The Bobcat Nation

What/where are the toughest Highschool Gyms to play in!

Your thoughts

I've never played there but I've seen that Browning can be pretty rough - on officials too! Quick story - friend of mine is a ref. and he said the fans have been known to use a pair of pliers and a lighter to heat up a penny red-hot and toss it out on the floor - ending up in a nasty little burn when the official tries to pick it up...

Growing up, I always thought Outlook was a tough place to play. Tough teams.

Frazer wasn't much fun either. Tough crowds.

Back in the day, I had a love/hate relationship with the really small gyms, depending on how good the teams were. Judith Gap and Roy were generally not great back then, so playing there was a lot of fun (you never got tired and felt like you could shoot from half court, which you practically could). If the team was really good, though, like Hobson often was back then, playing on those small courts was miserable. I haven't seen it, but I understand that Hobson now has a nice full-sized court.

Playing at Rocky Boy was tough as well -- their gym was so huge that there was about 10 feet between the out of bounds line and the bleachers. They had cross court lines painted all over the place as well. We dribbled out of bounds nonchalantly about three times that game just out of confusion. Fortunately, all of the good players from that reservation that year had transferred to Box Elder to load them up, so our confusion wasn't in danger of costing us the game.

From a AA perspective (albeit in the late 70's):
Butte was always tough to play in it just seemed to degenerate into a hockey game.
Kalispell was also tough, but it had more to do with a packed house, of rabid fans (but quality) it made for a great experiance but a tough place to play.

I take pride in my Butte High Bulldogs have the best legitimate home court advantage in the state - the student section can be rowdey. I went to a helena capital game to watch my bulldogs play and about 30 or so Butte High students managed to outshout the entire helena capital student seciton

Until about 7 years ago or so when capital only had bleachers on one side of the court, that place would get really loud. Overall I would say the toughest place was Butte. Especially in the old gym it was like playing in a gladiator pitt, and you could always count on the refs to add about 10 point advantage for Butte.

wbtfg wrote:Until about 7 years ago or so when capital only had bleachers on one side of the court, that place would get really loud. Overall I would say the toughest place was Butte. Especially in the old gym it was like playing in a gladiator pitt, and you could always count on the refs to add about 10 point advantage for Butte.

we all can wine about the refs...from a butte native's point of view i thought it was rather courious how the reffs would spot the opposing team a couple of points whenever the bulldogs were on the road...even our teams that were bad, anaconda was especially tallented at doing this

mslacat wrote:From a AA perspective (albeit in the late 70's):
Butte was always tough to play in it just seemed to degenerate into a hockey game.
Kalispell was also tough, but it had more to do with a packed house, of rabid fans (but quality) it made for a great experiance but a tough place to play.

Ever been to a game in the Snake Pit?

I don't know if Belfry has a new gym now or not, but they used to have the smallest gym I ever saw. It was impossible to fast-break as it only took about 15 steps to get from one end to the other. And it was narrow: the three-point arc ran into the sidelines around where the free-throw line extended.

Talk about claustrophobic! I don't think we ever won a game there when I was in H.S. because we were constantly running into each other on offense.

Class C gyms-there's nothing like it-although some of the "best" ones are probably disappearing by now.

Willow Creek was always interesting. I remember a stray ball or two knocking over the concessions-the stand was along the baseline under one of the baskets. The game was always kind of surreal-like playing in your living room.

Before it burned down Gardiner was a tough place to place-but after their gym burned down their temporary home court was a tiny little gym in Mammoth, Yellowtone Park. We dressed and showered in a dorm a couple of miles from the gym. That gym was really strange-a round building, and there were steps going up from the floor to the bleachers right under the baskets. It was a bit dangerous. I hear Gardiner's new gym is really nice.

Sheridan had one of those old fashioned gyms like we saw in the movie Hoosiers (Cedar Knob). A balcony around the top. I remember warming up-somebody threw me the ball-I wasn't looking-the ball hit me in the head, my head hit the wall-and I was standing in bounds! I'm not sure if they still play in there or not.

Bay Area Cat made a good point about those small gyms-you didn't get tired playing in them because the floor was so small, but when we moved to a big floor like Livingston, Bozeman, or Helena for tournaments you really felt it.

I don't know if you guys have read it, but there is a book called "Blind your Ponies" that is fiction, but the story revolves around the head coach at Willow Creek and how the whole town lives and dies with the basketball team. I have not read the book yet so I can't say if it is good or not, but it is next on the stack of books to read. Just thought all the Class C folks out there might enjoy the book.

rtb wrote:I don't know if you guys have read it, but there is a book called "Blind your Ponies" that is fiction, but the story revolves around the head coach at Willow Creek and how the whole town lives and dies with the basketball team. I have not read the book yet so I can't say if it is good or not, but it is next on the stack of books to read. Just thought all the Class C folks out there might enjoy the book.

It's a great book. It's more of a story about moving from the big city to small town montana and learning about the characters that every small town has, and what it's like to not only coach in a small town, but to teach and live in a small town. It's really a great read, but if you're looking for purely a bball book this isn't what you're looking for, but if you're interested in a fiction book about small town Montana where bball plays a large role, then you would really enjoy the book.

Thanks for the tip-I going to have see if I can find that book-is it available anywhere?

Willow Creek's long time coach was Mike Korich and he was quite a character.

When I played they had the "seatbelt" rule for coaches. If a coach stood up for any reason other than spontaneous celebration during play he could get a technical. Korich assigned one of his younger players to sit right behind him and hold him down whenever he tried to stand up. It was kind of funny.

Fortunately, the seatbelt rule only lasted a season or two.

Probably available at Barnes and Noble in town, but if not you can get it on their website.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookse ... 4781&itm=1

thanks! I'll definitely be picking that up

Drummond was the "most dangerous". Don't know if it's been fixed or replaced, but there was a raised stage at one end of the basketball floor. If you drove the basket at that end you risked getting your legs chopped off at the knees.

raincat wrote:Drummond was the "most dangerous". Don't know if it's been fixed or replaced, but there was a raised stage at one end of the basketball floor. If you drove the basket at that end you risked getting your legs chopped off at the knees.

Drummond had its basketball floor replaced a little over 10 years ago. People were luck they did not fall through the floor on a jump ball!

A few years ago when Belgrade was still class C District 8C consisted of Townsend, Greasy Spoon, Manhattan, Belgrade, Rosary, Gardiner, Clyde City, Wilsall and White Sulpher. The Wilsall gym was an old log structure that if you weren't careful, you'd hit a light on a shot or pass. I think Chris Small decided to prove Buck the Butcher, our local barber wrong and scored 118 points. That gym much worse than any of the others.