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Growth and Pride have helped push Box Elder to new heights
Box Elder's fans had a lot to cheer about this past school year as the Bears played in three different Class C state championship games. The hope is now that younger Bears will build on recent athletic accomplishments.
Box Elder's Neil Rosette Jr., left, serves as the school's head football coach and athletic director. Rosette, also an alumnus of Box Elder, has seen Bears' athletics thrive in recent years, all while Box Elder continues to grow as a school and as a community.
Exciting things have been happening to Box Elder athletics over the past few years. However, the Bears also have a promising future on the horizon and the man in charge of it all is athletic director Neil Rosette Jr.
Rosette Jr., who just completed his second full year as athletic director in Box Elder, has a unique role within Bears’ athletics, as he is both the AD and the co-head coach of the football team, along with Joel Rosette.
Under the direction of Rosette Jr. and Rosette, the Bears football program reached new heights this past season, making the playoffs for the first time in decades and playing in a state championship football game for the first time in the school’s history.
The Bears didn’t win that championship game, they lost it to Denton-Geyser-Stanford. But that was just the beginning of a memorable year, one that has been in the making for quite some time.
“The kids have really committed and they put in a lot of hard work over the years,” Rosette Jr. said. “It was something that didn't happen over night. They worked in the offseason, got in the weight room, worked hard in the classroom. They made a goal for themselves and they worked to achieve it.”
It’s always a big deal when a school plays for a state championship, but when it does three times in the same athletic calendar, it’s not just impressive, it’s historic. Yet, that’s exactly what Box Elder achieved.
Following the great run from the football team, the boys and girls basketball teams added their own magical runs into the mix. The boys team, which captured the Class C state championship in 2014, capped a 26-1 season as they won their second title in three years.
The very next weekend, the Box Elder girls, which had just made it back to state for the first time since 1998, made it all the way to championship game before the Lady Bears’ dream died against Belt.
The Bears also managed to score seven points in the Class C state track meet, all of which were scored by senior Shane Ketchum.
“One of the biggest challenges we face in our area is keeping kids motivated to come to school,” Rosette Jr. said. “Sports are a great way of doing that. The more sports we can offer the better it is for our students. And I think the success that these kids have had, kids like Brandon The Boy, that makes a big difference. The younger kids know who those guys are, they know what they are about.”
As Rosette Jr. said, offering as many sports as possible is key and it's also become a focus. The idea has also been a success as Box Elder competed in varsity cross country last year and will complete in golf in 2016-17.
“We didn't have really big numbers, but we had some kids run at state last year,” Rosette Jr. said. “And we filed our paperwork and paid our dues to the MHSA for golf. We are looking for a golf coach as we speak.”
Like many places in Montana, the community of Box Elder is pretty invested in its athletic programs. But with the school based just outside the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation, the level of pride goes to a whole another height.
That passion and the cultural identity that Bears’ fans bring to the table is one of the best things about attending a sporting event in Box Elder. Whether it’s for a football game in freezing cold temperatures or a basketball game going on in the middle of a blizzard, the folks of Box Elder turn out to see their Bears.
“Sports can be a really uplifting thing in this community,” Rosette Jr. said. “It gives people something to look forward to and it’s just really awesome to have the community come out and support us the way they do. Some people can't afford to go to a basketball game, but they might spend their last few bucks going to see the Bears.”
While Box Elder sports are currently thriving, in today’s world of high school athletics, with unpredictable enrollments and often diminishing numbers of participants, long-term success is far from a guarantee for any school.
However, unlike many schools, Box Elder has actually seen its enrollment grow, so much that it has had to deal with its own classification issues as the football team was supposed to be moving up to play Class C 8-Man football next season, after years of playing Six-Man.
“We have grown and we are continuing to grow,” Rosette Jr. said. “We have an eighth-grade class coming in this year with almost 40 kids. So we are looking in a few years at maybe going up to Class B. We may not stay there, but that's the way it's looking.”
In the end, thanks to participation numbers, Box Elder was able to win an appeal that will allow the Bears to continue to play Six-Man football, for now at least.
“It really came down to numbers,” Rosette Jr said. “We started last season with eight players. We had some others come after the season started, but we actually had seven in our first game."
The interesting thing for Box Elder will be whether or not it can maintain its current momentum in athletics. Not only are the Bears getting more competitive in just about every sport, more and more student-athletes are going to college because of it.
This spring alone, four Box Elder students secured college scholarships to play sports as Brandon The Boy, Jerrod Four Colors and Tyrah Gopher will all play college basketball, while Bodis Duran will play college football. Shane Ketchum, another Box Elder standout, will likely compete at the Frontier Conference level in either football or track as well.
Of course, having great facilities never hurts and when it comes to Class C schools, the Bears are pretty fortunate. Box Elder may not have the biggest gym or football stadium, but on game day, the atmosphere is unique. And when it comes to weight rooms, the Bears’ facility has to be among the best in Class C throughout the state.
“The weight room has made a really big difference,” Rosette Jr. said. “Kids have gotten in there and really worked on their strength and conditioning. They have taken advantage of it and it has definitely paid off for us.”
Still, Rosette Jr., who talks a lot about “Bear Pride” is faced with the challenge of keeping the positive momentum flowing forward. The progress has been seen in each and every sport over the past few years, even the volleyball team has gotten better, but the question is, can the success be maintained?
With leaders like Jeremy MacDonald, who coached the Bears to each of their Class C basketball championships and Rosette, who leads the girls basketball team in addition to be co-head football coach with Rosette Jr., the infrastructure is in place.
The hope is that after enjoying some of the most successful years in the school’s athletic history, younger generations will be inspired to follow in the footsteps of recent Box Elder success stories like The Boy and Four Colors.
To those that have and will stand out on the playing field for Box Elder over the next few years, being a Bear means more than just playing a sport or being on a team. It’s a philosophy, that stresses victory in life and in the classroom, as much as on the field.
Behind that ideal and the philosophy of hard work, Box Elder is building something special, and it’s something each and every Bear should be proud to be apart of.
Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of question and answer sessions with local high school and college athletic directors about the state of athletics in Havre and the surrounding areas. For part two in the series, see Friday's Havre Daily News.
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