And just like that, seemingly in the blink of an eye, the local high school fall sports season has come to an end.

It was a season dominated by the promise of some talented young athletes throughout the Sanders and Mineral counties area. The future is indeed promising, but the present wasn’t so bad either.

Cross country, which has just two schools on board in the bi-county area, may have made the biggest splash this Fall.

And they may have the brightest future of the three main high school sports: football, volleyball and cross country.

And not to be overlooked, soccer continued to grow in terms of participation and success locally, with several college-class prospects in its ranks.

Several underclassmen emerged as potential state level players among the cross country ranks, which includes just two schools, Plains and Thompson Falls.

Plains freshmen Marina Tulloch placed fourth at the state cross country meet in Kalispell, helping lead a strong contingent of underclassmen to sixth place in the women’s team chase.

Another local freshman runner, Thompson Falls’ Aubrey Baxter placed 26th, while Plains eighth grader John Owen Jermyn finished in the top twenty as both teams got solid performances from eighth and ninth grade runners. Thompson Falls senior Faith Palmer finished 14th at the state meet to earn All-State honors along with Tulloch.

Volleyball was also buoyed by underclassmen, with teams up and down the ranks featuring freshmen, sophomore and junior players.

Perhaps the best among those was Hot Springs sophomore Kara Christensen, who played a big role in the Lady Heat’s second place finish in the District 14C tournament, propelling Hot Springs to the divisional tournament in Manhattan.

Thompson Falls sophomore Gabi Hannum was among the stars for the Lady Hawks, who lose just one senior to graduation.

Plains, which made a strong run at the end of the regular season and advanced to the Divisional tournament in Eureka, is also loaded for the coming years., including the Saner sisters, Teagan and Taylor, and talented freshman Claire Lakko.

Alberton also has a talented team on the rise, as does Superior.

Noxon, as always, will also be a major player next season.

Football was its usual dynamic self this season, with Plains and new head coach Mike

Tatum winning three games after two winless seasons.

And Hot Springs, which lost this past weekend in the state six-player playoff quarterfinals, returns a large group of juniors and sophomores, led by junior quarterback Nick McAllister, and its pair of speedy running backs, Johnny Waterbury and Weston Slonaker, both also juniors.

St. Regis got a boost this season from freshman quarterback Conner Lulis, who stepped in to fill the vacancy created by the graduation of all-state multi-sport athlete Caleb Ball, who is now playing football for Western Montana.

Noxon also returns several key players, including Ricky Williams, Brian Risch and Shane Murray.

Alberton’s football Panthers also made steady progress this season, often fielding the minimum six players needed for a six-player game. Alberton has no seniors on its roster and has several promising underclassmen, led by sophomores Shea Fredette and Tater Herman.

The season got underway with a thrilling battle between Superior and St. Regis-Mullan (co-op), a game won in the last minutes by the Tigers.

And it ended this past Saturday with a down-to-wire scoring festival between Hot Springs and Harlowton-Ryegate-Judith Gap when the Engineers rallied for a 65-60 win in St. Regis.

Next up for high school sports fans is basketball (boys and girls), and wrestling, with a spotlight on the defending state Class C champion Superior wrestlers looking to build around a solid group of returnees.