State Basketball: HISTORY FOR THE HI-LINE

When the Chinook Sugarbeeters won the Northern C Divisional tournament and clinched a berth at state, long-time head coach Mike Seymour knew it was a big deal.

However, even Seymour was surprised by how many people reached out to express their support for the Beeters who will head to the Class C state tournament in Billings later this week.

"Our community has been extremely supportive," Seymour said. "And hopefully, we can create some more magic Thursday at the state tournament."

Seymour and the Beeters, who will be trying to win the school's fourth state championship in boys basketball and first since 1986, heard from two individuals connected to the 1968 team as the son of former head coach Brendan Murphy, who coached the 1968 squad, sent an email to Seymour to congratulate his team and wish them good luck, as did Chinook resident Ed Obie, who played on that team.

"I have received numerous emails and text messages from others that have been involved in past state championships," Seymour said. "They have been wishing us luck or offering us words of encouragement. It has been overwhelming, all the support and encouragement we have gotten."

In Chinook, like most small towns in Montana, there is a special relationship between the community and its sports teams, and the chance to deliver a championship to the town is something not lost on the players.

"It feels really cool," Chinook's James Christensen said. "It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Being able to win a state championship, that would just be indescribable. No one forgets a team like that. They are all known forever."

Even during this bitterly cold winter, the Beeters, who traveled to Havre for districts and Great Falls for the divisional tournament, have had no shortage of fan support as the team has made the push for its first Class C state championship after dropping down from Class B more than a decade ago.

"It makes people really happy," Cord Schneider said. "You have a lot of people come up to you and congratulate you, and that feels good, and the support has been really great. I have already had a bunch of people tell me they are going to Billings and that they have made their reservations, so I think we will have a lot of people there cheering us on."

So far, Chinook has put together 24 straight wins this season and will bring a 24-0 record into Thursday's opening game against Plenty Coups, which will be played inside the Rimrock Auto Arena at the Metra. And even though it "hasn't sunk" it for all the players, when they step onto the floor in one of the biggest arenas in the state, it should hit home for everyone.

"I think that it has shocked some people because it has been so long," Isaac Bell said. "It has been 33 years since we were in Class B (state tournament). So it feels really good. We have been working towards this for a while now."

That hard work has paid off so far for Chinook, and if the Beeters can find a way to keep winning this week in Billings, they can go down as one of those teams that are talked about forever.

"I haven't really thought about that aspect of it," Seymour said. "And I don't want to compare our team to any of any of the other great teams we have had in our other sports, but anytime you have a chance to win a state championship, that is phenomenal."

While Chinook will certainly have a lot of fan support down in Billings this week as Seymour said he expected fans from the town and across the state to head to the Metra, another team that has generated plenty of excitement locally is the Harlem girls basketball team, which is headed to the Class B state tournament for the first time ever after winning the Northern B championship last month.

For the Wildcats, getting to the state tournament has been a dream come true and the reaction of the community has made it even more memorable.

"It has been my dream since I was little and started playing," Harlem senior Skylee Dirden said. "For us it means everything."

Dirden's coach, Marlin Lawrence, who is in his first season as the Wildcat's coach after spending the last couple as an assistant, agreed.

"It means a lot, not only for the girls but for the school and the community," Lawrence said. "We have had a lot of support from the community and I expect a lot of people to come down and support us at state. I think just because this is the first girls team to make it. Everyone has really gotten behind us and that has been great because this is a great group of girls."

The Wildcats, who have struggled for many years, have been working toward a revival over the past few seasons, and after coming up short of the state tournament a year ago, Harlem was determined not to fall short again.

But now, after winning the Northern B, the Wildcats have even bigger goals in mind.

"It's really big," Harlem junior L'Tia Lawrence said, "just because it's our first time ever going there and we are hoping that we can take it all the way."

For both Chinook and Harlem, the experience is even more special after all the hard work shared over the years and the fact that both teams basically grew up playing together. In Harlem, even before playing for the public school, many of the Wildcats players traveled around and played under Marlin Lawrence, who is now their head coach.

"This is what we have been working for since we were little," L'Tia Lawrence said. "Especially with my team, most of us have been playing together since we were little and we have all been working towards this."

For Chinook, many of the players have been playing under Seymour since middle school and now, with both of their communities behind them and prepared to brave the elements to support them, both Chinook and Harlem will set out to make history.

Whether the Beeters, who haven't been to the state tournament since 1986 - when they won the Class B championship - and Wildcats, who have never been to a state tournament, will achieve their goals of state championships this weekend is impossible to know, but regardless of what happens, the two teams have already won the hearts of their communities and win or lose, that's something that should stick with them forever.