George Ferguson Column: New-look Carroll will take a little getting used to for me

Even though it was 15 years ago, I have to admit, one of the most fun days I’ve has covering sports in Havre was when the Havre Blue Ponies captured the 2004 Class A state championship.

I was only two years into my journalism career at that point, and there I was, already covering one of the biggest moments in sports history — my high school, in my hometown, winning a state championship in football for the first time in 32 years.

So, I couldn’t help but reminisce Saturday night when I saw Troy Purcell back in Blue Pony Stadium for the first time since that day. Purcell, the first-year head coach of Carroll College, is the one after all, who coached the Blue Ponies to that state title all those years ago.

But it wasn’t exactly a reunion as to what brought Purcell back to the Pony for the first time in 15 years. No, he came to Havre to win a football game, and that’s what the Fighting Saints did Saturday night when they beat the MSU-Northern Lights.

And while I was happy to see Purcell under the lights of Blue Pony Stadium, it was also different, and almost weird.

First, I always wondered if Purcell would coach in the Frontier Conference one day, and while there was a time when many of us wondered if that wouldn’t be at Northern, obviously, Carroll is home for Purcell. So, while I’m fired up for him to have gotten that job, it was still strange to see him on the Carroll sideline in person Saturday night.

It was even more strange to see the Saints in white helmets. I know Carroll had decided to join the uniform arm’s race a couple of season’s ago, but the Saints are no longer wearing the plain, gold “Notre Dame” helmet anymore, and honestly, even though I knew it going in, it was just strange to see it in person. For a second, it didn’t even look like the Lights were playing Carroll.

But Purcell and the uniforms weren’t the strangest thing about Saturday night’s game. No, the strangest was not seeing Mike Van Diest on the visitor’s sideline.

No, changing helmets is weird enough, but it was just plain bizarre to be at a Northern/Carroll game in Havre, and not see the man or, more so, hear him on the Carroll sidelines. I’ve been covering coach Van Diest for a long, long time, and though I covered his retirement, too, I guess I had to actually see a Carroll game in person before it really sunk in that he’s no longer there.

Now don’t get me wrong, Troy Purcell is a good friend, and he’s going to bring Carroll back to the glory Saint’s fans are used too, because he’s simply a damn good football coach.

But, on Saturday night anyway, it was just strange to see how much change Carroll has gone through in one short year. I’ll get used to it all eventually. But it was a different Carroll, that’s for sure.