DREAM CATCHER

Hours before one of the biggest games of his career, Brandon The Boy and his teammates walked through the doors at Paris Gibson Middle School in Great Falls. The Box Elder Bears were getting ready for a shoot around. They were practicing and preparing for the Northern C championship game Feb. 26 against the Belt Huskies.

The Boy expected to shoot some shots in an attempt to stay sharp for the game later that evening. What he didn't expect was to find a painting of his grandfather, painted by his father, Vernon The Boy.

"It was kind of cool," Box Elder head coach Jeremy MacDonald said. "We walked into Paris Gibson and we see a painting of Brandon's ancestor, The Boy, who was a chief of the Grovons. Brandon comes from a line of great leaders. He is a great basketball player, but more than that he is a great person. And the kind of leader he is, you can't teach that, you can't coach that, that comes from inside you. That comes from your DNA."

That night, Brandon The Boy added another chapter in his already expansive legacy. One year after falling in the Northern C tournament to Highwood, The Boy and the Bears conquered Belt, the defending Class C state champs. He scored 25 points, made 7-of-11 shots and beat a press that was supposedly unbeatable. He was the best player on the floor; a true floor general and in that moment, it was easy to see why his teammates follow him and why he is looked up too by so many.

The Boy may be a great basketball player, but he is much more than that. He is a leader, both on the floor and in his community and although he may not be a chief, he is certainly making his family proud.

"My dad made that painting of my grandpa, The Boy, when I was a little guy and donated it and I forgot where," The Boy said. "So it was cool to see that. The first thing coach Jeremy said to me was 'You come from a line of Chiefs too huh Brandon? I told him kinda jokingly "That's why we're leaders coach."

While The Boy said it jokingly, the picture has meaning, especially to Brandon, who lost his brother, Chuck The Boy earlier this year.

"I guess you could say that," The Boy said when asked if the painting was some kind of sign. "Maybe it means I am going in the right direction. I am glad that there is that respect there. I mean, having that in a random hallway, when you are going to shoot around, I would have never expected that. But I am just going forward. I am just enjoying today. We might not see this weekend. Nothing is promised and I just try to live everyday as if it's my last one."

Self-made superstar

Being a leader may be in the DNA of Brandon The Boy, but basketball wasn't. At least not always. When asked when he first picked up the game The Boy laughed and said: "I can't even remember." Living on the reservation, basketball is a big deal. And like most kids, The Boy and his friend, Jerrod Four Colors picked up the game at a young age. They also became friends early on.

"We graduated head start together," Four Colors said. "So we have been friends for a long time and I think that really transferred over to the basketball court."

Four Colors, like The Boy, loves the game of basketball. He has played for as long as he can remember and he said, everyone plays and everyone wants to be good.

"It's really big, especially on the reservation," Four Colors said. "It's more like a bragging right, how good you are. Everyone wants to be the best and so everyone kind of pushes each other."

When it comes to The Boy, the person that pushed him the hardest was himself. He remembers looking back and knowing that the only way he was going to become great, was by working at it, non-stop.

"I wasn't anything special," The Boy said. "Nobody looked at me and thought I was going to be a great basketball player. But I worked at it. I had some great coaches that showed me how to work hard and how to get better."

While he was growing as an individual, he was also growing as a basketball player. And basically, he would play day and night.

"I tell my dad that I am going to the gym and I might not be back for a week in the offseason," The Boy said. "But I am still going to be at school the next day. That's why I always have an extra pair of clothes and extra workout clothes and stuff like that. That's why my bag is always stuffed."

LaVon Myers, a former point guard for Montana State University-Northern, is currently an assistant coach for the Bears and he can remember Brandon hitchhiking and finding rides just so he could get some gym time.

"I remember him hitchhiking rides just so he could come stay at the basketball house (in Havre) with me and a few other guys," Myers said. "Just so he could wake up in the morning and workout with us. Watching his transformation to the player he is now and watching all the hard work he puts in is incredible. He gets here hours before everyone and he stays hours after everyone leaves."

The Boy has worked out with Myers for years. He also has worked out with Box Elder girls head coach Joel Rosette, and of course MacDonald. All of them have had a big impact on The Boy's career and over the past few years, it has all come to fruition.

The Boy has been a key part of a Box Elder program that has been as successful as just about any in the state over the past four years. The Bears have won four district titles, two divisional championships and are gunning for their second Class C crown in three years this weekend at the state tournament in Great Falls. During that time, the senior has earned just about every honor imaginable: All-District, All-Conference, All-State, etc. He has done it all. But the reason, according to him that he has reached this level is simple; it comes down to hard work.

"I believe that as long as you put in the work," The Boy said. "Anything is possible. I want to play college basketball. Even if have to be like a "Rudy", I don't care. I just want a chance and I am going to work as hard as I can to get it."

Quest for College

There is no shortage of great Native American players in the history of Montana high school basketball. Yet, there are few players that have gone on and succeeded at the collegiate level. And many times, it had nothing to do with talent.

"It's a different cultural element to growing up on the reservation and going into your mainstream society," MacDonald said. "Living in a city, being in a college town. There have been some kids from the reservation that have been very successful at it, but there are also a lot of stories of very good basketball players, that, for whatever reason, couldn't make the cultural adjustment, being away from home. I don't see that being a problem for Brandon. He's too focused and he has too many goals in life."

