THREE FORKS – The Three Forks girls basketball team celebrated its state title with a little help from classmates and the fire department on Tuesday.
Hundreds crowded the streets outside the Three Forks school to cheer on the Wolves as they paraded their Class B girls basketball state title around town for the first time since 1979. The players sat on top of firetrucks and drove down Main Street. For senior Shainy Mack, this championship brings the title and the 1979 championship full circle.
“The last team (that won the state title), my mom was actually on it and now it’s kind of special for me and her to both have it,” said Mack. “She was super excited. A couple of her teammates were there from ’79 and she got a bunch of texts from them just saying, ‘Good job,’ and how proud they were of us.”
Members of the 1979 team aren’t the only fans proud. Students from the elementary schools stayed after class to send off the team as it boarded the firetrucks. The Wolves have a sincere appreciation for the deep basketball roots in Three Forks, and this title was to honor those fans.
“It just makes it so much more, it’s not just for yourself,” said junior Kyle Olson. “It’s a team sport, it’s for everyone. And just seeing that it really was for everyone – all the thumbs up and all the cheers we got – just really meant a lot.”
“I love seeing all the community support we get, like all the little kids cheering, because someday they will be there and hopefully they’ll get to share one of those moments,” said senior Morgan Allen.
And the girls on the team have been waiting for this very moment.
“We’ve dreamed of this for two or four years,” said Allen. “And just to have it happen was unbelievable and so exciting.”
2018 has just begun, but it has been a great ending for Three Forks girls basketball — an undefeated season, a town united in celebration, and another year that will be forever enshrined in Wolves history.
