Father and son helping bring family and joy to the HLP community

GREAT FALLS - It has been 10 years since the Hays-Lodge Pole boys basketball team won the Class C state championship. In fact, it's been 10 years since the Thunderbirds have made it to state, but that's something they are hoping to change this season.

After beating Centerville in the quarterfinals of the Northern C Divisional, the T-Birds are just a win or two from the state tournament and if they happen to get there, two of the people most responsible will be senior guard Tyson Shambo and his father, head coach Derrick Shambo.

"It would really mean the world to me," Derrick Shambo said. "But I think it would mean a lot to the community. It would mean a lot to the boys. Obviously, getting to coach my son in a state tournament would be special, but really, it's about the whole community."

For both Derrick and Tyson Shambo, winning a state championship or just getting to the state tournament would be the realization of a dream that has been years in the making. Derrick has been the head coach of the T-Birds since last February, when he took the job on in an interim role. The 2016-17 season was his first full season on the job,

However, Derrick Shambo has been coaching his son Tyson and many of his teammates for a lot longer. And now that Tyson gets his dad on the sidelines fulltime, instead of just in the summer, it's a blessing, and sometimes a curse.

"It's great having my dad as the coach," Tyson Shambo said. "But he can be hard on me. He's harder on me than some of the other guys, but it has been great to share this with him. But the great thing about him, is that he treats everyone like they are family. He spends time getting to know all the guys, on the court and off it and I think that's what creates that family atmosphere."

For his part, Tyson Shambo has been a big part of the HLP basketball revival that has taken place the past few seasons. As a sophomore, Shambo earned Class C All-State honors and was named All-Conference as a junior, even though he missed part of the season due to a non-basketball related injury.

Shambo's sophomore season, the T-Birds made it the semifinals of the Northern C, before they were defeated by Belt and eventually knocked out by Box Elder. Then, during his junior year, the T-Birds made divisionals again, but failed to reach the consolation game or championship for the second straight year.

Yet, this season, thanks to Derrick Shambo, HLP got steady leadership from its head-coaching position and it paid off in a big way this past summer, as the Shambo's along with the rest of the T-Birds played all over the state, working to improve and help their team reach the next level.

"The offseason, I think that was a big key for us," Derrick Shambo said. "We worked a lot and spent a lot of time playing basketball all over the place and I think that really helped us come together and grow as a family."

So far, the hard work and dedication of Derrick and Tyson Shambo, along with that of the entire HLP program has paid huge dividends. The T-Birds are 20-2 on the season. They finished with the best regular-season record in the District 9C, before losing the tournament championship to Box Elder.

But even with that loss, the T-Birds control their own destiny for the state tournament and if they can get there, it would be significant for the entire community, but it would mean even more to the father-son tandem of Derrick and Tyson Shambo, who have seemingly spent a lifetime working towards that goal.

"It would mean everything to me," Tyson Shambo said. "Not just to share it with my dad, but with my best friends too. Not many guys get to play with their best friends, but in Hays (Lodge-Pole) we have a pretty small community and we all know each other. So it would mean a lot to me, but I also want to do it for our fans. They are here supporting us if we are winning or if we are losing, they are still cheering. So I want to do it, not just for me or for my dad, but for the entire community."

HLP will play Chinook tonight in the Northern C semifinals at 5:30. If the T-Birds win, they will play either Box Elder or Belt for the divisional title Saturday night at 8.