The wind whipped across Jefferson High’s new all-weather track Friday afternoon, sending athletes reaching for sweatpants and jackets between events. Less than ideal conditions for a track meet, but for the Panthers, it was still a day worth celebrating.
On April 3, the Avery Stiles Memorial Invite honored the former Panther track star who passed away last August at age 23. The meet marked Jefferson High’s first home meet in at least two decades – though longtime assistant track coach Mike Charlton said the last meet he recalled Jefferson hosting was in the 1980s – and the first competition on the school’s newly completed track.
Stiles, a 2020 JHS graduate, was a state track champion who also earned a football scholarship to Montana Technical University in Butte.
“It’s pretty cool to not only celebrate having our first track meet, but being able to dedicate it to him,” said Cody Ottman, an assistant coach who handles sprints and relays and coached Stiles all four years. “[He was] probably one of the best track athletes Jefferson High has ever had, but just a good person in general.”
Cody recalled one of his sharpest memories of Stiles: a trip to the Top 10 meet in Missoula during Stiles’ junior year. The team stopped at Arby’s on the way, arrived at the venue about 30 minutes before competition with barely enough time to warm up, and Stiles promptly broke the meet record and the school record in the high jump, clearing 6 feet, 9 and a quarter inches.
“On very short notice, 30 minutes isn’t very long,” he said, laughing.
Head coach Sarah Layng, who has coached track and field for about 20 years and has been at Jefferson for more than a decade, said naming the meet after Stiles required little deliberation.
“He was such a big part not only in the school but in the track program itself and all the athletic programs,” Layng said. “It’s very fitting. I can’t think of it being named anything else.”
Assistant coach Mike Ottman, who handles long jump, triple jump and high jump and has coached at JHS since 2014, described Stiles as level-headed, joyful and relentlessly driven.
“Always smiled,” he said. “Everything he did was 110%.”
Mike was with Stiles at the 2019 state meet when Stiles won the long jump title with a distance of 22 feet and 3 inches, on his final attempt of the day.
“That’s just the type of competitor he was,” Mike said. “It took him to his last jump. That speaks to his drive, not just in sports, but in life.”
As the afternoon wore on and the wind settled some, the sun pushed through the clouds, warming athletes and attendees. Sophomore McKinleigh Doherty, in her second year of track at JHS, posted an impressive long jump of 18 feet, 9 and three quarter inches.
“I’m very proud of myself,” she said, preparing for her next event.
Junior Ryleigh Doherty said having a home meet changed the feel of the day entirely. “[It’s] just nice not to have to sit on a bus for four-plus hours,” she said.
That was a common refrain. With the old cinder track, Jefferson could not host meets because the surface did not meet all-weather requirements. For relay work, the Panthers sometimes had to drive to East Helena to practice at Vigilante Stadium.
The old track also ran 400 yards rather than the required 400 meters, lanes had to be chalked by hand and the long jump runway was a repurposed conveyor belt. When the weather turned, practice was moved inside, with athletes running sprints through the school hallways.
Now the school has marked lanes, a proper runway and a surface that holds up through rain and snow. Athletes are finally able to wear spikes and train with blocks.
The new track was funded through a 2021 bond issue that raised more than $14 million for a Jefferson High building expansion. Roughly $1.5 million in remaining bond funds went toward resurfacing the track, regrading and reseeding the football field, relocating the long jump pits, installing a javelin pit and making other stadium improvements.
The project was completed during football season last fall, with cross country the first team to train on it.
Jefferson’s track program has grown considerably since Mike Ottman arrived in 2014 with eight boys and six girls. More than 70 athletes turned out for the team this spring, the most in several years, according to Layng. Many of them had never seen Stiles compete, but they ran in his memory anyway.
As the sun held steady over the track, Mike Ottman paused when asked what it felt like to be coaching at a memorial meet for Stiles. The girls long jump event had just finished, and for a fleeting moment, the wind settled.
He talked about the kind of person Avery was, and what it meant to coach someone who showed up every day ready to work, who never had a bad attitude, who made everyone around him better. Then the words slowed.
“I’m getting choked up,” he said. “It’s just a day to remember Avery, everything he accomplished. Just thoughts, good thoughts.”