One of The Boy's biggest goals in playing college basketball, whether that be for a team in the Frontier Conference or at the NCAA Division 1 level, he just wants to keep playing.

"I want to play at the highest level that I possibly can," The Boy said. "I see those guys on TV and think about what it would be like to play for one of those teams.

"But I also want to get an education," He added. "I wouldn't care if I was just on the bench and I was a "Rudy." I would still get to play and try to prove myself and I would walk away with a degree in the end and that's one of my biggest goals."

Right now, whether or not The Boy will achieve his dream, at least his basketball dream, is up in the air. He said there are some teams interested in him, including some in the Frontier Conference, but he didn't want to get into specifics. One of the difficult things about trying to evaluate just how good The Boy can be, is the competition he faces. Some nights it's good and sometimes, it's not. Yet, Myers, who starred for the Lights, knows a thing or two about the Frontier, and he raved about what The Boy can potentially do at the next level.

"I think he is arguably the best point guard in the state," Myers said. "I think he is right up there with any of them. I also got the chance to see quite a bit of AAU ball with him this summer and I think he is right there, he can play with any of the point guards that I saw. I think he is good enough that he can come in and help a Frontier team right away. He just has a great understanding of basketball. He has that great mind."

One thing that can be counted on, is that if The Boy keeps playing the way that he has been, his opportunity to play collegiately will come somewhere. And when it does, he said he would be ready for it and that he will make the most of his opportunity.

"There is a lot of us out there and all we need is a chance," The Boy said. "I know that if I got my chance, I would come through with it. I want to try and play basketball at the highest level possible and I want to get an education and come home and make this a better place for all these little guys that look up to me and give me high fives every day."

MacDonald, who played for Rocky Boy in the early 1990's and was part of a third-place team his senior season, knows what it's like to get an education and how something like that can change a life on the reservation.

"I know the value of education and that's the big reason why I came back here," MacDonald said. "I wanted to try to help out my community and that's bigger than basketball, trying to help kids out. And I know that Brandon wants to do that too. He wants to teach and come back and be a coach and I believe that he will end up doing that."

Basketball is life

It's no secret that growing up on the reservation can be difficult. Poverty and drug use is rampant and that at times can make it hard to succeed. Like many before him, The Boy has used basketball as a way to avoid that life. He is committed to living free of drugs and alcohol and maybe the biggest reason why he has followed through on that commitment is basketball.

"It can be really hard," The Boy said. "Sometimes, you feel like your whole family is doing it, except for just a couple and then you start to question, "Who is still going to be around? Who is still going to be there? But I try not to let my mind wander too far. I try to just trust my heart and listen to that and just keeping working...Day in and day out."

In a world where it seems like trouble and temptation is right around the corner, The Boy has always turned to the basketball court. Growing up, he would spend hours on the playground shooting around and as he grew older, he continued to spend hours upon hours in the gym, honing his craft and avoiding the pitfalls many others succumbed to.

"All I know is that if I don't have this (basketball) in my day," The Boy said. "It's a bad day."

While The Boy has always used the court as an escape, there is pressure there too. Not just pressure to play college basketball or to win a state championship, but pressure to succeed and break barriers and prove people wrong.

"I know this a lot bigger than me," The Boy said. "If somebody gives me a chance to make it, I am going to come through and make it. Then maybe someone will give these kids here a chance because they need a chance."

The Boy also understands the pressure that is on him and not just pressure to hit a big shot or win a state championship -- he's under pressure to make it, to get a scholarship, to graduate college, to be successful on the basketball court , to stay out of trouble -- because if he gets a chance to play college basketball and fails, it will feed into the same, misguided narrative that has dogged and pigeonholed Native American players for years.

"I think it's really important that I make it and succeed," The Boy said. "If I don't make it, everyone will be talking about me like, 'Oh he's another native that didn't make it.' People will say 'He had all the tools, he had this and he had that, but he never did anything with it.' I can't let that happen, I am not going to let that happen. I am not trying to sound cocky or anything like that, but If I am going to do this, with all this burden, this thing that I love to do, why not do it at the highest level. Why not enjoy it the best way possible."

For nearly 18 years, basketball has been life for The Boy -- it's kept him safe, kept him off the streets and made him who he is. But, this weekend, at the Class C state tournament, that chapter will end, no matter what happens. Of course, The Boy hopes to end that chapter as a two-time state champion Saturday night and if he does, it would be a fitting way to close out his illustrious career as a Box Elder Bear.

Yet, the most interesting and important chapter of The Boy's life is the next one. The pressure on him is and will be great. He will have doubters and obstacles -- but leaders overcome and as MacDonald said, leadership is in Brandon's DNA.

So don't be surprised when The Boy succeeds. And when you think of it, with all that lies ahead, maybe the fact that the Bears and Brandon saw the painting wasn't a coincidence, maybe it was meant to be.

Maybe it was just a small reminder, not only of who he is, but where he comes from and how at his very core, he was made to be different and made to be a champion -- both on the court and off of it.