This is going to be fun! 

The excitement of what is coming down the local sports pipe is the stuff of which legends are made. 

Well, at least good stories to come. 

With the rapid conclusion to the regular season almost at hand and post-season coming into focus for some local teams, let the hype begin. 

And what better place to start than the upcoming six-player football showdown between, who else, the Noxon Red Devils and the Hot Springs Savage Heat? 

That even sounds hot, eh? 

Back in August I was making the rounds to several of the schools in Sanders and Mineral Counties to see how the guys are getting ready for the 2024 football season. 

In weight rooms at both Noxon and Hot Springs high schools, there was a sense of excitement already in the pot and commencing to boil.  And there was an underlying catalyst to the anticipation of THE game, the last on the schedule for both teams and coincidentally against each other. 

Devils and Heat. 

Can you feel that?  If you are a local sports fan and have a pulse, I’m guessing at least several of you are like me.  And like the players in those two gyms, the sweat they were breaking in the weight room was fueled by the game they all admit they had circled on their mental calendars: Noxon at Hot Springs, Friday, October 25, 7 pm. 

In the rapid pace game of six player football, it doesn’t get any better than this, at least in Sanders County. 

Depending on the outcome of one more game before THE game, the two will be clashing with post-season dreams and playoff seeding in focus.  Both, barring an upset in their games this weekend (Hot Springs at Alberton this Friday, Noxon hosting Gardiner this Saturday) the rivals will come into the game with 4-1 league records, the same as Lincoln. 

The winner will be in good shape for a playoff appearance. 

Nuff said?  Added to the intrigue is the possible return of Hot Springs senior standout Johnny Waterbury, who tore up his ankle in the Heat’s season-opening loss. 

Noxon, despite the accumulation of bruises, aches and pains normally found on a football team near the end of the season, will be ready. 

It’s Lucas MacArthur of Noxon leading his troops into battle against Jim Lawson’s Savage Heat. 

As the late sportscasting legend Chris Jackson might have said, “It’s gonna be a barn burner tonight”. 

And, to local fans' delight, the volleyball season, which has been a three-way league battle all season between Eureka, Plains and T Falls, is also building to a grand finale. 

Tonight (Tuesday, October 15), Plains travels up Highway 200 for their second meeting of the season against the Lady Hawks.  In their first meeting of the season several weeks ago in Plains, the Trotters went toe-to-toe with their traditional rival and came away with a thrilling 3-2 win over T Falls before a packed house at Plains gym. 

Both teams have already taken Western 7B-leading Eureka to five sets before falling to the still unbeaten Lady Lions. 

Something has to give.  Both T Falls and Plains have return matches with the Lady Lions before the regular season ends.  Check your knee pads ladies, I got a feeling there will be lots of skidding on the floor in pursuit of a falling volleyball. 

Plains’ only loss of the season was to Eureka, leaving them at 9-1 for the year going into tonight’s match with Thompson Falls.  The Lady Hawks come into the match with a solid 9-4 mark.  The Trotters are 5-1 in conference play, one game behind 7-0 Eureka.  T Falls is 5-2 in 7B play. 

As I always say, make sure you have plenty of Velcro on hand.  You’re going to need it!