The night HLP has been waiting for

GREAT FALLS — It didn’t take a genius to know that Saturday night’s Northern C championship game between Box Elder and Hays-Lodge Pole was going to be a classic.

All the ingredients were there. Two great teams, two great coaches and an electric atmosphere. Throw in the element of champion vs challenger and the makings of an all-time classic were all there.

And if I can speak for the thousands in attendance at the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls Saturday, it’s safe to say that the fourth meeting between the T-Birds and Bears lived up to the hype.

But what made the night special wasn’t necessarily that the T-Birds won, it was more to do with what happened before and after.

Before the game, the HLP players paid tribute to the school’s storied past, dyeing their hair to honor the late, great A.J. Long Soldier and the 2007 T-Birds, who were the last HLP team to win a Northern C title. That team also was the last HLP squad to win the Class C state title.

“Tyson did it last week,” HLP head coach Derrick Shambo said. “And (Friday night), some of the boys decided that they wanted to do it too. They ended up doing it in my hotel room actually. My wife had to make an emergency trip to Walmart for some dye. She did most of them, but they were doing it for each other too. It was something that brought them all together.”

Dyeing their hair as Long Soldier and some of his teammates did back in 2007 was a way for the players to show their solidarity Saturday night. And one week after falling to Box Elder, the T-Birds scored their biggest win, of any kind, in a decade.

And while you could see how much it meant to the players and coaches, it was easy to see it meant as much or more to the joint community of Hays-Lodge Pole.

“I remember looking up to him and all those guys," Tyson Shambo said of Long Soldier. "I don’t remember a lot. But I remember being at the game when they won the championship and looking up to him and the whole community being there and being a part of it. And that’s how I want these kids to view us. I am just happy to share this with my team and my community.”

If there is one thing, that can always unite a community, it’s sports. And if every single T-Bird fan in the state wasn’t in Great Falls Saturday night, it sure seemed like it. After the game, you could feel the emotion pulsing through the Four Seasons. Hays-Lodge Pole finally had another basketball championship, after 10 long years of waiting and it made them celebrate like it was 2007.

I was there for that game, when Long Soldier and the T-Birds beat Big Sandy for a fifth time to win the 2007 Class C state championship. It was in the same arena, and, afterward, it had that same feeling.

Just like every T-Bird fan wanted a part of Long Soldier that night 10 years ago, as well as others such as Lenny Gray, Cole McCabe and Lance Brockie, who all played key roles on that championship team; Saturday night, after beating the Bears, it seemed every T-Bird fan in the stands had to get a handshake, hug, photo or high-five with Shambo, Frank Runs Above, Lance Strike, Jace Shambo and many more.

The Hays-Lodge Pole community couldn’t get enough of its team in 2007 and it couldn’t get enough last night. That 2007 team was special, it just was. Not just because it was great, but because of what it meant to its community. And this team in 2017 is strikingly similar. The T-Birds are 22-2 and certainly one of the best teams in school history. The chance to cement that legacy comes in two weeks, at the state tournament in Bozeman. But even if that final goal of a state title isn't reached, it won’t change the fact that this team is transcendent. Not just for the wins, but for what they mean to so many.

“It feels good, it makes you feel good on the inside,” Tyson Shambo said. “I grew up remembering A.J. win this tournament (Northern C) and looking up to him. I want these kids to look at us and think, ‘I want to be like them guys.’ That’s something big.”

Shambo and his teammates may not realize it yet, but they have already reached that level, and, if there was any doubt, they should just remember the chants of “HLP, HLP” that reverberated throughout the Four Seasons championship night.

It’s a chant I know well. It’s also one that I haven’t heard that loud in a long time, 10 years in fact.

So, yes, the 2017 T-Birds have already earned their status among the great HLP teams, thanks to one history-making night, this sportswriter won’t soon forget.