BUTTE — Toward the end of his professional basketball career, Josh Huestis knew he wanted to come up with a way to give back to the home state where his journey from high school star to the NBA began.
The product ended up being the Montana Elite Invitational, a showcase of some of the best high school boys and girls basketball players across the Treasure State. The three-day event gives them a chance to both hone their skills and gain some exposure with several college coaches in attendance.
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The MEI wrapped up its fourth year on Memorial Day at Montana Tech's HPER Complex. It was the second straight year that the showcase was held at the HPER.
"When I was in my last couple years of playing I was like, 'This is something that I want to do, an event I wanted to create,'" said Huestis. "What started as just a spitballing idea with some of the coaches that I was friends with has now turned into this really cool deal where I've gotten to see so many players come and go."
A Great Falls CMR product who went on to play for Stanford and then the Oklahoma City Thunder, getting recruited out of one of Montana's largest cities was still a sizable challenge for Huestis.
And his MEI camp is a way to give homegrown players — especially those from Class C towns — an opportunity to gain some exposure as they pursue opportunities at the collegiate level.
"I think Montana basketball is so special, I think the talent here is so overlooked and under appreciated," said Huestis. "When you can get all of these players in the same place and watch them compete against one another, iron sharpens iron. It's a great chance to measure themselves where they're at, identify their weaknesses, their strengths.
"It is a very cool deal. Just giving these kids the opportunity to be seen means the world to me."
