Venerate the Valkyries

Inside the Bigfork High School gymnasium, dozens of red-white-and-blue banners adorn the walls, denoting numerous state championships won by the Valkyries and Vikings over the years. Among the pennants heaping annual accolades on football, cross country and boys basketball champions, however, is a glaring omission: There is no banner for the girls basketball team, which has never reached the pinnacle of high school sporting success. 

This year, the Valkyries are determined to change that. 

“The boys program has always been good, but the girls have never really believed they could be that good,” said girls basketball head coach Cortnee Gunlock. “My focus coming in as the head coach was to make them believe in themselves and believe they could be the best in the state.”

Gunlock took over the program four years ago, making this year’s graduating class the first to go through their entire high school careers with her guiding their actions on the court, and the change is stark. 

In her first season in charge, Bigfork went 13-11, a solid, respectable season that included some wins against Class A schools. 

Last season, the Valkyries lost just twice — once during the regular season, and then a first-round loss at the Class B state tournament to eventual state champion Jefferson. The team fought back through the lower bracket and ended up with a third-place trophy — the first hardware the team had ever brough home. It was a bittersweet end to the season. On one hand, the Valkyries were the peak of program history, but had also come agonizingly close to being in the title game and playing for the championship. 

This season, the only way to describe the Valkyries is “dominant.” The team is playing at a level of domination stepped up from last year that’s hard to describe without witnessing it. 

As an example, take last Thursday’s home game. Bigfork suffered an agonizing let-down when the buzzer sounded — because they came up one basket short of putting triple digits on the scoreboard. Instead, the Lady Trojans from Troy held the final score to 98-18. 

“It’s fun to have games like that, and it could get a little tiring to win that way except we never stop working hard,” said sophomore Ava Davey. “Yes, we’ve been dominating this season, but that doesn’t really mean anything. We keep our mindset focused nonstop and are focused on our goal for the end of the season.”

With such lopsided games, Bigfork has been able to work through various strategies and plays against competition — a different setting than practice, no matter the discrepancy of the scoreboard. 

“The coolest part of these games is that we don’t focus on one or two people to carry the team, we want scoring to be distributed so that we’re dangerous in future games,” senior Madi Chappuis said. In the game against Troy, six players scored double-digit point totals. 

“We’re able to acknowledge everybody on our team, from our starting five to everyone on the bench, and that unites us in a way other teams don’t get,” Chappuis added.

Coach Gunlock attributes the team’s success this year not only to the four-year focus of shifting culture and returning five state tournament-tested starters, but her emphasis on maximizing defensive tactics. 

“We always say we can’t control offensively what we’re going to do, but defensively you can control the game and we know what to do defensively to shut people down,” Gunlock said. “Our defense fuels our offense.”

In 16 games, the Valkyries have outscored their opponents 1,164 to 318. In only five games has the opposing team managed to crack 20 points, and two of those games were against Class A competition. 

Senior Scout Nadau points to the discipline the team has shown in practice, which translates directly into games. 

“With the motto that our defense fuels our offense, we’ve dialed in our man to man, our zone defense, fine tuning them and being really nitpicky so that we’re ready when we go up against competition,” Nadau said.

With the first graduating class of seniors who have only played under Coach Gunlock, the drive to become champions is high, and one that Gunlock feels is justified. 

“We’re working on the little things, working on being a fundamentally sound team, and these girls are going to continue to dominate as long as they do that,” Gunlock said. “This is the best group of girls I’ve ever coached — the most unselfish, the most team oriented, the best chemistry — it’s a special group that’s earned their place here.”

The Class B girls state basketball tournament will take place March 9-11 at the ExpoPark in Great Falls.