Chester native Jeff Graham is Montana Tech women's hoops' new head coach

The Montana Tech women’s basketball program has a new head coach, and once again, the Orediggers went with a Hi-Line star from Chester,

Tech announced Monday it had hired Belt head girls basketball coach Jeff Graham as its new women’s basketball coach. Graham is originally from Chester, and also spent time playing sports at Montana State University-Northern.

At Belt, Graham led the Huskies to six Class C state championships, seven Northern C championships and 11 8C titles in 15 years.

Graham was also the head football coach at Belt for the last 15 seasons, head track coach for nine years, and the Athletic Director since 2012. Graham’s Huskies posted an 89-51 record on the gridiron including four divisional championships.

At Chester, Graham led the state in scoring as a junior before playing basketball in the Frontier Conference from 2001-2006. He played at Montana Western, Carroll College and Northern.

Previously, Graham served as an assistant coach for the University of Providence during the 2006-07 season and recruited many of the players who went on to break the school record for wins in the 2008 season.

“I am incredibly excited for this opportunity at Montana Tech and to join the great group of coaches that Digger Athletics has,” Graham said in a press release.. “It has always been my dream to coach at the collegiate level and to get the chance to do so in a community like Butte is very special.

Graham replaces Carly (VanDyke) Sanon, who retired earlier this year. She, like Graham, is also a Chester native.