ARLEE, Mont. (AP) — The Arlee boys’ basketball coach has resigned after leading his team to four state championship game appearances and two titles in six seasons.
Zanen Pitts informed players at an end-of-season banquet Wednesday. He told the Missoulian there were too many people who didn’t want him coaching in Arlee and that school officials didn’t support the Warrior Movement, a suicide prevention effort.
The Warrior Movement began with the basketball team dedicating its 2018 state tournament to lives lost by suicide on the Flathead Indian Reservation. It soon gained national attention and is a nonprofit overseen by Pitts that is not affiliated with the school.
Pitts says he plans to focus on ranching and hopes to expand the Warrior Movement.
Pitts is coaching a Warrior Movement all-star team in a Native American basketball tournament in Phoenix later this month.