Lights ink Great Falls guard

The Montana State University-Northern men's basketball team has already found outstanding success with one former Great Falls High guard in Shaun Tatarka.

Now, Northern head coach Shawn Huse has added another Bison to the Northern roster. Huse recently announced the signing of GFH star Matt Schmitz to an NAIA national letter of intent. Schmitz will join the Lights next fall.

"Matt had an outstanding career and we are very excited he chose to be a Light," Huse said. "He is a dedicated basketball guy from a dedicated basketball family who has spent a lot of time developing his shot from the floor. He is an extremely hard worker both on and off the court and will be an asset to our program in all phases."

Schmitz is coming off an outstanding senior year which just culminated with being selected to play for the Montana All-Stars in the Montana-Wyoming All-Star Series. This past season, for a young Bison squad, Schmitz (5-10, 165) led the Bison and was third in Class AA in scoring with a 14.7 points per game average. Schmitz also earned Class AA First-Team All-State honors, and was a two-time Eastern AA All-Conference selection.

Schmitz lettered in basketball for the Bison three straight years and was also a three-time letter winner for the GFH track team. He's also a standout in the classroom, earning Academic All-State honors three straight times and finishing his high school career with a 3.98 GPA.