9C Extra: Sisterhood, dedication lifting HLP up

Cory Morgan did his time. He did everything he could and gave everything he had to help the Hays-Lodge Pole girls basketball team once before. But no matter the effort, success in girls hoops at HLP just never came, and especially not in the ways the boys program has seen over the years.

So, when he was asked to come back and take back the girls program in Hays a few years ago, he decided to have a meeting. He needed to know the players he'd be coaching were going to give as much as he does.

Thursday afternoon at the 9C girls tournament, in front of a roaring crowd inside the Havre High gymnasium, it was obvious that the results of that meeting three years ago had come to fruition.

"When they asked me to come back and coach three years ago, I met with all the girls right away," Morgan said after HLP's thrilling win over Box Elder in the 9C opener. "Before that school year was even over, I told them they had to decide to be dedicated. They had to put in the work and make an effort to be all in. I guess, we decided right then, we weren't interested in being just a mediocre basketball team anymore."

Of course, from where they started to where they are now, it took time. The last two years, HLP was considered a very young team, and even now, they boast just one senior. But that senior says her Thunderbirds are thriving now because of what they're doing behind the scenes, and because of how much they believe.

"We've put in the effort," Mulleah Stiffarm said Thursday. "We've worked hard, we've spent time in the summers, and we've become a family. We took the time to get to know each other, and come together. We wanted to come together to achieve these goals and that's what we're doing now."

The hard work didn't pay off right away. But it was visible. By last season, the T-Birds were no longer a 9C doormat and had finally gotten the burden of not winning a game at the 9C tourney off their back.

One year later, though, and HLP is much more than just a team on the rise. With Stiffarm, and juniors like Ella Messerly, Kassi Perez, Sierra Chandler, sophomores Judemia Gray and Jaedyn Chandler, as well as standout Tahtianna Morgan, the T-Birds are tough, talented and, for the first time in a long time, deep.

"I think we finally have the experience we haven't had in the past," Morgan said. "We also have kids who believe. They know they've worked hard for this, and they believe that hard work will pay off."

It is. HLP is in the midst of its first winning season in decades. The T-Birds are also just one win away from something that hasn't happened in 32 years - making it to the Northern C, which Morgan said, has been a goal this season all along.

"1987 was the last time a girls team from Hays-Lodge Pole went to divisionals," Morgan said. "That hangs over our heads for sure. And it's a goal for us. And we believe it's an attainable goal."

The T-Birds certainly have put themselves in position to play next week in Great Falls, and even if it doesn't work out against unbeaten Fort Benton tonight, they'll still have that shot.

Yes, no matter what happens, HLP is already a success story. When you haven't won much for as long as HLP has went without feeling that type of success, just having the season the T-Birds have had is a huge step.

And it's a step that was first taken with a meeting three years ago, and one that came to fruition through hard work, and the bonds of teammates who have grown to believe, and grown to care for each other.

"We're a family now," Stiffarm said. "We love each other. We are together on and off the court. We're all sisters."

With how good the T-Birds are playing right now, don't be surprised of the HLP sisters are playing in Great Falls this time next week. But, win or lose, the T-Birds aren't rising anymore, they've risen.