MISSOULA, Montana — The first set of spring drills during his first year as a Montana Grizzly, Levi Janacaro wanted to quit.
The former all-state quarterback and Garden City star was getting jerked around. He was recruited as a fullback, but the football world told him the fullback was dying. Then he was a running back, but how would he crack the rotation with how UM was recruiting? Then he was a tight end…but he’s 6-feet-tall.
How would he find his way? What did his future hold?
Janacaro told his parents that, although getting a chance to compete on the Griz was a dream come true, college football just might not “be for me.”
“I thought, this isn’t what I signed up for,” he remembered years later.
Signing up is an arbitrary way of looking at it. After all, Janacaro — despite his intimidating physical demeanor and Big Sky High hard-nosed toughness — was a prep Wildcat quarterback (albeit, a dominant one) trying to find his way in the Big Sky Conference.
But Janacaro’s mother, Michaele, wasn’t having any of that sort of talk.
“God bless my mom, it pissed me off at the time, but my mom was like, ‘You signed up to do it, so you are going to do it. You are not going to walk away from this,” Janacaro reminisced more than five years later.
“I remember slamming the door and I was like, ‘She just hates me, she doesn’t care about my happiness.’ I was just being so soft.
“My dad is easy-going as can be and he was like, ‘If that’s how you feel, we love you.’ And my mom was like no, you made a commitment to the Griz, you are going to fulfill that.’”
Levi survived the musical chairs of position changes during his first few years with the Griz. Then a pandemic gave him an extra year to learn how to play linebacker before Montana started its pursuit of Big Sky Conference title-chasing again.
Over the last three years, he’s gone from special teams standout to unlikely starter earning all-conference accolades to a team captain and the proud bearer of Montana’s vaunted No. 37 jersey.
“He doesn’t have the same frame as some of our linebackers, not quite as explosive, but very powerful, great with his hands, and he’s tough as heck,” Montana’s 12th-year head coach Bobby Hauck said. “I always love high school quarterbacks, especially in this state, because if you are the best player, they are going to put you at quarterback or tailback because you are always going to have the ball.
“Levi was one of the first guys we talked to when we got here in 2018 and he’s been all we ever wanted. He’s such a great guy. He does everything right, he’s a great leader and he’s a great human being. And he’s a damn good football player.”
Coming out of the pandemic with a new position, Janacaro was ready to prove he belonged for good. He blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown during a fall 2021 campaign that saw him earn rotation time on special teams, then at linebacker, then earn more of a scholarship.
Five days after Montana’s 29-10 win over rival Montana State — a win that snapped a four-game rivalry losing streak and denied the Bobcats an undefeated season — Michaele Lucier Janacaro lost her battle with cancer. The Frenchtown High alum (class of 1984) died at the age of 55.
The death rocked the Janacaro family. She and Bill Janacaro had been married for 24 years; the couple shared five children, plus two of Bill’s older children from a prior relationship.
Her obituary read:
“Michaele was the number one fan of her children in any sport they were competing in. She loved watching her kids play sports and had a special fondness for the Big Sky Eagles, where her sons shined in sports and Gianna has just started her high school athletic career. She became a diehard Montana Grizzly Football fan when her oldest son, Levi, started playing on the team and then was joined by her youngest son, Colter. When Michaele wasn’t busy running her kids around or watching them compete, she was baking and or visiting with her many friends, who she treasured immensely.”
Michaele Lucier Janacaro 1966 – 2021: Obituary (Click here)
Since his mother’s passing, Levi Janacaro has continued his evolution, peeking with authority during an All-Big Sky senior year that has seen almost all of his childhood dreams come true.
Throughout the hard times, from rivalry and playoff heartbreaks to individual uncertainty and profound loss, Janacaro has always remembered his mother’s encouragement. He’s had so many position changes that Colter, his younger brother who also spent a few seasons with the Griz, says Levi is like the “Jabrill Peppers of the FCS,” referencing the versatile multi-positional Michigan star who’s now a safety for the New England Patriots.
Levi has made sure to remember where he came from and what made him who he is. Whenever he feels doubt or questions his ability to endure, Janacaro hears his mother’s voice in his head.
“Between my mom and the friendships I made in that first year playing for the Griz, that’s what kept me in it, thank God,” Janacaro said. “There’s always doubts, that’s the life of the athlete, but whenever I’ve felt it was hard, I always remember her telling me that I’d made a commitment.
“When I wanted to quit, she wouldn’t let me. I think about that every day. I still hear her. All the qualities that I didn’t realize I got from her until after she passed, I think that’s been a big reason for me for sticking around when things got tough and being the man I am now.”
Since his time bursting onto the scene as arguably the most prolific Wildcat quarterback in Montana Class AA high school history, Janacaro has proven his gravitas.
