BUTTE — The Montana Tech women's basketball season came up one win short of seeing the Orediggers advance to the NAIA national championship final site in Sioux, City, Iowa, but this campaign will be talked about for a long time.
Tech emerged as Frontier Conference Tournament champions for the first time since 1983 and then went on to win its first ever national tournament game. Last season, the Orediggers were picked to finish last in the league in the preseason poll.
The most iconic moment of this memorable campaign was delivered by Tech sophomore and Butte Central product Brooke Badovinac, who in the tournament championship against Dakota State delivered a go-ahead triple to help seal one of the biggest wins in this program's history.
WATCH THE VIDEO:
To give some perspective on how impressive Tech's turnaround has been under fourth-year head coach Jeff Graham, consider this — Badovinac's redshirt season, the Orediggers won a total of three Frontier Conference games.
Having a hand in this team's transformation has been a tremendous source of pride for the hometown product.
"It's meant everything to be part of the journey," said Badovinac. "Where we started to where we ended up in that conference championship. We've grown so much."
An exercise and health science major, Badovinac has a few years of undergraduate studies left before her career goal of becoming a sports psychologist will compel her to leave Butte for the first time to pursue graduate school.
Born and raised in the Mining City, Badovinac noted it'll be hard to depart her hometown — even if its just for a few years.
"I don't think many people from the outside point of view understand the Butte community, but once you're in the amount of love and support you get — not even just in sports — this community backs you 100 percent," said Badovinac.
And as an aspiring sports psychologist, her ambition is to help athletes deal with the unique pressures they face. She first developed an interest in the subject while a student-athlete at Butte Central playing for longtime Maroons coach Meg Murphy.
"It felt like a passion," said Badovinac. "I found out what it's about, what it does. And I just have a passion for helping people."
And after being involved in sports most of her life, she knows full well the challenges that athletes face as they work to balance school, athletics and life.
"You show up each and every day with one goal and sometimes when that doesn't happen your way it's really mentally draining and emotionally draining," she said."
She has a few years to determine where she'll pursue her graduate studies at, but while they may take her away from her home state, there's one thing she's certain of.
"I"ll always come back to Butte, at least to Montana," she said.
