A familiar face to many Eagle readers will soon be exploring even more stories in the community. Beginning with this issue, Bigfork Eagle Sports Editor Jeremy Weber is taking over all editor duties at the newspaper in addition to continuing to report on local sports.

Weber lives in Columbia Falls with his wife Terri and their two children Chloe (10) and Phoenix (2). He has worked for Hagadone Corporation since 2017, starting at the Lake County Leader and moving up to the Flathead Valley to be closer to his then fiance, now wife. He started covering Bigfork sports in 2020 and has reported on many different beats for the Daily Inter Lake, including Glacier National Park.

While he loves Montana, Weber’s love of sports, nature and photography began somewhere a little further south.

Weber grew up in and around Nixon, a small ranching community 50 miles east of San Antonio in the mesquite-filled plains of central Texas. His family’s 480-acre cattle ranch on the banks of a small creek has been in his family for 120 years.

“It was nearly 500 acres and we didn't have horses or ATVs. We had to work it all on foot.” Weber said. “It was hard work, but it was good exercise.”

The son of a high school biology teacher and a middle school reading teacher, Weber’s summers were filled with adventurous family road trips. It was on one of these trips in 1988 that Weber was introduced to two things that would change his life forever - Montana and photography.

Trusty Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle camera in hand, he took hundreds of photos during the trip, while falling in love with the mountains and the spirit of the American West. He said he will never forget seeing Yellowstone and Beartooth Pass for the first time.

“I remember seeing snow in July, which, for a Texas kid as pretty crazy. I'd never seen snow before, besides maybe one time. And then just the beauty of Yellowstone itself— even though it was on fire, it still stuck with me how amazing it was,” Weber said.

His love of photography was accelerated by another interest in his high school years: storm chasing. He said he was fascinated by watching storms and lightning from a young age.

“Whenever a big storm would come through, my mom would get nervous and instead of sitting around the house, we get in the car and drive around and watch the lightning,” Weber said.

When he wasn’t chasing lightning and tornadoes, Weber attended Lifegate Christian High School, where he started to live, sleep and breathe basketball - playing as varsity guard on his school’s team all four years.

While his entire family enjoys a love of sports, Weber particularly enjoyed going to the state basketball tournament with his father every year - a tradition he now tries to replicate with his own children.

Weber got his first taste of sports reporting at the Paris Junior College’s school newspaper, “The Bat”, where he served as sports editor while also freelancing for the Paris News, covering football and basketball.

After college, he became editor of The Thorndale Champion, a small-town weekly just east of Austin, in 2004. His love for covering sports really took off during this time as Weber followed the high school’s baseball team all the way to their first state title. Along the way, he became somewhat of a mascot and good luck charm for the team, as they never seemed to lose when he was around.

Weber later went on to be the sports editor at the Taylor Daily Press, then sports/news editor for the weekly Winnsboro News in 2007. While in Winnsboro, Weber followed the the high school’s Lady Raiders to five consecutive state tournament appearances, earning himself a job photographing the event for Texas Basketball Magazine.

Weber later became Sports Information Director at Northeast Texas Community College and was working as the Managing Editor for the Pittsburg Gazette in 2014 when he got an unexpected offer.

A friend was working at the West Yellowstone News but was not enjoying her time there.

“She knew I love the mountains. So she called and said ‘Hey, I hate this job, do you want it?’

And I said ‘Are you kidding?’ Like a week later, I packed everything I owned and moved to Montana,” Weber said.

He spent two years as the Managing Editor for the West Yellowstone News, a weekly newspaper located right outside the park. It was a great opportunity to live in a beautiful place and report on interesting stories, but it was oftentimes very isolating.

“It was 90 something miles to Bozeman which was the nearest large population center. If I wanted to go shop at Walmart it was an hour and a half drive,” Weber said.

The newspaper was shuttered in 2016 after the buyout of its parent company resulted in the closure of many of their smaller papers. He decided to take a job at the Lake County Leader, where soon after he met his wife Terri.

Taking over the Bigfork Eagle, Weber said he wants more focused news coverage of the area. He said he’s enjoyed covering Bigfork sports over the last few years and loves the coaches’ philosophy of “family first.”

“They're more of a family than they are a team, which is the way I think it should be. Everyone looks out for each other,” Weber said. “The last couple of years they've gone through some pretty rough stuff and just to see kids band together and handle that is impressive. It just kind of gives you hope because not all schools are like that.”

Weber is also “family first,” playing superheroes with his son and geeking out about science with his daughter. On occasion, he likes to get out to photograph whatever weather phenomena is happening at the time. There may be less storms to follow in Montana, but he’s okay with chasing the northern lights.

Anyone interested in reaching out to Weber can contact him by calling 406-758-4446 or by emailing jweber@dailyinterlake.com.