With graduation this weekend, it is always a time of reflection as a flood of memories come back. I spoke to Glacier Wolfpack head football coach Grady Bennett about graduation and how the offseason is going as they prepare for the 2017 season.

Nach on Sports: What did you take away from the 2017 class?

Grady Bennett: Man, what a special group. The longer you’re in it, you start to appreciate, I think more and more, the reason you’re truly in this business of education and you know teaching and coaching and that’s to be involved in kids lives and help them develop. I think about this senior class and I think about where they were as freshmen and, my goodness, how far they have come as young men and as athletes. Just what they have accomplished in their careers it’s almost mind boggling, but it makes it so satisfying. When you think back to the Patrick O’Connell’s, Kellen Bemis, Taden Gilman, Jaxson Hashley and where they were as freshmen and just how much growth and, I think more than anything, as young men as the leaders they became and the things they accomplished off the field, those are the things that standout. Watching them develop into young men that you are just so proud of and you’re confident they are going to be good citizens and just be good men in our communities. It makes you really proud of them and again so appreciative of the process.

NOS: Coach hows the offseason going?

GB: Really good. We have a good thing established now. The guys know what to expect year in and year out. After a decade it’s been a really special decade with a lot of great accomplishments here at Glacier. A lot of people working really hard to kind of establish our culture, our program. And, so, it’s good. I mean our kids know what to expect. We just talked about seniors, every year losing a group and thinking, ‘How are we going to replace it?’ But we have gotten kids to want to replace those kids and they have seen what they have achieved and the players and young men they have become and every year now we have been very fortunate to have the next group just step in and fill those roles and work hard and want to continue what we have been doing and taking the next step.

NOS: The college coaches are making their rounds around the state what are those meetings like?

GB: They are a lot of fun. They have been streaming in now, you get started with the Griz and the Cats after they get their signing day done and they kind of go into a down period. They are able to come in and just visit. It’s nice to see those guys and then followed by pretty much all the Frontier schools coming through. Depending on if you have a guy like (junior running back) Drew (Turner), you will have other schools drop by too, whether it’s an Idaho or Boise State, to see if he is a guy (or if) they might be able to get his attention. So, it’s fun. You get to talk with those guys and talk about your kids. It’s a good teaching lesson too because it’s a chance to tell your kids that, ‘Hey, college coaches are coming in. What kinds of things are you doing? What kind of student are you? What kind of citizen are you?’ When they ask questions about you what am I going to say, I’m going to be honest, I have to be and so think about that. What does your name mean? Really challenge the kids and teach these lessons as well. It challenges those guys sometimes, the college coaches will drop in when we’re doing open gym. It gets the kids attention and motivates them to say, ‘Hey there are people interested, people watching and I have to work hard and have to do the right things as a young man too.’

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Anthony Nachreiner is the host of The Nach on Sports Show, Northwest Montana’s only sports talk show, which airs every weekday from 3-5 p.m. on 600 AM KGEZ and 96.5 FM.