COLUMN: The hunt for trophies — and free food

Two days ago Fin Nadeau was winning a State AA wrestling title. Yesterday Dougie Peoples was knocking down a 30-footer to win a State A basketball championship.

Or maybe it just seems that way.

The five weekends that start with all-class state wrestling meet in mid-February and end with the state basketball tournaments make up a marathon, though when you’re in it, it is more of a sprint.

It was a blur neatly bracketed by Fin Nadeau’s state title in Billings on Feb. 12 and his cousin Scout Nadeau’s six points in the State B girls basketball third-place game Saturday in Bozeman. In between you try not to get too confused by the 9-team State A brackets and find enough hospitality rooms to keep your energy up.

I never did find the snacks at the Western B Divisional in Ronan, though I thought my schnazz had me on the trail. So to the gentleman that sternly turned me away from invading the Ronan High cafeteria — super sorry.

I also feel for the Lewistown Eagles, chasing their first title since 1979. As the joke goes, I am so old… that I read about those Eagles and their big three — Grady Trogstad, Alan Powell and Ron Osborne — in the Billings Gazette.

Powell would play quarterback for the Griz and later display a devastating riser in the Missoula fastpitch league. Osborne played at what was then Eastern Montana and is now MSU-Billings, and later outscored a floppy-haired sports writer 40-8 in a matchup at the WIT.

Here’s a juxtaposition. In the mid-1980s you’d have to describe UM as a basketball school, with Derrick Pope and Larry Krystkowiak winning four straight Big Sky MVPs.

On Feb. 27 I bought tickets to the Sunday matinee Cat-Griz men’s basketball game at Dahlberg Arena. The Griz built a lead and, as they often did this season, had a series of empty possessions while the opponent came back.

At one point I counted one point in seven possessions in what was a foul-plagued game in front of a half-empty arena.

Friday, Lewistown and Dillon battled for a spot in the State A championship on the same court. Terry Thomas was guiding his Beavers back from a pair of 8-point deficits and there were four lead changes in the final two and a half minutes before, with 5.4 seconds left, Lewistown’s Bryce Graham converted a three-point play for the W.

I don’t need to tell you which game had more fans, more emotion and was better to watch.

Some of us didn’t get to see Saturday’s title games in person, but NFHS came up with some pretty good feeds and so, again, my apologies to anyone alarmed in Missoula’s Upper Rattlesnake when Peoples knocked down that three.

Butte Central’s first title since 1992 was a tough get. They all are. Ask Lewistown, or the Hellgate girls, or the Polson boys.

“We must like third,” said Pirates coach Randy Kelley, smiling. His team’s trophy marked the first since Polson took third in back-to-back years (2016-17).

Winter sports have wrapped up: Third-place trophies went home with the Bigfork girls and Flathead girls. Both teams return a bunch of talent, as do, in no particular order: The Mission boys, Browning girls and Bigfork boys.

Buzzers were beaten, and hospitality rooms were hunted. Ok, with varying success on the latter. Maybe a trip to Hamilton next March is in the offing. A sports writer can only hope.

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com