Gallatin Raptors geared up for inaugural season
BOZEMAN, Mont. (BVM) — In a season plagued by cancellations and postponements, head soccer coach Ben Hietala remains resilient as he continues to lead the Gallatin High School soccer team through their inaugural season.
Hietala was Montana Gatorade Player of the Year and a three-time state champion at Bozeman High School. Hietala looks to translate his success as a player to the next generation of high school players.
This year, Gallatin High School only has freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, meaning their athletic teams will be matching up with more experienced teams. This gives the Raptors soccer team more than enough adversity to handle, but Hietala has maintained a positive outlook, which he hopes to instill in his team.
“They’re improving faster than they would on a JV team. The boys have bought into the culture quickly, and the way that they’re playing really shows it,” Hietala said. “We’re 1-5, but almost every single second-half this year, we’ve come out stronger and responded.”
This season has offered plenty of unique challenges for the team. Although, for Hietala, he has used each of his team’s hurdles as a teaching moment as he hopes to build a culture of competitiveness and perseverance at the new school.
“With the pandemic, the smoke, the lightning, so much has been out of our control. When I’m talking to the team, my big emphasis to them is that we need to follow these protocols to control what we can control,” Hietala said. “And that’s the beautiful thing about the sport of soccer; once we control the things that we can control, the game just plays itself.”
Hietala has found it easy for his team to follow the protocols because of their incentive: the opportunity to play. This reward offers the coaches and players an outlet of normalcy from the chaotic experience this year.
“Once the whistle blows and the 80 minutes start, it really does become a normal season,” Hietala said. “The outside stuff – the before, the after – it looks different, it feels different, but once the whistle blows, it’s just soccer. It’s just the sport we love.”
Earlier this fall, Bozeman saw its first iteration in a cross-town rivalry as the Raptors took on the Hawks of Bozeman High. Despite the 4-1 loss, Hietala saw many positives that his players could take away from an experience he called “beautiful.” During the game, the two squads “battled as bitter rivals,” but the opponents were giving each other elbow bumps and catching up with one another once the final whistle blew.
“It really is a lot of love and respect between the two programs,” Hietala said. “I can’t tell you how many nights, I stayed up thinking about how we’re going to take on Bozeman high the next time.”
Hietala hopes to see the team reach its full potential eventually, but for now, he considers the team’s record to be mostly irrelevant.
“What really matters to me is that the boys are showing up every single day and pushing themselves to be better players on and off the pitch,” Hietala said. “Hopefully, with the second half of the season, the boys get rewarded with some results.”
