By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
The start of 2026 has been an exciting one for students and faculty at Mont Harmon Middle School. The school has introduced FLEX interventions to boost academics, while on the athletics side, the combined Mont Harmon-Helper Middle School wrestling team claimed a state championship.
Mont Harmon Principal Keith Palmer, alongside wrestler Jaide Vasquez, joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss this busy stretch.
Opening our conversation, Palmer introduced the concept of FLEX,” The idea right now is that every student has a homeroom class that they’re assigned. That teacher is helping them to keep track of missing assignments. But their teachers can also request that they come for intervention on a skill or concept they’re missing. And so they get an email every day telling them so-and-so has requested you, and then when it’s time to go to flex, they know they’re going to math today to get intervention or whatever. And we have set aside certain days that have priority to get students so that we can try to share below and not have one teacher always getting the student.”
He added,” There are still a few little tweaks in the system that we’re using to track it and things. But for the most part, I think it’s going to be successful and really help those kids who need, you know, just a little more attention. And they’ll be able to get that.”
Switching to the athletic perspective, Vasquez – who claimed an individual state championship in addition to the team title – spoke on what it took to achieve the titles,” We have to work really hard at practice. And before the tournament, our coaches gave us a whole little speech on how to mentally prepare. And even if we go out and lose, it doesn’t matter as long as we try our best and like how to bounce back from it.”
Overall, in the 3a side of the tournament, Carbon dominated the pack, defeating second-place Delta by 40 points.
“It was a really good environment because like, everyone was supporting each other and cheering everyone on, even the kids that were there that weren’t a part of our team,” shared Vasquez of the tournament.
She continued, speaking of the police escort and reception the community gave to the team on their return to Carbon County,” It was a great feeling because we knew that people in the community supported us, being like girls in a male-dominant sport, and seeing how much support we had.”
Closing out her remarks, Vasquez shared encouragement to girls wanting to get into wrestling,” Try your best, and even if you fail, keep going because you have to put in hard work for it.”
Palmer also sang the praises of the squad,” It was a fun little celebration at the school. Lots of tears of joy and things that were going on with the girls. It was just fun to see them so happy. I’ve seen how hard they’ve been working and they’re here all the time. It’s just awesome when hard work pays off and we get to see the results.”
To stay up to date with Mont Harmon Middle School, you can visit the school’s website or Facebook page.