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Warm up the bus: Baker owns longest road trip of first round

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BAKER – High school football teams in the Eastern and Western ends of the state are already accustomed to long road trips for games. But when the playoffs begin, those distances and travel times are supercharged.

Just ask the Baker Spartans.

After finishing fourth in the Eastern B, the state playoff bracket dictates that they must travel to face the No. 1 seed out of the Western B division. That team happens to be the Eureka Lions who finished the regular season 8-0.

Eureka also happens to be 667 miles away from Baker in the Northwest corner of Montana, which means the Spartans have by far the longest trip among travelling teams in the first round of the high school football playoffs.

The Spartans face a trip that will take approximately 10 hours, 45 mins one way by car according to Google Maps. Of course, that doesn’t account for pit stops, practice time, road conditions or the usual road trip setbacks.

If one travelled the same distance on the East coast, you could drive from Portland, Maine to Richmond, Virginia and pass through 11 states in the same amount of time.

Point being: Montana is very large, and getting from point A to point B often takes a very long time. Long road trips are nothing new and travelling across the state for a playoff game sure beats staying home during the postseason!

Below is a breakdown of every road trip in the first round of the high school football playoffs separated by Classification.

CLASS AA
GAME
DISTANCE
TIME
Missoula Big Sky at Bozeman

207 miles

3 hours, 26 mins

Great Falls CMR at Helena High

91 miles

1 hour, 36 mins

Missoula Hellgate at Billings

343 miles

5 hours, 13 mins

Billings Skyview at Missoula

348 miles

5 hours, 26 mins

Kalispell Glacier at Great Falls

227 miles

3 hours, 49 mins

Belgrade at Helena Capital

89 miles

1 hour, 33 mins

Kalispell Flathead at Billings

448 miles

7 hours, 1 min

AVERAGE

250.4 mi

3 hours, 45 mins

CLASS A
GAME
DISTANCE
TIME
Whitefish at Frenchtown

129 mi

2 hours, 23 mins

Glendive at Billings Central

222 mi

3 hours, 16 mins

Lewistown at Havre

177 mi

2 hours, 49 mins

Butte Central at Libby

308 mi

5 hours, 3 mins

AVERAGE

209 mi

3 hours, 23 mins

CLASS B
GAME
DISTANCE
TIME
Townsend at Fairfield

118 mi

1 hour, 54 mins

Shepherd at Florence

381 mi

5 hours, 55 mins

Cut Bank at Manhattan

269 mi

4 hours, 6 mins

Missoula Loyola at Huntley Project

365 mi

5 hours, 26 mins

Baker at Eureka

667 mi

10 hours, 45 mins

Glasgow at Columbus

321 mi

4 hours, 59 mins

Bigfork at Red Lodge

435 mi

6 hours, 53 mins

Jefferson at Malta

319 mi

5 hours, 5 mins

AVERAGE

359.4 mi

5 hours, 38 mins

8-MAN
GAME
DISTANCE
TIME
Choteau at Fairview

447 mi

7 hours, 5 mins

Twin Bridges at Thompson Falls

264 mi

4 hours, 17 mins

Culbertson at Fort Benton

333 mi

5 hours, 20 mins

St. Ignatius at Park City

326 mi

5 hours, 35 mins

Shelby at Alberton-Superior

280 mi

4 hours, 28 mins

Belt at Scobey

359 mi

5 hours, 49 mins

Flint Creek at W. Yellowstone

215 mi

3 hours, 33 mins

Ekalaka at Great Falls Central

430 mi

6 hours, 44 mins

AVERAGE

331.8 mi

5 hours, 21 mins

6-MAN
GAME
DISTANCE
TIME
Harlowton-Ryegate at Hot Springs

317 mi

5 hours, 20 mins

Westby-Grenora at Power-Dutton-Brady

455 mi

7 hours, 18 mins

Geraldine-Highwood at Shields Valley

184 mi

3 hours, 11 mins

Denton-Geyser-Stanford at Wibaux

333 mi

5 hours, 7 mins

North Star at Jordan

292 mi

4 hours, 27 mins

White Sulphur Springs at Bridger

177 mi

2 hours, 48 mins

Richey-Lambert at Big Sandy

348 mi

5 hours, 33 mins

Roy-Winifred at Noxon

448 mi

7 hours, 32 mins

AVERAGE

319.6 mi

5 hours, 9 mins