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Rivalries and Rebuilding : BHS Winter Sports
Author: Eliza McLaughlin - Staff Reporter

Rivalries and Rebuilding : BHS Winter Sports Eliza McLaughlin - Staff Reporter. New faces: that’s the theme for the Broadwater High School Bulldogs 2022 winter season, and those new faces will be making appearances both on and off the court.

Leading the Bulldogs' charge on the basketball court this season are two new head coaches.

Although new faces will line the Lady Bulldogs’ bench this season, David Lawson has had some experience in the program. He’s helped coach at the middle school and c-team level for both boys and girls.

In fact, the freshman on the c-team during his first year coaching at the high school level are now the seniors on varsity. Despite the two-year gap, Lawson said he feels like he’s moved up with the girls, making this season especially important: “I love this community and I love coaching these girls.”

Lawson is calling the season a “rebuilding year” after last years team lost out at the district tournament. And he’s got the team to do it.

“We have some kids that want to get up and down the floor,” he said, adding that some talented underclassmen will be taking the to the court. But even talent needs to be led, and Lawson is leaving that to the team’s four seniors: “[I’m] looking forward to seeing them take the underclassmen under their wing”.

Over the summer, the team participated in 18 games, allowing Lawson to identify areas for improvement this summer. First, he said, the team needs to improve their basketball fundamentals and then develop better team chemistry.

“I think our goals for this season [are] to rebuild a competitive program, to create an identity that separates ourselves from other programs and to represent our community,” Lawson said.

Creating a new identity will be especially difficult since the Bulldogs are now the underdogs in the district, Lawson explained. Starting at the bottom means that all the other teams stand in the Lady Bulldogs’ way.

“Technically everyone is our rival,” Lawson said.

While the girls rebuild, first-time coach Tyler Patrick has his eye set on the prize.

“To win state, that should be the goal every single year. … To make the state tournament and go as far as possible with what you got,” he told MT43News.

Patrick is originally from Townsend but spent his high school years playing basketball and tennis at Charles M. Russel High School in Great Falls. After graduation, he attended Montana State University, student taught at Broadwater High and kept a close eye on Bulldog Basketball.

“It’s kind of like coming back home,” Patrick said, adding that his stepping into the head coaching position was a stroke of luck. History would say Patrick coming into the position was anything but a fluke since his father held the same position on the girls’ team in the 1980s.

Last year, during his student teaching, Patrick watched the Bulldogs face a “loaded district,” losing the first round at districts to the Manhattan Tigers — the eventual 5B district champs — before beating the Big Timber Sheepherders. Their double elimination came in an unfortunate match-up with the Three Forks Wolves, the team that would eventually go on to claim the state championship.

This year the team has several returning players who are fresh off the football field: Jesus Garcia and Ryan Racht. Patrick expects these two along with “the crew” — the team’s other seniors — to stand out, with younger players stepping up as well.

“There’s a lot of young guys on the team that they’re really selfless when it comes to playing basketball, so they share the ball and a lot of the time it's the team that ends up shining at the end of the game. … Makes my job a lot easier,” Patrick said.

Over the summer, the boys developed a strong team bond and “gelled together,” with their height being their biggest weakness going into the season. Although the team has some taller players, Patrick said these are the younger, “raw” players who will need some training.

By the end of the season, Patrick is confident the Bulldogs will be a “really solid team.”

Like Lawson, Patrick said everyone is a rival for the Bulldogs, but that’s the way he likes it.

Coming from AA, Patrick said Class B is much more competitive, making every game more interesting. “Every single game is considered a rivalry game,” Patrick said. “It’s cool to have several rivals in the district.”

Even if the team suffers some losses, Patrick is confident that the team will be able to handle it.

“They have a great attitude when it comes to anything; They want to win, they want to succeed and they want to do it together,” he said.

Both boys’ and girls’ basketball will kick off their 2022-23 season on Dec. 9 and 10 at the Manhattan tournament, before hosting their first home game against Choteau on Dec. 15. at 3 p.m. After graduating eight seniors last year, Wrestling Head Coach and Athletic Director John O’Dell expects this year’s team to be young and few in numbers.

“We’re pretty young this year, but we’ll get tougher as the season goes,” O’Dell said.

Although the team will be young, O’Dell said its numbers will be the team’s greatest weakness.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate, we’ve mostly filled our weights throughout the years,” he said, but with only 15 wrestlers, this could be difficult.

The trend in lower numbers, O’Dell said, is happening with other contact sports at the high school level such as football.

Despite being young and few in numbers, he thinks they can handle it: “The boys that we have are tough.”

And they’ll need to be brought to accomplish O’Dell’s season goals, which include having a winning dual record

“This year we just need to build back up and win as many matches as we can,” he said. But the more important goal is recovering the Copper Shamrock.

“Gotta get the shamrock back!” O’Dell shouted. The copper shamrock traveling trophy tradition between Townsend and Anaconda, started eight years ago when the Anaconda coach told O’Dell he didn’t have any rivals, and a friendly competition was born.

Although Townsend has the winning record with six wins, the last two years have gone to Anaconda.

The Anaconda-Townsend rivalry allows the wrestlers a fun day of competition, but O’Dell said everyone else will be a rival as well. But according to him, wrestling rivalries are different from other sports.

“Kids will be enemies while they’re wrestling and as soon as it’s done, they’re best friends,” he said.

Broadwater Bulldog wrestling will kick off in Cade with a two-day tournament on Dec. 2 and 3 at 10 a.m. before traveling to Whitehall for the Whitehall Duals on Dec. 9 and 10 at 10 a.m.

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PhotoCredit: Courtesy of Kelly Morris