BUTTE — When high school students in Butte return to class this fall, the name "Thatcher" won't be heard during roll call for the first time in 16 years.
The end of an era in the Butte sports scene came with the graduation of Sofee Thatcher from Butte Central on May 29 and her subsequent signature on a letter of intent to play softball at Dawson Community College in Glendive.
"I think it's definitely time," Sofee said.
At least one of the seven Thatcher children had been at a Butte high school since 2007, when eldest sister Alex entered Butte High as a freshman.
As the youngest, Sofee is ready for something new. She can't escape being a Thatcher, nor does she want to. But a sabbatical from Butte will allow her to live, play and compete without the noise that comes with being one-seventh of a talented and celebrated group of siblings; especially when six-sevenths preceded her.
"I'm definitely ready to move on to the next chapter of my life," Sofee said. "I'm ready to do a little bit more growing up and just be off on my own finally."
Each of her six older siblings did their part to contribute to the Thatcher legacy. Each added to the attention and expectations that Sofee eventually shouldered throughout her high school career. Good, bad and otherwise, she always felt the presence of the Thatchers who came before.
Alex played volleyball at Montana Tech. Hattie played basketball at Tech, where she holds career records of 514 assists and 160 steals. Baylee was a three-sport athlete at Butte High. Kloie has one more year of eligibility as a guard for Rocky Mountain basketball.
And those are just the sisters.
Cutter, the younger of two brothers, is a sprinter on the University of Montana track and field team. Tucker, despite a medical condition that limited his athletic career, played football at Butte High.
And then you get to the Thatcher paterfamilias: Chunky. "William" to seemingly nobody but his birth certificate, Chunky Thatcher has a personality as outsized as his nickname and could cast a shadow even bigger on legend alone. Chunky is known throughout Montana as a longtime and beloved coach, currently for the Butte Central softball team.
"I'm proud of my kids, and I'm proud that they're going on and getting through college," Chunky said.
Even after two decades of coaching his children full-time through youth and high school baseball, softball and basketball, Chunky doesn't feel any relief that his days of coaching his seven children are over.
"There's a little more hurt or pain there, because it's like, the party's over," he said. "This is the last dance."
Chunky's stature is such that it will stand on its own long after his kids are done collecting varsity letters, postseason honors and state titles.
"Growing up, all he did was make people laugh," Sofee said. "And everyone that I talked to has always loved Chunky Thatcher. Even the boys in my class talk about my dad all the time. They're like, 'He is so awesome.' And it's just because he is so effortlessly funny."
Beyond that, there's uncles Bob and Mike, cousins Heather, (former Butte Central softball coach) Kelci, (Montana Tech offensive line coach) Dan and ... who are we missing?
"I'm sure there's a lot more, I have many more cousins," Sofee said.
A crew of Thatchers would be at every game they could get to. Sofee said her mom, Leah Francisco, could be found "in the outfield of every game" during softball season and in the corner of the gym for every volleyball and basketball game.
Kloie was there to commemorate Sofee's final softball game at Butte's Stodden Park.
"I remember on her senior night, I almost started crying," Kloie said. "Her being the last one, it's insane."
With the lush limbs of the Thatcher family tree extending to all corners of her hometown, Sofee felt constant support and constant attention. She couldn't have blended into the crowd if she tried. Not in Butte. Like a coveted prospect in a team's minor league system, coaches, teachers and fans were well aware of Sofee well before she became a Maroon.
"Even before I was in high school, there was articles written about my dad … and they all would be like, 'and there's yet another Thatcher coming up,'" Sofee said.
It was a double-edged sword for Sofee. The support of the community and the pride of the family on one side of the blade; the pressure to live up to two dozen combined years of high school sports accolades on the other.
She remembers entering Butte Central the fall of 2018, a few months after Kloie — who Sofee described as a "freak athlete when it came to basketball," — graduated in the spring. It wasn't long before she was face-to-face with then-coach Meg Murphy.
"(She) was like, 'You're Kloie's little sister, you're gonna help us,'" Sofee said.
Even passersby on the street would remind Sofee of what she was never in danger of forgetting.
"'Sofee, are you going to play basketball?" they would say. "Your sister was good at it."
"And I was like, 'Yep, yep, I know.'
"That was definitely the worst part," Sofee said.
As tough as those unsolicited comments could be, they also nudged her toward softball and an eventual college scholarship.
