9C Extra: George Ferguson Column: 9C is class personified

Travel around and watch enough high school athletics and you're bound to run into a lot of neat examples of good sportsmanship. I know I've seen plenty in all my years of covering high school sports.

But, for one week each February, all I need to do to see some of the best examples of sportsmanship is head to the Havre High gymnasium and the District 9C boys and girls basketball tournaments.

Now, I'm not saying other tournaments, in other parts of the state are any different, but, every year, I am just amazed at the class in which the coaches and players in the 9C conduct themselves.

The league has always had a unique tradition, where if, a player fouls out, the players on the opposing team run over and shake his or her hand as they depart the game. Honestly, I've never seen that anywhere else, and I've seen a lot of high school basketball away from Havre.

It's just a really cool gesture, and it's one that's been handed down from generation to generation, because I've been watching players in the 9C do it for nearly 30 years now.

And the hand-shake when someone fouls out is just one of many great and classy things that go on during 9C week.

Already this week, I've witnessed some fantastic acts of sportsmanship on the floor, and off it.

In Wednesday's first-round game between Box Elder and Big Sandy, the entire gymnasium erupted when Big Sandy freshman Tevin Haugen scored a bucket with only a few seconds left. Haugen hadn't played the entire game, and even the Box Elder players were happy to see him score in the 9C tournament, a memory he'll always have.

Similar acts of class were again on display when Big Sandy played Box Elder in a girls first-round game Thursday morning. The undefeated Bears throttled the young and struggling Pioneers, but, even a big deficit on the scoreboard didn't stop Big Sandy's Andrea Rutledge from helping a Box Elder player up off the floor after a collision near mid-court. And after the game was over, the Bears huddled together and instead of celebrating their win, they let out a: "1-2-3 Pioneers" chant.

But things like that are normal in the 9C. Even the kids who win the U.S. Bank Sportsmanship Award at the end of each game are very proud of the honor, whether they've just won, or just loss.

And things are just as classy off the court. Opposing team's fans are always the first to congratulate players from another team on their win. Opposing fans are always the first to check on injured players, and one thing you always see is fan bases that don't have their team in the game, will always stay and watch games. Why? Because they love the entire 9C, they love the kids, and the schools, not just their own.

Yes, the 9C is really one big community. It's not eight different school, it's one big family, where everybody knows everybody and, while it's always competitive on the court, they all support each other in the end. That was really obvious at the memorial service for Jesse Dannels last week in Chinook, where you saw the Turner Tornadoes, and so many other athletes from all over the 9C there to honor Jesse and pay their respects.

Again, I won't say the 9C is any more classy than anywhere else, because I don't know. But what I do know is, the 9C tournament should be a how-to manual on good sportsmanship, because it every turn, you see great acts of sportsmanship, from all of the players and all of the schools.

That's a testament to the kids who play in the 9C tournament. It's a testament to the coaches, schools administrators and members of the other 9C communities.

In other words, year in and year out, the 9C puts the class in classy.