CMR

[John K]

The Great Falls schools are shrinking. So is Butte. Bozeman will need another high school within 10 years. Belgrade will AA within 10 years. Billings is about ready for a fourth high school and Helena is closing in on needing a third.

Based upon 2012-13 enrollment, the combined total for the two GF schools is almost identical to the two Helena schools. CMR is 1,510 and GFH is 1,490 for a total of exactly 3,000, while CHS is 1,363 and HHS is 1,624, for a total of 2,987. Belgrade is far and away the largest A school at 849, followed by CF at 692, Laurel at 611, and Havre at 556. It's no wonder that the Eastern AA tends to dominate Western AA in most sports, since 6 of the 8 largest schools are in the East division, while 5 of the 6 smallest are in the West division. Here are the enrollments for all AA schools.

1. West - 1,973
2. Bozeman - 1,909
3. Senior - 1,689
4. Helena - 1,624
5. Skyview - 1,578
6. Flathead - 1,555
7. CMR - 1,510
8. Great Falls - 1,490
9. Capital - 1,363
10. Butte - 1,288
11. Glacier - 1,273
12. Hellgate - 1,255
13. Sentinel - 1,166
14. Big Sky - 1,024

[John K]

A couple of other interesting tidbits from looking at enrollments for various schools, and proving that enrollment is not always a predictor of athletic success, or lack therof...

Butte Central has only 142 students, which puts it barely above the cutoff for Class B/C, let alone Class A/B, and yet they generally have very competitive sports teams, particularly in football. Their enrollment is less than half that of Glendive, which is the next smallest A school at 319, and approximately 1/6 that of Belgrade, the largest A school. Fairfield has only 109 students, which puts it well below the cutoff for Class B/C, and their teams are always among the best in Class B in virtually every sport. They are tied with Broadus as the smallest B school in the state, and their enrollment is about 1/3 that of Ronan, which is the largest B school.

[LTown Cat]

A couple of other interesting tidbits from looking at enrollments for various schools, and proving that enrollment is not always a predictor of athletic success, or lack therof...

Butte Central has only 142 students, which puts it barely above the cutoff for Class B/C, let alone Class A/B, and yet they generally have very competitive sports teams, particularly in football. Fairfield has only 109 students, which puts it well below the cutoff for Class B/C, and their teams are always among the best in Class B in virtually every sport.

Dillon is among the smallest A schools and is a class A powerhouse.

[John K]

A couple of other interesting tidbits from looking at enrollments for various schools, and proving that enrollment is not always a predictor of athletic success, or lack therof...

Butte Central has only 142 students, which puts it barely above the cutoff for Class B/C, let alone Class A/B, and yet they generally have very competitive sports teams, particularly in football. Fairfield has only 109 students, which puts it well below the cutoff for Class B/C, and their teams are always among the best in Class B in virtually every sport.

Dillon is among the smallest A schools and is a class A powerhouse.

Billings Central (329) is slightly smaller even than Dillon (355), and probably has the best overall Class A sports program. They won the GF Tribune All-Sports trophy last year, which I believe was only the 3rd time that a AA school didn't win it. Although neither of them are really significantly smaller than the median enrollment for Class A schools, which is 438. They aren't at the very bottom for their classification, as are Butte Central and Fairfield.

[ilovethecats]

A couple of other interesting tidbits from looking at enrollments for various schools, and proving that enrollment is not always a predictor of athletic success, or lack therof...

Butte Central has only 142 students, which puts it barely above the cutoff for Class B/C, let alone Class A/B, and yet they generally have very competitive sports teams, particularly in football. Fairfield has only 109 students, which puts it well below the cutoff for Class B/C, and their teams are always among the best in Class B in virtually every sport.

Dillon is among the smallest A schools and is a class A powerhouse.

I think that is a testament to the program as a whole at some of these schools. kids in Dillon know they want to play football there when they are about 4! coaches start molding these kids at a very young age and you end up with pretty good players who might otherwise be riding a bench at other schools. they really know how to get it done and I don't think there is a better example of that than Dillon football and basketball at the high school level. always very successful.

[[cat_bracket]]

The Great Falls schools are shrinking. So is Butte. Bozeman will need another high school within 10 years. Belgrade will AA within 10 years. Billings is about ready for a fourth high school and Helena is closing in on needing a third.

Based upon 2012-13 enrollment, the combined total for the two GF schools is almost identical to the two Helena schools. CMR is 1,510 and GFH is 1,490 for a total of exactly 3,000, while CHS is 1,363 and HHS is 1,624, for a total of 2,987. Belgrade is far and away the largest A school at 849, followed by CF at 692, Laurel at 611, and Havre at 556. It's no wonder that the Eastern AA tends to dominate Western AA in most sports, since 6 of the 8 largest schools are in the East division, while 5 of the 6 smallest are in the West division. Here are the enrollments for all AA schools.

1. West - 1,973
2. Bozeman - 1,909
3. Senior - 1,689
4. Helena - 1,624
5. Skyview - 1,578
6. Flathead - 1,555
7. CMR - 1,510
8. Great Falls - 1,490
9. Capital - 1,363
10. Butte - 1,288
11. Glacier - 1,273
12. Hellgate - 1,255
13. Sentinel - 1,166
14. Big Sky - 1,024

Amazing that Helena has now caught GF in enrollment. Helena has always had steady growth thanks to being the capital city. Great Falls must have a huge elderly population for the HS enrollment to be the same, but the city population to be so much higher in GF. GF is more than twice as big 58,950 to 28,592.

