Sure, I'll take the first ride

Not even 10 games into the split and I'm going to hop on a magic carpet that will be riden for generations.

What if Flathead High School hadn't separated into two schools? … Could you imagine this year's boys' basketball team?

Not to take anything away from the second-ranked Braves, who took No. 1 Sentinel to two overtimes this weekend. But three of the top 10 scorers in Class AA would be teamed together: Brock Osweiler, Ben Cutler and Shay Smithwick-Hann. (Cutler and Smithwick-Hann attend Glacier High School now.)

Osweiler is averaging 25 points per game coming into the weekend while Cutler and Smithwick-Hann are putting in 19.6 and 19.0 ppg, respectively.

That's 63.6 points per game.

Those three would combine to outscore all but three Class AA teams (on average) - and one of those three teams is Flathead.

Throw in shooting guard Jake Thiesen and forward Josh Harris, who are both averaging about 10 ppg, and you'd have a starting five scoring 83.4 ppg.

That would be better than top-ranked Missoula Sentinel's 79.1 ppg.

And that's not including points off the bench. Go ahead and throw Danny Salois, Michael Gallagher, Ben Sansaver, Connor Fuller, Connor Cavigli and Charlie Dotson into the mix. They all get about 5 ppg.

Dang … Just think … 6-foot-8 Osweiler with 6-5 Harris and 6-4 Smithwick-Hann … That's an awesome-sized frontcourt in Montana. Throw in 6-4 Cavigli, 6-3 Austin Roehl (who nearly had a slam dunk in that double overtime game) and 6-2 Dotson and you'd have quality depth.

I know, I know - all the other cities in Montana have to deal with the splitting up of talent pool among two or three or four schools for quite some time. But we're just a year removed for the split here in Kalispell.

Couldn't we have waited one more year?

Ummm… Yeah… I'm going to have to go out on a limb and speak for all of the FHS students of the past decade (or two) and say, "No."

I graduated from a middle-sized Class A school in Montana where I knew not only all of my classmates, but most of the other students in my high school. I can't fathom the life of those FHS students, who said they'd see or meet a new person at school every day and go years without seeing some students - and there wasn't even a freshmen class at FHS.

So I'll stop my daydreaming to the betterment of high school education.

Gee … That was a quick ride.

Carl Hennell is a sports reporter for the Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at 758-4446 or chennell@dailyinterlake.com.