John Kovacich is going to double dip this summer as the Butte Sports Hall of Fame inducts its 20th class.

John will finally go in as an individual inductee during the July 24-25 ceremonies at the Butte Civic Center. He was voted into the Hall by the selection committee earlier this year.

John will also go in as a member of the 1972 Mile High All-Star baseball team. That team is still Butte’s only 12-year-old (and under) Little League baseball team to win a state title and advance to the West Regional in San Bernardino, California.

Oh, and John was a member of the 1977 Butte High state championship football team that was inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. John was a first-team All-State defensive back and a second-team All-State punter on the team that finished the season with an 11-0 record. The Bulldogs gave up just 20 total points that season, and it was named as Butte High’s best team of the 20th Century by Pat Kearney.

John, who also started two seasons on Butte High’s basketball team, took his talents to the University of Montana. He helped the Grizzlies win the 1982 Big Sky Conference football title.

Today, John is retired and living in Missoula, though that’s not how he puts it. He says he’s from Butte and vacationing in Missoula.

Earlier today, I met with John inside the Vault at the Metals Sports Bar & Grill for a fun conversation. Listen in as John talks about playing for championship teams in Little League, high school and college.

Listen as he talks about many of his coaches and teammates and how he is still connected with so many of those great people. Listen as he talks about joining so many of them in the Butte Sports Hall of Fame.

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Shirley Chesterfield-Stanton will be inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame this July.

She is one of the many overdue members of the Class of 2026. While some might not have recognized that name when the class was announced in February, Shirley was well known in Helena.

The retired physical education teacher spent 40 years coaching at Helena Capital. She coached gymnastics and track, and her teams won multiple state titles in both sports. She also served as announcer for Helena Capital football, basketball and volleyball.

Shirley was a star in track, gymnastics and volleyball at Montana State University from 1972 through 1976. She qualified for the National Track & Field Championships in 1975. She was also a part of four state championship softball teams.

That athletic career got its start in the Mining City, after her parents moved to town when she was in the sixth grade. In the days before Title IX, Shirley grew up dreaming of competing in sports. There were not a lot of opportunities for girls, however.

She played volleyball at Emerson Elementary before competing in track, gymnastics and cross country at Butte High. Then, the girls had to wear smaller letters on their letter jackets, as not to offend the boys.

Today, girls have all kinds of opportunities in sports. That is largely because of the determination and perseverance of people like Shirley, who dedicated her life to athletics.

Shirley was inducted into the Montana Coaches Association Hall of fame in 2002, the Helena Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, and the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018. The Montana Coaches Association awarded her the National Distinguished Service award in 2024.

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As many of you know, Mariah’s Challenge is very important to me.

Mariah’s Challenge rose out of the ashes of a tragedy that took the life of 14-year-old Mariah McCarthy on Oct. 28, 2007.

She and two friends were run over by an underage drunk driver while they walked on a trial beside Blacktail Lane. The friends survived, but Mariah was pronounced dead after being flown to Missoula.

That tragedy led me to make a major change in my life. I have not had a single drop of alcohol since. More importantly, it also led to Mariah’s Challenge, which awards students with a $1,000 scholarship if they go through high school without drinking alcohol.

The latest class will be honored at a ceremony May 21 at Montana Tech.

None of these 17 scholarship winners knew Mariah, yet they are keeping her message going strong 18 and a half years after she left us.

It is important to let these impressive young men and women know how impressive that is.

That is what today’s column is about. You can read it for yourself at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ButteCast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.