At the end of the regular season, after all of the practices and weight room sessions and team meetings, only eight teams across Montana advance to the Class AA state tournament. For three straight years, two of those eight teams in the boys bracket have come from Kalispell.
Now, for the first time ever, Glacier High School is sending a girls team to state too.
The boys teams at Glacier and Flathead both qualified for the state tournament for the third season in a row, with the Wolfpack (16-3) earning their second straight top seed from Western AA and the Braves (11-10) grabbing the third seed.
The Class AA boys and girls tournaments are held March 8-10 at Montana State University’s Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman.
The Braves open up the boys tourney against Billings Senior, Eastern AA’s second seed, in a first-round matchup at 12 p.m. on Thursday. Glacier’s first game is at 1:30 p.m. Thursday against Great Falls, the East’s fourth seed.
Glacier’s girls enter the tournament as Western AA’s fourth seed and face undefeated and top-ranked Bozeman (20-0) in the first round. The Wolfpack finished the regular season with 12-8 record. The Flathead Bravettes didn’t qualify for state and ended the season 8-13.
Kris Salonen, the Lady Wolfpack’s head coach, said her players are excited and relieved to finally break through to the state tournament. Since Glacier started as a school in 2007, Salonen said every other athletic program has qualified for state. The girls basketball program was the last one to qualify.
“Getting that monkey off our back feels good,” she said. “It’s something you work so hard for – the kids work so hard for. It’s great not only for the program but for the high school too.”
Glacier’s boys are looking to get a monkey off their backs too. The Wolfpack have qualified for four straight state tournaments, including this year, but they have never won a game at state. They are 0-6.
As the top seed last year, Glacier lost two heartbreakers, falling in the first round to C.M. Russell 51-46 and then in a loser-out game to Missoula Sentinel 46-44. Riding an eight-game winning streak and once again ranked No. 1 in Western AA, the Wolfpack look ready to end their string off state tournament losses.
“The team’s playing with a lot of confidence right now,” head coach Mark Harkins said. “They have a really good understanding of what we do. We play defense and we run when we can but we also know we need to control the tempo on offense and play in the halfcourt.”
Harkins said his team’s expectations and goals have changed as the program has matured.
“We talked about goals at the beginning of the year,” Harkins said. “Making it to state was always the goal before but this year it wasn’t. This year it was making a run at state.”
The Flathead Braves are trying to end their own state tournament losing streak. Over the past two years, the Braves have gone 0-4 at state, including last year’s 87-53 loss to eventual state champion Bozeman, followed by a 60-41 loss to Missoula Hellgate in a loser-out game.
Fred Febach, in his ninth year as Flathead’s head coach, said he’s proud of his team for making it to state as Western AA’s third seed after being picked to finish sixth in a preseason poll. Febach, whose teams have played at state five of his nine seasons, praised the leadership of his seven seniors.
“They’re why we have a chance to play at the state tournament,” he said.
Febach noted the parity in Class AA this season. Aside from the top teams, Glacier and Billings West, many of the lower seeds have similar records. And as Great Falls proved with a shocking upset over Billings Skyview in a play-in game last week, anything can happen.
Great Falls, ranked last in Eastern AA, defeated No. 2 Skyview 48-46 on March 2 to qualify for state with a 7-14 record. Skyview will stay home with a 17-4 record.
Harkins said his team knows better than to underestimate Great Falls in their first-round matchup.
“They have a lot of momentum,” he said. “Coming off a huge win like that, I’m sure they have a ton of confidence.”
In addition to Class AA, there are several other state tournaments this weekend. The Class A girls tournament is held March 8-10 at the Butte Civic Center, with Frenchtown and Polson representing Northwestern A.
Both the Class B and C girls tourneys are also held March 8-10. Bigfork qualified for the Class B tournament as the West’s second seed. The Valkyries take on the South’s top seed, Townsend, at 12:30 on Thursday. Class B state is in Hamilton and Class C is in Great Falls.
Harkins said it’s “awesome” to see both Glacier’s boys and girls playing at state for the first time.
“It’s very neat and I’m happy for them,” Harkins said. “The boys and the coaching staff are very excited for Kris and the girls.”