FRENCHTOWN — It would not be the start of basketball season without the Western A Tip-Off, where each team gets its first look at the competition for the season.
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Basketball has returned to Montana as 13 Western schools — and one East team, Lewistown — meet at Frenchtown High School for an early season tournament.
Along with being some of the first games of the year for some teams, Frenchtown athletic director Eli Field says it is also a place to get a feel for the competition they will face throughout the season.
“Everybody gets to be in the same spot at the same time,” Field said. “You can watch everybody play, so you kind of get an idea of where you're at at the beginning of the year, and then you can head off into Christmas break with the idea of, 'What do we got to work on? Whose level are we trying to reach?' Things like that.”
While the competition is intense at the tip-off, Columbia Falls boys coach Chris Finberg says the support from the schools that travel to the tournament is seen in the number of spectators and teams who stick around and watch the matchups.
“The basketball community is actually a pretty small community, and you go to these games, and you see the same faces, familiar faces year in and year out,” Finberg said. “It's just a cool deal to see the support that Montanans bring to high school basketball, and it's fun to be a part of.”
For some teams, this tournament is an opportunity to get past the first-game jitters in a big tournament setting.
That is what Polson girls coach Brandie Buckless said her team got out of the first game of the tournament.
“The younger players, it's always a big deal to play in their first varsity game,” Buckless said. “This kind of environment is fun with so many teams and the crowd and stuff, so it's a good way to kind of get going, see you know which group of players work well together.”
The Western A Tip-off continues through Saturday at Frenchtown High.
