District 9C Tournament Extra: One year from now, the 9C tourney will have a different look

For towns up and down the Hi-Line and beyond, the District 9C tournament is more than a big deal … It’s a way of life. As soon as the first basketballs hit gym floors in December, the countdown to the 9C tournament begins.

And this week’s 9C tourney is no exception. This week is a celebration of Class C basketball and it’s a celebration of school and pride in the area. However, one year from now, the tournament will have a much different look, and that’s a very good thing.

Recently, the MHSA approved major changes to the Northern C Division, and those changes include adding Chester/J-I and Fort Benton to the 9C. Overall, the Northern C will go from a four district division to a three district division with the disbanding of the 7C. Dwindling enrollments have shrunk the 7C, and this weekend in Lewistown, the 7C tournament is being played with just four boys and four girls teams.

Meanwhile, over the years, the 9C has gone though plenty of changes, from the old Chester Coyotes moving out, to the formation of North Star High School ending the runs of the old KG Kougars and Blue Sky Eagles, to the addition of Chinook and, most recently, the departure of Rocky Boy to the Class B ranks. But through it all, including the current 9C, which includes just six teams in Big Sandy, Box Elder, Turner, North Star, Hays-Lodge Pole and Chinook, the league has endured and has always been one of the power districts in Class C basketball. In fact, just last spring, Big Sandy boys reached the Class C state semifinals, while the Pioneers and HLP Thunderbirds have both won state championships in the last decade. And the 9C tournament has widely been considered one of the premier conferences in Class C, and now, with the addition of the Hawks, who will come back to the 9C after a long stint in 10C, as well as the Longhorns, who dropped to Class C four years ago and moved into the 8C, the 9C will be an even stronger tournament when the 2015 event comes to the Havre High gymnasium next February.

“It’s exciting,” North Star athletic director and former girls head coach Brian Campbell said. “It’s something that’s long overdue, in my opinion. It will bring us back up to a full eight teams for basketball and we are getting two schools that really fit in with the rest of our teams in the league. It is going to be a really positive move and one I’m really looking forward too.”

It won’t just be a positive for the existing 9C teams either. It will be a positive one for C/J-I, which already has long-standing rivalries with Chinook and North Star. C/J-I also now includes another former 9C member, Joplin-Inverness, and in regards to the 9C tourney, the Hawks will bring boys and girls teams that will compete for district championships right away, and well into the future.

“I think it will be a good thing for us, and for our boys team, and for our school,” said C/J-I girls head coach Pat Goldhahn, whose teams haven’t lost a 10C game in four years. “For us, we just want to compete and have a place to play. But I think it will be a real positive for everyone involved. The 9C is a great conference, and the tournament is an exciting one with a lot of support. And our fans will be excited to be a part of that.”

Conference play will also be boosted by the fact that two more teams means 14 regular season conference games instead of the 10 the 9C teams face now. But where the move will really give the 9C a boost is the tournament itself. Since Rocky Boy moved to Class B, the tournament has four less games, but with the Hawks and Longhorns being added, the tournament will no longer have first-round byes and will be an eight-team bracket. That’s something longtime 9C stalwart Charlie Robinson is looking forward to.

“First of all, everybody will get to play on the first day of the tournament,” Robinson, the Chinook girls head coach said. “That will be nice for the teams that finish at the top to be able to start on the same day as everybody else. And of course it will mean more games, which will mean bigger crowds and better attendance for the entire week.

“But I think what’s really great is, we’re getting two really quality schools and quality basketball programs,” he continued. “It will mean a more competitive tournament. It will make our district much stronger because both C/J-I and Fort Benton will have quality programs next year. So things are going to be a lot different, but it’s a really good thing. It’s something I think we’re all excited about.”

Adding C/J-I and Fort Benton will mean changing the format of the 9C tournament as well. Tentative plans are for the 2015 girls tournament to run Wednesday-Saturday, while the boys tournament will run Thursday-Saturday. That means, on Thursday and Friday, there will be eight games each day, while the girls and boys championships and consolation games will be played on different days, as well as room for one challenge game on Saturday, instead of the possible two on Monday night. That format is on par with the other districts that have full brackets, as well as the how the Northern C is run. The other possibility is having three teams from the 9C, as well as the new 8C and the new 10C qualify for divisionals, which would also change how the 9C tourney is run next season.

But no matter what way the tournament is run, it will be much more like the 9C days of old. A full eight-team field, which is what the 8C and 10C will be as well, will be highly competitive, very difficult and a lot of fun, which is much more like the historic 9C tournaments once contested at the Armory Gymnasium.

“It’s a big positive,” Robinson said. “Getting the division back to three districts is an important step. But for this tournament, I think it will just create a lot more competition and it will be very good for the crowds, the fans and all of the schools.

“Our district has been very strong and very competitive for a long time,” Campbell said. “But adding these two schools will make it even more competitive. They both have great fan bases and that will be great for our crowds. There will be more competitive games throughout the tournament, which is really exciting for the fans.

“I’ve always felt this was the best basketball district,” he continued. “And this move will just make it that much better.”