BILLINGS — It was the final play of Laurel's 34-0 trouncing of rival Billings Central in the 2020 Class A state championship football game.
With the outcome decided, Locomotives linebacker Shel Osborne, a junior, was trying to signal to the sideline for the coaches to sub him out and allow one of the younger players to get some title-game experience. But he was too late.
The ball was snapped, Osborne bore down on a Central ball carrier and ... bam. Blown knee.
Osborne lay on the turf as his teammates began celebrating Laurel's first championship in 18 years.
"Ironic — funny, ironic, whatever you want to say," Osborne told MTN Sports. "I tackled the guy way too high, I got blown back and my knee caught. That's just the way she goes.
"But I guess it was just part of the journey of how I ended up here."
"Here" is Dickinson State University, where Osborne is now a fifth-year senior and a linebacker for the Blue Hawks. A leader on defense, Osborne has turned into what DSU coach Pete Stanton said is one of the team's most valuable players on and off the field.
But Osborne wasn't totally committed to playing football in college when his high school career ended, and that knee injury didn't do him any favors.
He missed basketball that winter and spent months rehabbing, eventually returning for his senior football season. But it wasn't exactly the same.
"It felt really weird the first couple games. I wasn't quite myself," Osborne said. "It took me, I'd say, the first quarter of the season until I felt like I was playing like I was my junior year."
One college that had identified Osborne as a potential recruit was Dickinson State in North Dakota, a program coached by a Baker native in Stanton and a team that's found tons of success with Montana players with a core recruiting footprint that canvases Billings to Bismarck.
Even after Osborne's injury, the Blue Hawks didn't lose interest.
"One of the first things we're going to do is recruit character, and Shel fits that mold," Stanton said.
Still, Osborne chose not to pursue football. He instead enrolled at Montana State Billings as a regular student. No pads, no playbook.
That's when he came to a realization. Osborne's football itch continued to nag at him until he eventually made a call to Dickinson State defensive coordinator Jason Thier to express his interest in returning to the gridiron for the 2023 season.
"All my buddies from the Shrine Game, kids in my grade, they were all at fall camp," Osborne said. "I was just at home working before school started, and it was like, ‘I should be at fall camp.’
"It didn’t feel like football should be over yet. After a while I just felt like something was missing, so that’s when I reached out to coach Thier."
It was a fortuitous decision for both Osborne and Dickinson State. In 28 games during the past three seasons — with four starts — Osborne has racked up 73 total tackles (37 solo) with 12 tackles for loss and three quarterback sacks.
Osborne is a self-described old-school, hard-nosed defender who takes pride in doing the dirty work in the box and setting edges in the run game as the team's "Zeke" linebacker. But the stats only tell part of the story.
"Shel is just an outstanding individual," Stanton said. "He’s a guy that does everything right for us. He’s just very steady, and he’s a guy that our guys really, really admire."
Osborne said his leadership style is borrowed from the people who guided him, from longtime Laurel teacher and coach Jim O’Neil to former Blue Hawk standouts Braden Zuroff and Brandon Bennick.
And Osborne's presence is key for a program that last year transitioned from the North Star Athletic Association to the rugged Frontier Conference.
The Blue Hawks dominated the NSAA, capturing 10 consecutive conference titles between 2015 and 2024. But last year in the Frontier the team fell on tough times, finishing 3-7 while at one point losing four consecutive one-score games in Frontier play.
"We just have to play smarter football," Osborne said. "Coach Stanton has harped on that — how many games we could’ve, should’ve won. All the little mistakes matter and they add up.
"In the Frontier, you’ve got to bring it every week and prepare like it’s a championship game. If you don’t, you’re going to get beat."
Even through the growing pains in the Frontier, Osborne said the benchmarks that helped produce those 10 straight NSAA titles at Dickinson State are the same.
"Our standards in the locker room, how we carry ourselves, how practice goes — they didn’t change," he said. "Last year we were a little bit younger, so we just have to fall back to those standards and make sure we’re executing them every day."
Off the field, Osborne already has his next chapter lined out. He graduated in the spring with a degree in accounting and is working toward his MBA with plans to join his father's ag business in Laurel.
But before that happens he is intent on helping the Blue Hawks reestablish themselves as an NAIA power and make amends for last season's shortcomings.
Stanton, for one, knows the impact Osborne can have in that effort.
"He just brings a calming presence to our team and is very, very mature beyond his years," Stanton said.
"He could have actually been done because he’s done such a good job in school, but he’s starting in on a master’s degree program, and we said, ‘Hey, let’s just finish things up. We didn’t have the season we wanted to have last year, and you’re going to be a big part of it and a big leader in the offseason for it.'"
Osborne and the Blue Hawks begin the 2026 season on Thursday night on the road against Frontier foe Valley City State (N.D.).
