by Scott Sacry
For a high school senior, the last semester of high school is challenging. They have one foot in the door of their past, and one foot out the door to their future. One story is winding down and one story is beginning.
Florence senior Patrick Duchien’s path was much the same. He was finishing a storied high school career and was looking forward to a bright college career. In football, he quarterbacked Florence to back to back Class B state championships, earned multiple individual accolades, and received a Division I football scholarship to play at Montana State University. In basketball this year, he earned 1st team All Conference and All State honors.
So one might consider this enough and take the spring off to get stronger and rest up for Bobcat football in the fall. But Patrick had different plans. He decided to play three spring sports: track, baseball, and golf. In the process, he earned three varsity letters and made it to state in all three sports.
“I wanted to run track so I could get faster for football, so that was a no brainer,” said Patrick. “Then I have been playing baseball since I was six, so I couldn’t miss out on the first high school baseball season in Montana. Then with golf, the coach wanted me to play, and he didn’t care if I had to miss some events because of the other sports. So I decided to do it.”
“Obviously, he has a competitive drive,” said Pat Duchien, Patrick’s father and Florence’s head coach in both football and baseball. Pat helped his son embrace the challenge. “I came from a bigger high school where it was frowned upon to play multiple sports,” said Pat. “Some coaches might not feel the same way, but we talked with all the coaches involved and the administration and everyone was all on board, so he went for it.
Pat continued, “this is the beauty of small schools, the kids can try different things, find their passions, and be better, well-rounded people in the process. There was a little blow back from some people, but overall it was a great experience and I couldn’t be happier or prouder of him.”
The logistics of practices were a bit of a challenge for Patrick, as he generally split time between baseball and track. For golf, he had an open senior release period where he would go practice his golf swing. “Some nights when he missed baseball for track, he would go to the batting cages and get his swings in,” said Pat.
The culmination of the three seasons came in the middle of May. On Monday, May 15th Florence’s golf team went to Shelby for the Class B State tournament. The team finished in 7th place and the tournament ended on Wednesday. Then Patrick was off to the State Baseball Tournament in Butte on Thursday, where Florence won their first game against Butte and lost a heartbreaker in the semifinal game against Polson.
After Friday’s semifinal baseball game, Patrick was off to Missoula to the Western B Divisionals in track, where he qualified for state in the 400m. Then on Saturday, he raced with his 4 x 400m team, who also qualified for state.
Just an ordinary week.
In the end, Patrick went to state in Golf, he made it to state in track, and he was part of Florence’s team that made it to state in baseball, where Patrick earned 1st Team All Conference and All State honors.
With all the energy and breeziness of youth, Patrick reflected on the experience, “It was a lot to deal with at times, trying to split everything up, but it was fun and I would do it again.”
One might think Patrick’s grades suffered from all this extra curricular activity. But Patrick was one of Florence’s co-Valedictorians, and at MSU he plans to major in Mechanical Engineering. Amongst everything else this spring, he had to keep on top of this school work and prepare a speech for graduation.
When asked if he is more nervous playing in a state championship football game or giving a speech, Patrick said, “yes, I was definitely more nervous giving the speech.”