He’s overcome a stuttering speech impediment to the point where now, you can’t help but want to listen to the 23-year-old with a baritone tell stories about, well, just about anything.
He loves the Lady Griz. He’s become a fixture sitting right up front at Robin Selvig Court when the women’s basketball team is in action.
He’s a consistent presence in the officiating pool for local AAU basketball tournaments for all ages during the football off-season. He’s a Griz captain, a vocal leader and perhaps a future team chaplain (he’s subbed in before). He is a respected leader and speaker for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCS) on the University of Montana campus.
“Most people see Levi as a winner, a big-time hitter on the football field for our Griz and a star athlete,” said Bob Toshoff, the head of Missoula Roundball, an organization that’s put on youth club basketball tournaments all around Missoula for years. “But he also has the biggest heart and is the first young man to step up and offer help whenever we need him.
“He does such a great job officiating youth basketball for us because he is all about the kids.”
Janacaro has gone from walk-on local kid with a feel-good story yet no position to a tackling machine who earned All-Big Sky honors two years in a row. He stepped up last season when NFL-bound senior Patrick O’Connell got banged up and ended up snagging an all-conference nod despite starting fewer than half of Montana’s games.
His next and most recent evolution has been morphing into a memorable and admirable bearer of the Grizzlies’ No. 37 jersey, sporting the famed garment with an understated flair that makes him a unique character in the story of one of Montana’s most revered traditions.
This season, Janacaro earned second-team All-Big Sky honors despite splitting reps with Riley Wilson. Janacaro has 48 tackles, nine tackles for loss and a pair of sacks, bringing the career totals for the 235-pounder to 154 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and four sacks.
He’s been a key cog for a Griz defense that led the Big Sky Conference in nearly every statistical category on the way to capturing the first league title at UM since 2009.
“Growing up in Missoula, watching the Griz from a young age, you admire those guys, they seem untouchable, like superheroes almost, and especially No. 37,” Colter Janacaro, Levi’s little brother, said in December. “That’s a pretty glorified number in Missoula. And it’s pretty surreal. It almost doesn’t feel real that he wears it.
“Even when he told me he got 37, it didn’t seem real. I remember being little kids, dreaming about it, running in the yard, pretending to be 37, watching those greats that wore 37 before. It’s just so special for Levi.”’
Janacaro and his Montana-made teammates (along with an unflappable transfer quarterback from Houston and a few stalwarts from other Western hot beds) have helped the Griz reascend – and on Saturday, Montana gets a chance to host Goliath.
North Dakota State, winners of nine national championships since 2011, comes to Missoula for Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. Final Four contest. The winner advances to Frisco, Texas, for the FCS national championship game.
“The linebackers are the heart and soul of that team,” Missoula Big Sky head coach Matt Johnson, himself a former Griz, said leading up to the game. “I love watching Braxton (Hill) and Levi get interviewed after games. They are real. They have a smile on their faces. All three (Hill, Janacaro and fellow Big Sky alum Tyler Flink) love the moment. They love where they are at. They know they had to work their asses off to get there and they are soaking it all in.”
Hill, Janacaro and Flink had about half a scholarship between them coming out of high school. Now they are the “three amigos” of the linebacker crew and important figures behind Montana’s reputation as one of the hardest-hitting, surest-tackling teams in all of college football.
“It’s been a long road, but now you see Levi and Braxton and Flink, it’s six years of hard work paying off to get them to the point where they are at right now,” Colter Janacaro said. “It’s special. It makes you emotional thinking on it. It’s a great group of guys leading the team. It’s a dream come true for the Missoula guys and the other Montana guys, I know that.”
Johnson knows what it’s like to be an underdog walk-on linebacker. Like Hill, Johnson hails from Anaconda, a place defined by the smelter that still lords over the city and the tough people it consistently produces. Like Janacaro and Flink, Johnson was once a walk-on linebacker trying to find his way.
Johnson lasted a few years with the Griz in the late 1990s as a player, then started coaching at Missoula Big Sky in the fall of 2001. He was the author’s freshman football coach that fall. He took over for the late Gary Ekegren as Big Sky’s first new head football coach in more than 20 years ahead of the 2010 season and has guided one of the grittiest programs in the state ever since.
Big Sky has had a few Griz lettermen during the 21st century — Jace & Ty Palmer, Beau Donaldson and Brett Brauer all prepped under Ekegren when Johnson was a Big Sky assistant, while the Janacaro brothers, Flink and Colton Keintz have earned Griz letters after prepping under Johnson — but perhaps the proudest accomplishment for Johnson has been the fact that he’s gotten to coach two No. 37s.
