Northern C Extra: Box Elder's Maddie Wolf Chief fufilling a hoops family legacy

When you look back at the history of Box Elder girls basketball, there have been plenty of sisters who have played for the Bears, but it's hard to say if any group of sisters has played more basketball in Box Elder than the Wolf Chiefs.

Thanks to a group of four sisters, the name Wolf Chief has become synonymous with Box Elder girls basketball. Even though the run of the Wolf Chief sisters will come to an end after this season with Maddie, she said she won't be the last in the bloodline to play basketball.

"I am the last one for about seven years," Wolf Chief said. "My little nieces will be moving up and the oldest one is really into basketball."

With the Wolf Chief sisters, Ariel, Alicia, Arika and Maddie, their first introduction to the game of basketball came at their grandmother's, where they learned the game together growing up.

"We always played a lot of basketball," Wolf Chief said. "We would either be up at my grandma's house or in the street and we would always just play, my brothers and my sisters."

Over the last four years, Maddie, who is the youngest of the four Wolf Chief sisters, has stood out for the Bears. Last season, not only did she earn Second-Team All-Conference honors but she also helped the Box Elder girls win their first state championship in 20 years, since 1997.

"That is what I will always have on them," Wolf Chief said with a chuckle talking about the state championship team she was part of. "Whenever they try to argue, I like to remind them that I am a state champ and they are not."

Two of Maddie's sisters, Alicia Wolf Chief and Arika Wolf Chief got the chance to play together with Box Elder before Arika graduated in 2013. After that, Alicia stepped up and became a top player for the Lady Bears. During the 2013-14 season, she was named All-Conference in the Northern C and helped with the Bears get to the 9C consolation game before losing. Then, as a senior, Alicia was part of starting the postseason run Box Elder is currently on.

During her senior season, the Lady Bears made it to the 9C championship before bowing out at the Northern C Divisional tournament and it would be the first of five consecutive trips to the Four Seasons in Great Falls.

"I remember watching them play a lot of basketball," Maddie Wolf Chief said. "Especially here (Four Seasons) and at districts. That's why I like to be here (Northern C)."

Now, things are reversed for Maddie as she is the one taking the floor in Great Falls this week and during her career, the Bears have been a regular visitor to the Great Falls and the Northern C.

"My sisters support me," Wolf Chief said. "My sister Arika supports me at every game and they try to support me as much as they can."

During Wolf Chief's freshman season, which came in 2015-16, one year after her sister Alicia graduated, the Bears made the Class C state championship after winning the 9C for the first time in a long time. Box Elder would lose the state title game to Belt that season, but the next year, they would win the 9C again before getting knocked out of the Northern C tournament. Last season, however, Wolf Chief was part of a core group of players who helped the Bears complete their quest for a state title inside the Butte Civic Center, knocking off Winnett-Grass Range.

Along with playing for the same school, the Wolf Chief sisters have something else in common and that's an ability to play man-to-man defense. Arikia, Alicia and Ariel Wolf Chief all had a reputation for being strong defenders and that trait was passed along to Maddie, along with a pretty reliable jump shot that she calls upon when needed because while defense may be her strength, over the years, she has developed a solid all-around game.

"I have always felt that I have a big role to fill because they all did something special," Maddie said. "They were all good defensively. Ariel was good offensively, but she was really good on defense because she was tall. Alicia, she was good at defense, too, and at her 3s. I feel like I have brought a lot of their game into mine. I watched them and I learned from them."

When the season ends for Box Elder, it will bring the Wolf Chief era to an end, for now at least. But if it's going to come to an end, a second state championship would be the perfect way to close it out, and while Wolf Chief can't deliver it on her own, she's determined to do everything in her power, just as her sister's taught her.

"I think the biggest thing I learned from them was to play with heart," she said. "They taught me to always try as hard as you can and to always leave it all out on the floor."