[91catAlum]

Helena is bigger than that with the north valley, East Helena, and Montana city. All those kids goto high school in Helena. (some Mt city kids goto Boulder but not many).
There's close to 50K in the whole area.

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[Hawks86]

It will be interesting if/when Boz. decides to add a high school. They would go from 2nd to having the 2 lowest enrollments in AA.

[John K]

Helena is bigger than that with the north valley, East Helena, and Montana city. All those kids goto high school in Helena. (some Mt city kids goto Boulder but not many).
There's close to 50K in the whole area.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

County population is really a better way to compare the relative sizes of various communities, rather than city population. Cascade County is 81,327, while LC County is 63,395. Percentage wise, the difference is much less than the difference in city population, but Cascade County is still significantly larger. I'm sure that the average age in Cascade County is probably quite a bit older than LC, which would explain why the HS enrollments are virtually identical. Gallatin County is on the verge of overtaking Flathead to become the 3rd most populous county in Montana, and is now within 20,000 of Missoula County and is gaining on it too. Here's the populations for Montana's seven "urban" counties.

1. Yellowstone - 147,972
2. Missoula - 109,299
3. Flathead - 90,928
4. Gallatin - 89,513
5. Cascade - 81,327
6. Lewis & Clark - 63,395
7. Silver Bow - 34,200

[allcat]

It will be interesting if/when Boz. decides to add a high school. They would go from 2nd to having the 2 lowest enrollments in AA.

I think it is more likely that Belgrade wil be enlarged and the boundaries between the 2 changed.

[John K]

It will be interesting if/when Boz. decides to add a high school. They would go from 2nd to having the 2 lowest enrollments in AA.

I think it is more likely that Belgrade wil be enlarged and the boundaries between the 2 changed.

I was stunned to see that Belgrade's enrollment is less then 200 smaller than Big Sky. In fact, it's surprising that all three of the Missoula schools are so small. I suppose maybe a lot of Missoula County students go to Frenchtown and some of the other smaller schools in the surrounding area?

[WeedKillinCat]

It will be interesting if/when Boz. decides to add a high school. They would go from 2nd to having the 2 lowest enrollments in AA.

I've heard (not sure if it is true or not) that the folks in Bozeman do no want to add another high school so they an stay competitive in AA sports...?

[WeedKillinCat]

A couple of other interesting tidbits from looking at enrollments for various schools, and proving that enrollment is not always a predictor of athletic success, or lack therof...

Butte Central has only 142 students, which puts it barely above the cutoff for Class B/C, let alone Class A/B, and yet they generally have very competitive sports teams, particularly in football. Fairfield has only 109 students, which puts it well below the cutoff for Class B/C, and their teams are always among the best in Class B in virtually every sport.

Dillon is among the smallest A schools and is a class A powerhouse.

Billings Central (329) is slightly smaller even than Dillon (355), and probably has the best overall Class A sports program. They won the GF Tribune All-Sports trophy last year, which I believe was only the 3rd time that a AA school didn't win it. Although neither of them are really significantly smaller than the median enrollment for Class A schools, which is 438. They aren't at the very bottom for their classification, as are Butte Central and Fairfield.

Billings Central encourages all of the kids to get active in some sport or another and it starts in the junior high level @ St Francis

[oedipuss]

It will be interesting if/when Boz. decides to add a high school. They would go from 2nd to having the 2 lowest enrollments in AA.

I've heard (not sure if it is true or not) that the folks in Bozeman do no want to add another high school so they an stay competitive in AA sports...?

The Bozeman school district purchased land southwest of town for a new high school when they refurbished the existing high school a few years ago. I don't think competitive sports plays any kind of role in adding a new high school as much as having enough tax base and enrollment to create another district (losing Big Sky's tax base kinda stung). The way things are being built west of town - it doesn't seem like it's going to be too many years down the road away.

[The Highwayman]

Major facilities planning is going on in Helena, zero talk of a brand new high school, but modernizing the current high schools. Capital's enrollment is actually down from a few years ago of being in the 1400's. Helena high gets a ton of students from Jefferson County, Montana City and Clancy in particular, which theory should attend high school in Boulder. There has been talk of East Helena creating their own high school (currently head to HHS) but it would literally take an act of the state legislature for that to happen due to creating a new school district? Experts project the total school enrollment of Helena is not actually going to rise to terribly much over the next 20 years, probably not a huge increase in jobs since the state government is typically pretty stable. If high school sports were only about numbers wouldn't always be West vs Bozeman in everything??? Glad there are much more in to it than the numbers game.

[AlphaGriz1]

I agree enrollment doesnt dictate success on the football field.

[TomCat88]

Havent seen Capital play this year yet but Skyview is my dark horse......so far

I thought Skyview looked good early on, too. Helena High, whose played teams with a combined 1-15 record, handled Skyview with relative ease. I was expecting that.

Capital, Bozeman and HHS are all 5-0. CHS plays at Bozeman this week, I believe.

[Hawks86]

I keep forgetting to post this. There is free streaming of Hawk games at http://mtsport.tv/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AlphaGriz1]

Havent seen Capital play this year yet but Skyview is my dark horse......so far

I thought Skyview looked good early on, too. Helena High, whose played teams with a combined 1-15 record, handled Skyview with relative ease. I was expecting that.

Capital, Bozeman and HHS are all 5-0. CHS plays at Bozeman this week, I believe.

Everyone has a bad game once and awhile Skyview is solid on both side of the ball

[LTown Cat]

Big win tonight for the Rustlers.