Column: Missing out on magic of Divisionals

There are plenty of compelling reasons why there are no divisional basketball tournaments in Class AA. Dustyn Franchini-White, Avery Chouinard and I have our reasons why there should be. 

I should add colleague Bill Foley of Buttesports.com to the mix; his column about the end of AA divisionals got some traction last week. 

At the center of it was how Franchini-White hit a last-second three to lift Flathead over Missoula Hellgate 42-40 on Feb. 27. The Braves’ first conference win in two seasons was certainly a high point to the season. 

Because there was no divisional tournament, it was also THE high point of the season. 

It is glaring that Class AA doesn’t have these tournaments while Classes A, B and C still make a go of them. It’s not necessarily a case of “won’t,” and maybe more a choice of robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

“There are quite a few reasons,” Glacier activities director Mark Dennehy said Tuesday. “One of the biggest reasons is finances. Everybody was feeling the pinch. To send two teams from a school to divisionals, you’re looking at close to $25,000 to do that.” 

Given the choice of skipping a tournament or cutting somewhere else in the budget — and OK, AA schools offer more extracurriculars than the smaller schools — most of the ADs voted for the former.  

Dennehy pointed out the move in basketball also aligns it with the postseason plans for AA soccer, football and volleyball. The bottom two teams in the league standings are out, the top two are in and the middle four seeds get one play-in game. 

But if this format was in place a year ago, the Missoula Sentinel Spartans, 5-9 and in seventh place in the Western AA boys standings, would not have gone to divisionals. Where they placed second. Which in turn got them to the State AA tournament, where they made the title game. 

That will be the hard part, when teams that have a fair amount of league wins don’t get a chance to move on. In 2022 the Butte High boys tied for seventh (four league wins) and made state; in 2021 Glacier’s boys went 6-8 in league play, tying for fifth with Flathead and Missoula Big Sky. The Pack, the No. 7 seeds, made state. Big Sky and Flathead did not. 

Dennehy points out that the conference season now matters more; he’s certainly not alone there. But I still want a divisional, for no other reason than the 2023 Western AA played at Flathead High. 

The host Bravettes battled Hellgate for the girls championship, and it was Chouinard that provided the final drama: A last-second three that bounced around and in, winning it for Flathead. The student section emptied on to the court. It’s a memory that will exist long after the basketball divisional in AA.  

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