Bigfork hosts successful Northwestern A Divisional tournament

By FAITH MOLDAN / Bigfork Eagle

Bigfork's boys and girls basketball teams weren't the only ones working hard at the Northwestern A Divisional Basketball Championships.

Just as the Vikes and Vals started thinking of and preparing for divisionals weeks prior to the tournament, so did Bigfork High School activities director Shannon Smith, the Bigfork Booster Club and countless other students at BHS as well as staff at Glacier High School. The Northwestern A Divisional tournament was the first hosted by Bigfork in about seven years and the first at GHS' facilities.

"Divisionals is like hosting an event at your own gym, but doing it back-to-back-to-back," Smith said. He attributed the success of this year's tournament to everyone involved, including GHS AD Mark Dennehy and former BHS AD and current principal Thom Peck. "Mark's done this before and it showed," he said adding that he sought Peck's assistance right away.

Smith, Dennehy and the GHS staff took care of a countless number of things, according to Smith, ranging from having clean towels and full water coolers for the teams, to crowd control, to coordinating locker room assignments.

"You get there really early and you leave really late," Smith said. "Glacier (High School) had it staffed so well. You could see everyone was tired but really enjoying themselves."

With all the work of hosting the divisional tournament, Smith said the hospitality room was a bonus for all the staff. The hospitality room may not have been open to everyone but the concession stand, put together and run by the Bigfork Booster Club, parents and students, had a little something for everyone.

"It started a couple of weeks ago," Bigfork Booster Club secretary Christine Neu said. Neu handled all the ordering and logistics of using GHS' concession/kitchen area. The majority of items and goods for the concession stand made the trip from Bigfork to Kalispell in Neu's backseat. Other items — bulk and refrigerated — were stored at GHS or arrived on the first day of divisionals such as the Wendy's chili and pizza delivered to the school. "The first day is trial and error," a booster club member said.

Neu said she had the chance to leave the concession stand once during the tournament to check out the GHS gymnasium, but otherwise never got to watch a single game.

"It went well," she said of divisionals. "The junior class did a real good job. We learned a couple of lessons and took some notes so if anyone does this again they'll have a reference."

One of the lessons came the hard way, in the form of rock hard pretzels.

"The pretzel machine kind of went nutty on us." Neu said.

Bigfork Booster Club also put together welcome baskets for the basketball teams and cheerleaders. The baskets had divisional apparel and other items donated by Bigfork area businesses. Neu said Brenda Rambo put together the baskets for the cheerleaders.

"That's something they didn't have to do," Smith said of the boosters' baskets. "It's just a classy way of showing their appreciation."

Fans at the tournament also had a chance to get divisional apparel with the help of BHS' student council. It all started with the tournament logo designed by BHS senior Brittany Hall. The logo was not only in the program and on shirts, but also on banners in the gym. With the logo created, BHS teacher and student council advisor Clara Clark and the student council put in the leg work to have shirts available for fans and tournament participants.

BHS teachers Mike Roberts and Joanne Strong and their students designed and sold the program at the tournament, as well as sold the ads in the program.

The atmosphere created by all the weeks of hard work off the hardwood put the basketball teams in the spotlight, Smith said.

"They got to be treated like kings and queens for a few days."