Standout athlete, soldier Terry Maki headed to LHS Hall of Fame

At the time, incoming freshman Terry Maki wasn’t sure if he wanted to play basketball or wrestle over the winter months at Libby High School.

Larry Hilderman, who coached the wrestling program in the ’70s and ’80s, helped Maki make a decision.

“When I was 14, he took me under his wing and made me believe in myself,” Maki said. “He just helped me understand what I could do.”

Maki calls Hilderman one of the primary influences not only on his career as a high school and collegiate athlete but on his coaching style today.

“He’s just a good man and he taught me a lot of life’s principles in the wrestling room and on the wrestling mat,” said Maki, who today is the head coach of the Florence-Carlton High School football team.

What appeared to be a big moment in Maki’s early wrestling career occurred at the Tri-State Invitational in Couer d’Alene, Idaho. Maki came out of a huge field of wrestlers to take the individual title in his weight class.

“I think Terry found out he’s a lot tougher than he thought he was,” Hilderman said at the time. “He’s going to be tough from now on.”

Maki will undoubtedly make reference to Hilderman when he is inducted into the Libby High School Hall of Fame on Monday evening. Maki will be on hand for the special ceremony, which takes place in conjunction with the LHS National Honor Society induction at 7 p.m., at Ralph Tate Gymnasium.

Maki was an athletic standout on the football team and the wrestling squad in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He couldn’t play varsity football in 1978 because the rules of the day did not allow freshmen to compete on varsity teams. Playing running back, Maki rushed for 184 yards in his final freshman game against Thompson Falls. The freshmen Loggers ended up 7-1 on the season.

But at the varsity level, wins were hard to come by during Maki’s run with the program. The best season came when he was a senior during the fall of 1981.

“We had a pretty good bunch of athletes and Wayne Baker had just come in and installed a new defense,” Maki said. “We won four games but we never got beat bad by anybody.”

Playing in Double-A, LHS won four of its first five games that year. The Loggers ended up 4-5 on the season under head coach Don Quinn.

In wrestling, Maki’s best memories go back to the 1979-80 wrestling season when Libby crowned three individual champions and finished state runner-up.

“I’ll never forget that team,” said Maki, who won state titles with Greg Snyder and Jay Graham. “We had three state champions and a lot of other placers. It was awesome.”

Maki finished with an overall record of 28-1 and won the state title at 185 pounds. Snyder took first place at 155 pounds (27-0 record) and Graham won at 167 pounds (27-1).

Maki graduated from LHS in 1982 and entered the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School. After one year, he went on to the academy and was an athletic standout in both football and wrestling.

On the gridiron, he earned first-team all-conference honors during his junior and senior seasons. In the Western Athletic Conference wrestling championships, Maki finished runner-up during his freshman season and then took first as a sophomore. He wrestled collegiately only those first two years.

Following graduation from the Air Force Academy in 1987, Maki entered a year-long training program to become a special tactics officer. He participated in the invasion of Panama in December 1989 and Operation Desert Storm in January 1990.

Maki continued to participate in athletics in the military as a wrestler in the inter-service ranks and later as a coach and player with the Rhein Main Air Force Base, Germany football team that won European championships in the early 1990s.

Maki headed back to the states in 1993 and served out of Fort Bragg, N.C., until 2000.

Maki earned a master’s degree in military arts and science from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.

He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2001-02 and then again to the Middle East region for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Maki retired from the Air Force in 2006 and returned to Montana the following year. His mother still lives in the home where he grew up and his sister also remains in Libby.

Today, besides coaching the Florence football team, Maki operates his own business as a contractor for the Department of Defense. He enjoys coaching football.

“I like the challenge of it. I think there are a lot of opportunities to influence these young men and in today’s society, they need it,” he said. “It’s a good, fun way to teach.”

When asked to recall one of his funniest moments from high school, Maki had to think for a while but came up with a wrestling story from Libby’s first home dual of the 1979-80 season.

The Greenchain went up against Helena High and trailed just 26-24 with only Maki left to wrestle. If he could win – even by decision – LHS would get a team victory over a strong opponent.

“I’m this scrawny little sophomore and the guy I’m wrestling doesn’t know how to wrestle but he’s just an animal,” Maki said. “It’s a two-point match between the two schools and all I have to do is win.

“In the second period, I’m up something like 10-4 but he’s an animal. He catches me and pins me in front of the home crowd. That was embarrassing.”

A few seconds later after pausing, Maki adds, “Well, maybe that wasn’t funny.”

LHS Hall of Fame

The Libby High School Hall of Fame committee is always on the lookout for new candidates and welcomes public input on possible inductees.

To nominate a Libby High School graduate for the honor, call Dr. R.S. Wood at 293-7341 or Jeff Gruber at 293-8802.