Filius family hoops

Family often times is an athlete's greatest inspiration. It's certainly been that way for Sadie Filius.

Filius has been a force for the Havre High girls basketball team this season. Along with averaging 8.7 points a game this year, FIlius is averaging five rebounds a contest and leads the team with 58 assists this year. The senior, a three-time Class A All-State performer, has helped the Blue Ponies reach new heights and qualify for the Class A State Tournament in Missoula next week.

Once her high school career is over, Filius will carry on the family tradition of playing college basketball. Her mom, aunt and older sister all played college ball for Montana State University-Northern, so playing at the next level has always been a dream for Sadie.

"Since my mom and my sister played in college, I just always had that goal since I was a little kid," Filius said. "I just got into the gym really young and fell in love with it and kept at it."

Her most recent relative to play college ball, her older sister Peyton Bartel, played for the Skylights from 2014-19. During that time, Sadie accompanied Bartel to her workouts, starting her path towards her own college career.

"That's how we spent a lot of time together, hanging out in the gym," Bartel, who also won a state championship under head coach Dustin Kraske back in 2014, said. "We just had a lot of fun working out and shooting together so she ended up doing college workouts when she was in middle school and she loved it."

Getting to see her sister achieve her dreams motivated Sadie to work hard herself to become a better basketball player.

"It really influenced me to see how hard my sister worked to get there. I knew I had to work hard," Sadie said. "(I learned) to just work hard at whatever you're doing and not give up in times of difficulty."

Sadie and her sister grew up in a basketball family as their mother, Kari, and aunt, Kim, both played for the Skylights from 1989-93, so basketball has been a huge part of Sadie's life.

"Basketball has just always been fun and a big part of what I did and I wanted my girls to be exposed to it," Kari Filius said. "I taught them the fundamentals when they were little and then worked with them with travel basketball and they just picked it up real easy and got really good at it."

Even during holiday breaks from school, Sadie would work hard by playing basketball with her family to stay in form. Along with her mother and sister, Sadie's father and brother helped her work out throughout her childhood. In an environment that supported her basketball endeavors, it was easy for Sadie to catch on quickly.

"Her being in the gym all the time, she really got excited about it early and she was really competitive as a little girl and just wanted to be the best," Kari, who has been a longtime coach at the Havre Middle School said. "She was really competitive when she was little and tried to get there as quickly as she could."

If there is a family trend that Sadie is going to buck, it's that she is going to play college ball at Carroll College instead of MSU-N. Since Sadie will be playing for a Frontier Conference rival, it should add to the family rivalry.

"We tease her a little bit," Bartel said. "Of course, we would love to watch her be at Northern and play in Havre but we're really excited for her to branch out and do her own thing."

Sadie's academic interests were in the medical field, so she was looking for a good fit for that along with basketball. Sadie eventually met Carroll head coach Rachelle Sayers which allowed her to get to know the program better. After visiting the campus in Helena, Sadie knew it was a good fit for her in terms of basketball and education.

Next week, Sadie and the Blue Ponies will try to repeat as state champions. After that, Sadie will head to Helena to join the Fighting Saints' program. Bartel believes that when Sadie laces up for the Saints, she will be in a good position to carry on the family legacy in college basketball.

"She's just so smart. You can tell that she understands the game so well," Bartel said. "She's going to step right into college and not have quite as big of a learning curve as I did just because she's been around the game for so long. We're just super proud of her and I think she's going to do great things in college."

While college ball is a whole other level then high school basketball, Kari believes her daughter is ready for it and all the adversity it brings.

"She's a really good leader. She has a lot of composure in difficult situations and she doesn't get too rattled," Kari said. "She leads by example and she plays hard all the time. She doesn't get too worried about things when they're not going right and keeps working hard."

As she begins college ball and carries on the family tradition, Sadie is just happy to get to play more basketball.

"(I look forward to) just being able to continue to do what I love and know that it'll be harder and just another challenge."

With all that Sadie has put in, starting with looking up to the women in her family, she'll no doubt be ready for that challenge.