Only Big Sky, Helena Capital and Helena High have had multiple players wear the famed jersey during the 37-year history of the tradition. Capital products Jason Crebo (1994-1997), Caleb Kidder (2015-2016) and Marcus Welnel (2022) have all carried on the legacy. Helena High products Andy Petek (1998-2000) and Ryan Fetherston (2011) also did the number proud, although Fetherston will tell you until he’s blue in the face that he’s from East Helena despite playing for the Bengals.
The first 37 from Big Sky was Jordan Tripp in 2012 and 2013. Tripp continued that ascent even after wearing the hallowed jersey, becoming a a fifth-round pick in the NFL Draft before playing one season each for the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks and Green Bay Packers.
When Welnel chose Janacaro to become the 17th No. 37 in the 37th year of the tradition, Johnson became just the second coach to help mentor two legacy numbers in high school. Longtime Helena High head coach Tony Arnston coached Petek and Fetherston.
“It’s one thing to have the talent and it’s another thing to have the work ethic and the competitiveness to go to the next level, but when you put them both together, it’s something special,” Johnson said. “(I’m) super proud of Levi for what he represents for us as a school, but also what he represents for the Griz and his role in both. He has a great attitude and mentality about the whole thing. Whenever he comes back to Big Sky to watch his sister (Gianna) play basketball or comes back to lift, he is always super gracious.
“He realizes where he came from and he has an awareness and recognition that it was a big part of his life at that time.”
Before he became an unforgettable Griz, Janacaro was the latest in a long line of bruising runners that have trademarked Big Sky’s backfield for most of the school’s relatively short history. Chris “The Burner” Turner, Carter McGrath, Glenn Marcelli, Beau Donaldson…each one racked up yards with bulldozing styles that helped Big Sky always intimidate opponents even if wins never much outnumbered losses.
Johnson remembers the first time he knew Janacaro was a man amongst boys. During Janacaro’s freshman year at Big Sky, he lined up under center against Helena Capital.
“I was standing in the end-zone and their defense was facing us and Levi gets under center and he says, ‘READY’ in this deep voice and you could see Capital’s eyes, huge, they were like ‘who is this guy, he’s got a beard?!’” Johnson said with a hardy chuckle. “From there, we knew we had to keep an eye on this kid.”
As a sophomore, Janacaro seemed to have an inside track on becoming Big Sky’s starting quarterback. But he took a helmet to the thigh that delayed that a bit. He still emerged as the starter under center in the second half of the year, earning honorable mention all-conference honors along the way.
Heading into his junior year, Johnson knew that he and longtime Big Sky offensive coordinator Dan Nile would have to redesign some things in Big Sky’s power rushing offense to cater to Janacaro’s skill set.
“We knew he wasn’t a true QB but it was unique and he’s such a great leader,” Johnson said. “We’ve seen it over and over, the Tim Tebows, you can have an impact even at the college level. His junior year, we decided to move forward with that style of play.
“We never had a running quarterback like that before, so we built an entire system around it.”
Part of the system included Flink playing fullback — “To this day, he complains about how he was just an extra offensive lineman,” Johnson said with a laugh — and Janacaro giving Class AA a version of his own Tebow-esque gun run game.
It worked masterfully in 2016 as Janacaro rushed for 1,628 yards and 21 touchdowns while leading Big Sky to the playoffs. That season ended with a postseason loss to eventual state champion Billings Senior, but Johnson knew the Eagles had a chance heading into his bruising leader’s senior season.
In 2017, Janacaro led the Eagles to one of their greatest regular seasons. The train got rolling with narrow wins over Billings West and Missoula Sentinel and kept going with nail-biting victories at Bozeman and against Kalispell Glacier.
A 49-21 win at Butte helped cap an eight-win regular-season, tying the Big Sky record. It also secured the No. 2 seed in the Class AA playoffs.
But Janacaro suffered a serious sprain to the AC joint of his shoulder, an injury that’s detrimental to anyone, but particularly a power runner who often lowered his pads to truck defenders.
“You saw everybody on our team be like, ‘Oh man, Superman is hurt, what do we do?,’” Johnson said. “Then Flink got hurt too. That’s two of our studs and they had to play the rest of the playoffs banged up.”
The banner year came to a crashing halt with a 26-6 first-round loss to Sentinel that helped spark the Spartans’ recent period of historic success.
It also meant Janacaro faced uncertainty about his football future for the first time. Despite rushing for 1,954 yards and 29 touchdowns as a senior and finishing with 3,977 yards and 56 touchdowns in his prep career, Janacaro had no Division-I offers.
Montana Tech recruited him hard and offered the most financial assistance. Bill Janacaro spent almost four decades as a telephone lineman while Michaele worked at a few watering holes around the area. Levi would be the first to tell you he didn’t come from a lot of money, so the opportunity to pay for school loomed large.
