COLUMBIA FALLS — For the 13th time in school history, the Frenchtown Broncs are state softball champions, breaking the tie with Florence for most state softball titles in Montana.
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The Broncs breezed through the state tournament with dominant pitching performances and great offense.
Coming into this season, Frenchtown head coach Eli Field knew he had a young and talented team, but he also realized he needed to teach his players how to have a winning mentality.
“We kind of felt coming into the year we needed to reset our culture a little bit and we asked them to do some things from day one,” Field said. “They bought in and we worked on our mental game and we worked on a lot of visualization techniques because we're young, we're really young.”
Some of the veteran players, like senior Bailey Hansen, were skeptical at first about this new approach, but with time, the mental preparation became as important as the physical.
“We sit down, take a few minutes and have a minute to ourselves, and we go through our heads step by step of infield, hitting, everything,” Hansen said. “It just really helped me and the team visualize everything that's going to happen, and bad moments and good moments, and I think that's what got us through this whole entire state in the year.”
The Broncs had many good moments in the tournament, with a near-perfect game from Ryan Lucier, great defense and multiple rallies.
But if you ask the players what sparked these moments, some of them might tell you about two rubber chickens in the dugout.
“They’re our rally chickens. They travel with us and they get us hyped,” Hansen said. “When Ryan hits a home run or someone, we squeeze the chickens and we go on to the next place. So, they're amazing.”
Whether it was the chickens or the team’s sheer talent, Lucier said a big reason for this team’s success was due to their chemistry.
“We all feel just so together, and I feel like you can see it out on the field — how we play and how we just act around together, ” Lucier said. “I think that just makes it so special that we won with our best friends.”
