Delgado's final road trip

Whitefish faces Hardin in first round at state

Julio Delgado has coached his final home basketball game at Whitefish High School, but there's still some glory to be had for the 54-year-old.

The Bulldogs take an 11-10 record to the Class A state tournament in Belgrade after winning the Northwestern A divisional title in Cinderella style. State starts Thursday and the Bulldogs take on Hardin (13-9) in the first round at 2:30 p.m.

"It had nothing to do with being 0-8," Delgado said of his December retirement announcement. "It's a young man's job. It's a 12-month, out-of-the-year job. In the old days, it was a three-month season and then it was over. Now you have to work all year around if you want to be competitive. You've got to have the kids that love the game enough to play it that long."

Delgado retired after 19 successful seasons at the helm in June of 2000 with 326 victories and 123 losses. However he was swayed back for another go this season.

"I've got my own business," he said.

"I'm going to be 55 years old and I don't have the same energy I did 25 years ago. It's time for a 25-year-old and single guy to do it all over again and there's plenty of good applicants."

Coincidentally, this year's Bulldogs remind him of the very first one he coached.

"I couldn't rank them," Delgado said. "In guts, I've got to rank them in the top 10. I've coached 20 teams. They remind me of the first team that I coached. That group won 13 games. They hadn't gone to state for 12 years. We had a little, short point guard that was 5-5 - Mike Kuchenbrod - just like Luke Fennelly. Mentality-wise, they are both similar in how they direct the team and quarterback the team on the floor.

"The similarities are unbelievable. We didn't have a lot of bench, not a lot of depth. But they had guts and they played terrific fundamentally. We beat Browning in overtime in the opening round of divisions. Then we got a shot at Hamilton, they were ranked No. 1, in the semis. We stayed up all night devising a scheme and used a triangle-and-two defense and we beat them. Then we lost in overtime to Butte Central on a buzzer-beater from about 30 feet in the championship. We went to state and won one game for our 13 wins.

"Believe it or not, I write down a number of the wins before the season starts every year. I look at the schedule and look to see what we should do to win. And this year, I put down 13. I don't know if it's a lucky number or not, but right now we are at 11. Being 0-8 and winning the last 11 of 13 games is a huge turnaround. I'm just thrilled for these kids because, I said: 'You have moved up in the list of my teams and you are making your own part of Bulldog history. And that's what you want to do. People want to be talking about you in years to come and that's what it is all about.' And they did it and I'm extremely proud of them."

The Bulldogs will have their hands full with Hardin in the first round of the state tournament.

Delgado traveled to Billings on Monday night to watch the Bulldogs play Laurel in the Eastern A challenge game.

"They are awfully athletic and really good," Delgado said. "They are more athletic than any team we've got up here. They've got a few 6-3s and 6-4s with long arms and good quickness."

Hardin uses full-court pressure and likes to run up and down the floor.

"They are like Columbia Falls, but they have more weapons," Delgado said. "They shoot well from the outside and they've got four post players that are 6-3 or 6-4."

Delgado said it will give his team the opportunity to play the schemes he put into his system in preparing for the Wildcats at divisionals.

"Rebounding will be a huge key," Delgado said. "They don't box out well because they are so darn athletic. But they get impatient and take bad-percentage shots. They play eight kids and used the full court and a 2-3 extended zone similar to what Columbia Falls does.

"If we can dictate tempo and keep to our style of game, we will have a chance."