It's not like Sofee was a slouch in her other athletic endeavors. She was an all-state selection as an outside hitter for the Maroons volleyball team, a first-team all-conference selection in basketball as a junior and part of the core that led Butte Central to a surprising run to and at the 2022 state tournament.
She could have chosen to pursue other college sports.
"Out of all of us Sofee probably is the best athlete," Kloie said. "She's the most athletic, works her (butt) off. She just thinks she needs to live up to an expectation."
That's why softball was different for Sofee. Softball was hers.
"Like (in) basketball, I was Kloie Thatcher's little sister. Or volleyball, my sister Alex played volleyball at Tech," Sofee said. "No one's gone to play softball anywhere. So I kind of just wanted to go off on my own and not be compared to my siblings."
Sofee fought through a knee injury her senior season to earn all-state honors as a pitcher and to be a top-of-the-order threat in the Maroons lineup. Her junior season, she missed 14 games due to illness and still earned honorable mention all-conference. And though her sophomore season was wiped out by COVID, she played in the 7th Annual Veterans Memorial Classic, an invitational tournament in Belgrade featuring the state's highest regarded players.
Dawson head coach Tami Lagmay had been eyeing Sofee for a couple of years, but had trouble convincing herself she could draw one of her top targets six and a half hours away from Butte.
"I kind of backed off of her, because I was like, she's probably going to stay close to home," Lagmay said. "Then I ended up seeing her at the state tournament (in Hamilton) and I kind of just went after her pretty hard again."
It was good timing for both. Up until the end of her senior season Sofee had tacitly settled on Montana Tech and another four years of familiar, familial, surroundings.
"I was pretty set on just going to Tech, just because it's home," Sofee said. "I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do."
Lagmay's late push — along with interest from the University of Providence and Miles City Community College — helped Sofee realize moving to college to play softball and get a degree in science was what she needed.
Plus, she gets to play the outfield again.
Necessity put her in the circle during her final high school season, but Sofee feels at home out in the grass, where her advanced instincts and softball IQ make her a plus-defender at any outfield position.
"The first time I saw her play outfield, I was just like, 'Wow,'" Lagmay said.
Frenchtown head softball coach Eli Field concurred with that scouting report.
"There are great athletes that don't have a clue what's going on around them," Field said. "And then there's good athletes that get the absolute most out of their abilities because they're very aware and super cognitive about how to play the game. So that's what jumps out to me about her."
Some of Sofee's most anticipated high school softball games were against perennial powerhouse Frenchtown. Led by Field, the Broncs won the 2022 State A title and were the runners-up in 2021. He has an eye and appreciation for talent. After three seasons of battling Sofee's Maroons, and accounting for her time lost to injury, illness and COVID restrictions, Field thinks Sofee's best is yet to come.
"Even through that you can see that there's a tremendous amount of talent and grit and competitiveness in her," Field said. "I think she could really take off as she gets that opportunity to play a 55-game season and be healthy.
"That's a great get for Dawson. I think she'll have a lot of success."
Sofee still loves Butte, its people and her family. She would like to return some day to raise her children and coach softball.
But right now, at 18, she's decided it's time to move on, find new experiences, to grow and learn from mistakes she feels she needs to make. In some ways, she feels like she has some catching up to do.
"There definitely was some things that I had to accept and overcome, which made me have to grow up fast and just not really experience high school," Sofee said.
Alex died in an accident in 2017, when Sofee was in eighth grade. The tragedy forever altered her family, and her impending four years of high school.
"After my sister passed we were all really worried about something else happening, so we all just kind of tried to play it safe," Sofee said.
Sofee did what she felt was right for her and her family at the time. Missing out on whatever movie-montage fun that was happening amongst her high school peers was worth it for the peace of mind she intended to give her parents.
That plus an outpouring of support from the Butte community helped the family endure, even if the heartache can never heal completely.
"After our sister passed away, Butte was our saving grace," Kloie said. "There are so many great people out there. People don't realize how truly close the Butte community is."
Sofee still feels that too, but college will allow her to live a little more on her own terms.
"I think I need the experience being by myself," Sofee said. "I definitely will miss Butte and miss people here. My dad will be here. My mom will be here. I'm definitely going to miss them."
Sofee knew that when she signed with Dawson inside the Maroon Activity Center on June 15. She knew she was committing to more than playing softball for Lagmay and the Buccaneers. She was committing to 445 miles of highway between her college and the town she's called home her entire life.
"I think I'm mature for my age, but also, I don't know what I could be. So I think I'll have to go find that out for myself."