“I thought I was capable of playing D-I,” Janacaro said. “But (former Montana head coach Bob) Stitt just didn’t really recruit me that hard. Then Hauck came. I got a call from (running backs coach and recruiting coordinator) Coach (Justin) Green saying Coach Hauck wanted to meet with me. We met and they offered me a partial scholarship and I was like, ‘Heck yeah’, no questions asked. I didn’t even consider anything else. I knew that was what I wanted to do.”
The last few years have been filled with successes for Janacaro. Still, when he got switched to defense ahead of the 2020 shutdown, “I felt like they were sending me to die.”
Janacaro played “a few series a game” at safety on defense during his record-setting career at Big Sky. He hadn’t played “any meaningful time on defense since I was fifth grade, ‘Little Griz’. I was like, this is going to be a helluva transition.”
But he was always able to fall back on his upbringing, a toughness instilled in him first by his mother and then honed during his time playing for the Eagles.
“When I got switched to defense, the mind set from Big Sky came rushing back,” Janacaro said. “The same thing to make it at Big Sky is the same thing you need to play on the defensive side of the ball at Montana. It’s hard to describe but you know the chip.
“Big Sky is always talked bad on and whatever, but it’s definitely shaped me into the player I am now. I wouldn’t be here if if wasn’t for Coach Johnson and the people there who molded me into who I am.”
He thought about quitting. But he refused, his mother’s words motivating him. When Michaele passed, the desire to finish what he started became even stronger for Levi.
“This is either going to get me, or I’m going to stick around for spite,” Janacaro said. “I was being soft with that mindset. The linebackers, even before I was on the group, were some of my favorite guys on the team. They were so much fun to be around. And you could see how close they were. When I got switched, I felt like I at least had a chance to fit in right away.
“I would never say it was a good thing my mom died, but all the good that has come from it and how it’s shaped me into who I am, there has been a bunch of positives that’ve come from that tragic experience.”
That mentality is something he shares with his siblings, and something that resonates with Colter.
“From every situation, you take a silver lining away from it and take a lesson,” Colter Janacaro said. “I think with him, it helped us grow closer to each other and to our faith. She taught us such a great work ethic and the values we hold up. It does motivate you because she was our biggest fan. You want to make her proud. I know it fuels his fire.”
Janacaro traveled as a freshman, rooming with Jeremy Calhoun – a running back from California powerhouse Long Beach Poly – on road trips. Once he switched to linebacker, he had much more in common with his new position group.
He was reunited with Flink. He became fast friends with Welnel, Lewis, Hill and O’Connell. Janacaro had always been a weight room warrior. When he became a linebacker, he found a new way to prove himself and earn his way on the field.
For the last several years, Jancaro, Flink, Hill and senior safety David Koppang, a Missoula Loyola alum, have shared a house a few blocks from campus. Defensive tackle Alex Gubner, the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year, and Riley Wilson, an all-league linebacker after transferring in from Hawaii, also live in the house.
“We all buy our own food,” Hill quipped. “If you want to cook Gub dinner, that costs you 50 bucks at least.”
College football is winding down for most of the housemates. So is the dynamic of living with a handful of your best friends. Janacaro said he’s excited for some solitude but is fully aware “how much I’ll miss my boys.”
Hill said living in close quarters with your teammates helps everyone stay accountable. And it has helped them develop a collective mentality that all carry individually.
“Being a linebacker at Montana is a badass thing you say you can do,” Janacaro said. “One group of guys started that and all Montana kids followed it, then all the Montana kids want to be a linebacker. That feeds on from generation to generation. We are just the latest to fill that role. It’s important for us.”
Many of the men who have worn No. 37 talked about the pressure and spotlight that comes with the number. Janacaro said he wondered if everyone would be watching him the first few games wearing it. Then he realized that the Griz defense plays as such a comprehensive unit with such team-oriented principles, “the fans are just watching all of us together.”
Janacaro has an astute sense of his place in the history of Big Sky and Montana football. He also has a mature view of all the factors that have molded him into the man he is today.
Now, Saturday will be the crescendo of his winding, inspiring college football career. Montana’s semifinal showdown with the juggernaut of the FCS is the Grizzlies’ last guaranteed game – and it will certainly be the last time Janacaro plays in front of his hometown fans at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Janacaro is doing his best to enjoy the moment while finishing his journey of perseverance, all while keeping the memory of his mother close to his heart.
“I feel like I’ve gone through the hardest things I’ll ever have to go through,” Janacaro said. “Losing my mom. Playing college football, especially for Coach Hauck…that has set me up for being suited to face adversity when I’m done with football.
“Whatever it is, I feel like there’s no challenge too big for me to overcome. Besides what I’ve learned, I’ve made the closest friends I’ll ever make the rest of my life. The whole thing, there’s been some high highs, some terribly low lows but I’m grateful for it all, because it has made me and molded me into who I am now. I’m prepared for what life throws my way.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or Noted. All Rights Reserved.
