Stevensville soccer loses coaching legend

by Scott Sacry

Ralph Serrette, Stevensville’s longtime men’s head soccer coach, died on Wednesday, September 4 at the age of 77. Serrette and Stevensville Soccer have been intertwined for the last 30 plus years. Serrette started coaching the Stevensville High School boys team in 1995 and has been the program’s only head coach. 

Serrette was a coach for Stevensville Club Soccer before being the high school coach and has led the club ever since. He organized years’ worth of tournaments, fundraisers, trips, team rosters, and took meticulous care of the soccer complex. Generations of Stevensville’s youth have been positively influenced by Serrette’s dedication to soccer. 

“It’s been hard for everyone,” said C.J. Clark, Stevensville’s assistant boys head coach under Serrette since 2020. “Ralph is Stevensville soccer. He did so much for the team and for soccer in Stevensville. The fields were his first home, and his place in Missoula was his second. He handled everything with the fields, organized the watering, organized the mowing, put the lines on the field. He literally ate, slept and breathed Stevi Soccer.” Clark also played for Serrette in club soccer growing up, and also coached different Stevensville club teams. 

Beyond Stevensville, Serrette and soccer in Montana have been entwined for 50 plus years. Serrette came to Montana in 1970, where he played for the University of Montana club soccer team and began officiating soccer, and over the years he was heavily involved in the Montana Youth Soccer Organization. 

A statement by the Helena Youth Soccer Organization sums up Serrette’s influence. “Ralph was a major force in Montana soccer, serving as a referee, club coordinator, referee assignor, and tournament director.”

Serrette was originally from Trinidad, where he was the youngest of eight children. He attended high school in New Jersey, then served a three-year stint in the Army before moving to Missoula to play club soccer at the U of M. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dave Gross, Stevensville’s girls soccer head coach, said, “I have known Ralph on all sorts of levels: I was his assistant coach, I was a soccer ref with him, I traveled to matches with him, I taught soccer clinics with him, I was a roommate with him on trips, I interacted with him as a parent when he coached my son. I talked with him daily. He is one in a million. It is not an exaggeration to say that from the time he woke up, until the time he went to bed, everything he did was for the benefit of the Stevensville community and the Stevensville soccer program.”

Serrette coached his last game on Tuesday, September 3, against Whitefish, the defending state champions. The ‘Jackets lost, 4-5, in a hard-fought match. 

“The guys just played an emotional game on Tuesday, going toe to toe with one of the top teams in the state in Whitefish,” said Clark, “Then the next day, Ralph was gone. So for me and the players it has obviously been tough.” 

Stevensville’s home game on September 7 was canceled due to the smoke levels. Stevensville’s next game is scheduled in Stevensville against Corvallis on Thursday, Sept. 12. It will be the first time in the history of Stevensville boys soccer that Serrette hasn’t been involved, and the school and team will honor Serrette before the game.

“The smoke has made it hard,” said Clark, “because everyone just wants to keep going. Everyone knows that Ralph would want us to get on with it, and just keep pushing forward. So I think everyone will be able to process it better once we start playing again.”

Condolences and online tributes for Serrette have come from all corners of the state highlighting his impact. At the Corvallis and Hamilton boys game on Thursday, Sept. 5th, both teams formed a circle at the center of the field and maintained 34 seconds of silence for Serrette’s 34 years of soccer service in the Bitterroot Valley. In Helena, the Helena Youth Soccer Organization honored Serrette on Saturday, Sept. 7th by having a moment of silence before every match on all the fields. 

“He didn’t have kids himself,” said Gross, “but all of us were his family. He had an unrelenting passion to help Stevensville and the kids of Stevensville. We were extremely lucky to have him. He set the bar high. And now that he is gone, the rest of us will have to step up to fill the void and maintain what he built.” 

There will be a Celebration of Life Memorial for Ralph Serrette on Sunday, September 15th at 6 p.m. at the Stevensville Soccer Complex on ALC Way. A GoFundMe page titled “Ralph Serrette Memorial Fund” has been set up to help cover the cost of the Memorial.