As a coach, Rick Powers had no chance, or perhaps no choice.

He had to know.

So, this past week he trekked out onto the still brown grass of the Plains High practice fields and stepped down firmly on the still slumbering sod.

It was spongy, but not squishy. The few days of 40-plus temperatures and less-than-expected precipitation told him one thing: baseball, at least in its pre-season conditioning form, was possible.

That feeling is growing throughout the area, from the forested hills around Noxon to the prairie land spreading out from Hot Springs and beyond.

High school baseball, a new commodity on the Montana sports scene, has at least taken a toehold.

This past Monday, Plains, along with co-op partner Hot Springs, and with Power at the helm, began conditioning drills and whatever outdoor work Mother Nature would allow.

The two schools will form a single baseball team and with what is listed as an “incomplete” schedule, begin playing this initial season against mostly Class A schools.

The first game for the “Savage Horsemen” is scheduled for March 28 against Florence. It is slated to take place beginning at 4 p.m. at the Amundson Sports Complex on the northwest end of Plains. The season’s second contest, against Frenchtown, will also be hosted by Plains at Amundson, Thursday, March 30, also at 4 p.m.

They will be among the first to take to the baseball diamonds across the state, with several other area schools working toward fielding teams next year, while others say they have no plans for baseball “at this time”.

For baseball fans, players and parents like those in Noxon, the arrival of baseball represents the culmination of a large and growing grass roots effort to bring America’s Pastime to their school.

After a months-long battle between parents and the Noxon School Board, school officials announced they would fund baseball beginning next year.

And although Noxon advocates of the sport are not totally satisfied with that decision, they see it as a compromise victory for the sport most of them have invested in deeply in the form of supporting their children who play lower level baseball and have dreamed of donning Red Devils uniforms and paying baseball for their school.

“If there’s a will, there’s a way and baseball should have happened this year,” said Noxon resident Brenda Owens, part of a vocal group of local residents who have been at odds with the school board’s reluctance to approve the sport and formation of a high school team. “There’s a couple of the boys who are seniors this year and they will never get to play on the high school team, which is very sad. But the community is finally coming together and showing support at the Board meetings. People are speaking out, we’re upset and we’re mad”.

Following a special Board meeting this past week, Noxon Superintendent of Schools Dave Whitesell said in a one sentence statement, “The Board unanimously approved baseball for the 2023-24 school year”.

That sentence was music to the ears of baseball supporter and Noxon resident Kyra Ashlock, who has been among the leaders in fighting for the sport as part of Noxon High School activities.

“I am happy they approved baseball for next year”, she said. “We were trying to hold this last meeting and get approval before the March 6 deadline (for forming a team and being able to participate this year).”

Ashlock said the community has already come up with a group of parents who plan on holding fundraisers to help support the costs of the team”.

Ashlock said the town’s current baseball facility, which is used by Little League and Babe Ruth League teams, has recently undergone some repairs and improvements in anticipation of this year’s junior teams and the possibility of a high school team.

“It is not certain how much work needs to be done, but coach Wes Tucker and others recently repaired the backstop which was storm damaged last year”.

The arrival of high school baseball comes in the wake of the loss of the area’s Riverdogs American Legion team, which will not field a team this year due to a variety of reasons. Jon Zigler, who coached the Riverdogs the past two seasons before retiring at the end of last year’s campaign, said he had hoped others would step in and keep Legion baseball alive in the area.

“I told everyone at the beginning of last season that it would be my last season (of coaching),” Zigler said. “I tried to get a Board together to keep the program alive but unfortunately nobody stepped up. I think high school baseball could work here with the right leadership. I can’t see it working without a co-op situation”.

That is exactly what is behind the Plains-Hot Springs union. The two schools already have a co-op agreement for high school wrestling so it seemed only natural to continue the relationship for baseball.

At least one and maybe as many as four players from Hot Springs will be playing with Plains this Springs, led by standout pitcher, hitter and multi-position player Garth Parker, who began his high school sports journey playing in Plains.

Parker and the others will commute daily from the Spa City to attend practices and games.

That type of situation has proven to be successful for St. Regis, which has for several years had a football co-op arrangement with Mullan, Idaho which requires players from St. Regis to cross Lookout Pass as part of the 37-mile daily trip to Mullan.

St. Regis coach and activities director Jesse Allan said his school is “not planning on baseball in the immediate future”.

Allan said he thinks baseball’s success at the Class C and B levels may well depend on co-op type arrangements.

“I do think we have some kids/parents who are interested, but we have some logistical concerns, including updating baseball fields,” Allan said. “The Board is supportive and if we had someone to kind of jump-start and run with it, I think the community as a whole would support it”.

Allan said he thinks arrangements like the one St. Regis has with Mullan and the previous co-op between Superior and Alberton could be an answer to concerns over one sport taking away competitors from another.

“I think a co-op with Superior and Alberton would be the best idea,” he said. “That would make it more feasible and I think would still protect us from killing track and/or golf”.

Superior AD Jessica Nagy, who is also a coach with the girls’ basketball team, said “we are currently not considering baseball at this time”.

Surprisingly, the school most residents of Sanders or Mineral county figured would be jumping into the baseball fray this season, Thompson Falls, also ruled out baseball this year.

“We are absolutely not planning on baseball for this year,” said T Falls AD Jake Mickelson. The Blue Hawks were mentioned by Noxon supporters as a possible co-op partner.

So, while issues remain and only two schools out of the seven in Sanders and Mineral county will be playing baseball this year, the sport, however tenuous its hold may be, has arrived this year and the boys of Spring will be taking to the diamond at the end of this month.