Beyond the Box: Kalispell Glacier’s Ava Grady lets her game do the talking for defending softball champions

BILLINGS — This week we head to Kalispell, where a sophomore softball pitcher is quietly making her presence felt on a defending state championship team. We also get to know a Missoula Sentinel senior who has skied since age 3, is fluent in Spanish and is headed to Africa this summer. And we close with the Townsend track and field team, which has superstitions so plentiful their coach needed a list.

Let's get into it.

LEAD STORY

The quiet anchor: Without saying a word, Glacier’s Ava Grady is the loudest player in the dugout

Ava Grady doesn’t say much in the dugout. She doesn’t have to.

Most times, when she’s not on the softball field or at-bat, the Kalispell Glacier sophomore is up against the fence, fingers looped through the chain-link, intensely eyeing the next pitch while teammates chatter behind her.

Grady tracks every pitch, every swing. Where some players drift between at-bats, Grady is studying, and her coach notices.

“She is dialed into every pitch of every game, both offensively and defensively,” said Wolfpack coach Gary Evans, who is in his 14th year at Glacier but first as a head coach, taking over a program that won the 2025 Class AA state title. “That’s what makes those top-tier players who they are.”

Grady joined the program last spring as a nervous freshman on a senior-heavy team. Most of her friends were on JV while she was sharing a dugout with players who’d been building the program for years.

“Nerve-wracking,” she called it.

By the end of the season she’d settled in, contributing in the circle and soaking up everything she could. The Wolfpack lost their first game at the state tournament but battled all the way back and won two back-and-forth championship games against Billings Senior to claim the championship.

This year’s Wolfpack is younger. Evans said he’s filling seven of the 10 spots in the batting order with either newcomers or players with expanded roles. Grady, who also plays all around the infield, has become a steadying presence, Evans said. Her teammates might not hear her, but they can see her.

“Just by her work ethic, whether it be body language, never changes, whether she’s up or down,” Evans said. “You never have to check up on her to see if she’s taking a rep seriously.”

Evans said Grady’s softball IQ is “above the charts,” and jokingly added when Grady does speak up, he leans in, because she’s about to say something important.

“She’s the ultimate quiet person,” he said.

That may be. But don’t mistake silence for a lack of intensity. Grady is searching for any pattern, any hint that can help in the circle or in the batter’s box. Grady knows she’ll face that pitcher — and those hitters — again down the line. She wants to be better prepared when she does.

She considers herself a leader by action, even if “I might not be the loudest.”

Grady laughs when asked if her volume level will ever change. It’s possible, but she doesn’t sound convinced.

“Maybe senior (year),” she said, “I’ll be a little better.”

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

The Real Hailey Papp

Hailey Papp is a senior on the Missoula Sentinel softball team. But there’s a lot more to her than what happens on the diamond.

1. The ski hill is my happy place. I have been skiing since I was 3.
2. The thing I love most about softball is my teammates. We have created a family and the bonds I have with them will never go away.
3. I strive to be a leader in our school by participating in student government, National Honors Society, and Sentinel @ 70.
4. I have been to China, Italy, and Austria. I am going to Africa this summer to go on a week-long safari.
5. In my free time, I enjoy playing pickleball with my friends.
6. My sister is my best friend, and I am so grateful that I got to share one year with her at Sentinel. I can’t wait to watch her grow as an athlete and person.

7. I am fluent in Spanish and recently earned my Seal of Biliteracy. 

   

   Julie Papp / Courtesy

8. My family and I are diehard Bobcat fans and, yes, we live in Missoula. We traveled to both Texas and Nashville to watch them compete in the national championship.
9. I will be attending Montana State University in the fall to major in engineering.

Now you know Hailey Papp.

Beyond the Routine: For Townsend track and field, superstitions are a team sport

Ask Townsend track and field coach Angie Tew about team superstitions and she'll need a minute, because her athletes gave her quite a list.

After polling her team, here's what she found out:

1. The "W" word — wind — is never spoken on meet day. Bad omen.
2. "Great hair, great race." Some athletes repeat the same hairstyle if they performed well or broke a record wearing it previously.
3. Several athletes wear the same undergarments to every meet — hopefully washed, the coach notes with a laughing emoji.
4. Distance runners pass the local veterinarian's office before every meet and tap a green power box.
5. One sprinter/jumper/hurdler grunts loudly during races and jumps.
6. A female shot putter taps the top of each foot before entering the throwing ring.
7. A male thrower does a 30- to 45-minute stretch regimen the night before every meet.
8. Two friends make sure they eat a Butterfinger the day before meet day.
9. A male athlete brings mini bagels to every meet.
10. Several athletes pray before every race.
11. The female 4x100 relay has a special four-way handshake before every race.

12. A high jumper uses the scissors kick. If he misses after two tries he switches to conventional form.

    

    Angie Tew / Contributed

13. The boys and girls 4x100 teams share a special heirloom baton for practice handoffs — and are currently in an ongoing dispute over who it actually belongs to.
14. One distance runner listens to Dire Straits' song "Money for Nothing" before every race.

"It was so much fun discussing all these with my team," Tew said.

That's Beyond the Box for this week and the final regular edition of our spring season. Thank you for reading. Thank you also to every coach, athlete, athletic director and community member who took a few minutes to share their stories with us. It has been an honor to tell them.