Honored to play in the Shrine Game, Havre's Kellen Detrick made the most out of a crazy senior year

Before he heads off to play football at the University of Montana this fall, former Havre High star Kellen Detrick will first play in the infamous Montana East-West Shrine game this Saturday.

This all-star game will see the best high school football players from across the state gather in Billings, so Detrick is excited to be a member of the East team's roster.

"It's going to be awesome. It's an honor to be selected to play in such a big game," Detrick said from practice earlier this week in Billings.

Detrick believes playing in the East-West Shrine game will help prepare him for college football as he will face off against the best players in the state. He also looks forward to getting to know the other players.

"I hope to meet a bunch of new friends," Detrick said. "Hopefully just do good individually and be able to improve as a player and ready myself for college football."

Detrick will play defensive end at the all-star game this weekend. Other players on the East roster include Carson Hunter from Miles City and Marcus Wittman from Billings Central who will both play quarterback. Jace Thompson of Fort Benton will also play on the East team as an outside linebacker. The The East team's head coach will be John Fitzgerald from Red Lodge and Jory Thompson from Fort Benton will serve as an assistant coach.

Detrick and the East team will play against the West team who will be coached by Dane Oliver of Missoula Sentinel. The team's quarterbacks are Dayton Bay of Missoula Sentinel and Colter Janacaro of Missoula Big Sky.

As a defensive end, Detrick will be going against some of the best offensive linemen that Montana high school football has to offer. Some guards he will face off with include Lucas Thacker of Columbia Falls, Hudson Vegeron of Hamilton and Ty Raiha of Butte. He might also have to beat tackles such as Rocco Beccari of Kalispell Glacier, Tyler Burrows of Hamilton and Judson Seliskar of Helena High.

After this weekend, Detrick will next play football when he heads off to the University of Montana this fall. With his post-high school career just starting, Detrick is focused on continuing to improve as a player and get to know his teammates.

"I look forward to getting better as a football player and as a student-athlete all around and meeting a bunch of new guys and making new friendships," Detrick said of his near future with the Griz.

As he begins to move onto the next chapter of his life, Detrick reflected on his time at Havre High. He appreciated his football coach Ryan Gatch and basketball coach WaLynn Burgess for helping him become the athlete he is. Detrick earned two-way Class A All-State honors in football this past fall, then went on to once again be an All-State hoops player for the Ponies, where he averaged 16 points and eight rebounds a game. And even with a senior year that was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Detrick believes he made the best of it.

"It was a crazy year," Detrick said. "It was a great year to finish it out. I had some of that COVID stuff I had to deal with and my team had to deal with but we made the best out of it and I made an endless amount of memories over my four years and I couldn't be anymore grateful."

The next chapter of Detrick's life will take place in Missoula, a city with a population seven times that of Havre. Even though he looks forward to his time there, he will miss the tight-knit Blue Pony community that always supported him.

"I'm going to miss the people," Detrick said. "Everybody knows everybody and the city's always got your back."