.
If she wasn’t competing, she was still around it. When foot surgery wiped out her senior cross country season, she spent the fall managing the volleyball team just to stay connected.
Injuries haven’t slowed what Dulaney does off the field. She’s been student body president the past two years, relishes giving regular reports to the Glasgow school board and volunteers as a unified partner with Special Olympics.
She’s also part of a trading card program that sends Glasgow athletes into elementary classrooms to talk about health and trying new things.
“She’s always friendly,” Yoakam said. “She’s good at talking to everyone and displaying a positive attitude at all times.”
All of it has made her something more than just another name on a results sheet in a Hi-Line town. It’s also why, when a college coach sees past the injuries, what they get is a senior who already knows how to carry a heavy load and still finds time to make an impact.
Dulaney plans to minor in health and human performances and major in physical education at Rocky, with an eye toward coaching or becoming an athletic director. And maybe return to her hometown, a place she loves.
“I want to be remembered as someone who showed up, worked hard and made people feel like they mattered,” Dulaney said. “Not just for what I did, but for how I treated others and the kind of energy I brought to the community.”
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
The Real Lauren Anderson
Shepherd senior softball player Lauren Anderson is heading to Carroll College to play volleyball. But there's a lot more to her than what happens on the court or on the diamond.
- I have a strong faith in God and it is one of the things that I hold dearest to me in my life.
- I adore Disney movies and musicals and have watched a majority of them.
- I love animals and want to study anthrozoology in college.
- I had a pet deer named Daisy which I found without a mother and raised for about a year and have a chinchilla named Baxter.
- I have been to Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Mexico.
- I was the Fairy Godmother in our high school's musical Cinderella.
- I have a very large, loving family on my mom's side that lives in Shepherd and it includes 35 of my cousins.
- I was almost taken out by a firework that tipped over on the Fourth of July and it ended up hitting the car behind me.
Now you know Lauren Anderson.
The Clipboard: Where the memories live, good and bad, for Lewistown’s Mike Mangold
Mike Mangold has coached softball at Lewistown for 16 years and is the only coach the Golden Eagles have ever known. He has strong opinions about where he loves — and hates — to play.
Ask Mangold his favorite venue and he doesn't hesitate. Havre.
"It always brings back memories of playing what seems like hundreds of games there," Mangold says, "many state and regional championships. Awesome memories with many friends in the '90s."
Beyond the nostalgia, Mangold appreciates what Havre represents. He calls it probably the only true men's fastpitch field in the state, calling it always well maintained, always steeped in tradition.
"I always wished the sport at the men's level was as strong as it used to be," he says.
His least favorite? Butte's Stodden Park. Though he's quick to clarify it's nothing against the venue or the city.
"I love Butte," Mangold says. "The bad memories just override the good ones a bit too much."
Those memories involve fly balls and ground balls that didn't bounce the right way at critical moments causing hardware to slip away. Stodden, though, has its place in Golden Eagles’ lore. Lewistown won its first varsity game there in 2010 over Butte Central.
Some fields just carry weight. For Mangold, Stodden carries a little too much of the wrong kind.
That's Beyond the Box for this week. If you have a story idea, a coach worth spotlighting, or a tradition we should know about, we'd love to hear from you. Reach us at scores@montanasports.com.
See you next time.
