Huntley Project and Shepherd High Schools attend Sports Tournament

Well, for those interested,  the Huntley Project and Shepherd High School teams are moving on in sports and atheletics in that the divisional tournament is now in focus.  Both teams Huntley and Shepherd, who are close rivals yet big supporters of each other (when not playing each other of course) are headed to the another upbeat dance party.  This time the stakes are higher with hope to gain a birth to the state class B tournament.

The following is what Rebecca Tescher Robison at the Yellowstone County News has to say about the sports teams and coaches.

A story a week comes out of a community with a burned out school.

And the stories this week are undoubtedly that both the boys and girls basketball teams are advancing to divisionals.

(The ladies were defeated by the Shepherd Fillies in the Saturday evening championship game, but defeated Roundup in a challenge game to earn a berth in the divisional tournaments this week. HP boys won the district championship and will play in the divisional tournament next week in Laurel.)

Huntley Project’s head girls basketball coach Sarah Reynolds is delighted with her team’s progress and shrugs off the season’s inconveniences without complaint.

After a full three months of 40-mile roundtrip practices, Reynolds says she has a great team and a great group of girls. “I couldn’t ask for much more.”

How about a home gym?

“Well, yeah, but I’ll take it the way it is. It will make all the years to come even easier,” says the young first-year head coach. “I’ll remember it could always be worse. I will always have this story to hang over the (future team members’) heads.”

Reynolds with two assistant coaches, Jay Santy and Ron Reed, primarily used the Lockwood School gyms for their weekday practices.

Because Lockwood has practices too, the team usually didn’t hit the floor until 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m.

When the Lockwood gym had prearranged activities, the team played in the Shrine, the Huntley Elementary gym, Harvest Church— anywhere they could find a place to practice.

And, when it came time to play, the team faced the same problem—no home gym.

“They played at Billings Senior, Laurel, Rocky Mountain College, Skyview— where ever they find a gym available for those days,” said HP athletic director Jay Santy.

Santy, also the team’s assistant coach and recently named high school class B football coach of the year, says considering the travel times, late practices and no home games, what this team has accomplished is “phenomenal.”

Santy attributes the team’s success in part to the coach giving the team a day off from practice.

“As we got later into the season, the coach gave them a day off to rest and do homework, Santy said. “I think that helped them a lot down the stretch. She started cutting practice from two hours to an hour and 15 minutes or an hour and half.”

So instead of the students getting home at about 9 p.m., they would sometimes be home by 8 p.m.

Reynolds attributes a good portion of her success to Santy. “We definitely wouldn’t be where we are without him. We couldn’t ask for anyone better,” she said.

In the long haul, the off-campus practice and playing anywhere the school could schedule a game may be a benefit.

“I think it prepared us,” Reynolds said. “In the long run, it is tiring. But the girls rose to the challenge and did what they had to do.”

“They are tired, but we gave them as many breaks as they needed to keep up with school work. It is not just playing basketball, they have to make grades as well. It makes for long days and a long season.”

A burden no doubt lightened by an exciting trip to the divisional tournament this weekend where Huntley Project meets Colstrip in first-round action. The team has defeated Colstrip twice this season.

Reynolds, the former Sarah Rager, was a standout athlete in the early part of the decade at HP, and is now a second year special education at Huntley Project Elementary.

So it will be interesting to see the amount of excitement at the tournaments as a number of alumni gather and join.  Which reminds me of my next point to get to the masses.  The All Class Reunion for Huntley Project High School alumni is set for July 9, 2010.  On Monday, March 2, all alumni are invited to a planning meeting in the Huntley Project elementary gym from 7 to 8:30 p.m.  If you can’t make it, call Carol (Hoehne) Reiter instead at 967-4208.  This should be a good opportunity for alumni, friends, and family to meet.