No normal player

If there was a game where Aubrie Rademacher was really going to bring the pain, it would have been last Saturday morning against Butte.

The last time Glacier and Butte had squared off in girls’ basketball the Bulldogs managed a novel and unpleasant approach: A couple times as Rademacher was flying around the court someone grabbed her ponytail and yanked. No call.

Thanks to modern technology (read: social media) the perpetrators were found out and served a short suspension. All the same “Raddie” – who knows only way to play, and that’s all-out – was ready to go for what was a State AA-qualifier at Missoula Hellgate’s gym.

Then, a surprise.

“The girls came up to me and hugged me before the game,” Rademacher said. “I guess it felt kind of like a blank slate then. But I was really competitive going into the game because of that.”

It’s hard to say that Rademacher eased up. She had 19 points and 11 rebounds – Butte had 17 boards as a team – in a 57-52 victory that clinched Glacier’s fourth straight trip to state.

The State AA begins Thursday at Breeden Field House in Bozeman. Glacier plays the final girls’ game at 5 p.m., against Eastern AA Divisional champion Billings West.

The Golden Girls are 18-3, an obvious favorite. But they’re still going to have to deal with Rademacher.

Born and raised in Kalispell, Rademacher remembers starting basketball in the “Little Dribblers,” which means she was probably 4.

Her older brother Brec was a key player on the Glacier boys’ team that won the 2017 State AA title.

The comparisons more or less end there: Brec Rademacher put up 100 3-pointers his senior season, making 41.

“We’re different players,” Aubrie said. “He stood behind the arc the whole season. He’s a really good three-point shooter. I drive.”

She is averaging 13.7 points and 6.7 rebounds – numbers that trended up to 15.8 and 9.8 at Divisionals. But those numbers don’t necessarily tell the story for the 5-foot-11 senior.

A National Honor Society student, Rademacher holds a 3.95 grade-point average (“Biology,” she says of the one B grade. “Freshman year.”). She’s a member of the Wolfpack Club, a leadership group at her high school.

In college – Frontier Conference schools Montana Tech and MSU-Northern have shown interest – she plans to study pre-med, then go to med school and study psychiatry.

“I have it all planned out,” she said, smiling. “Probably the first time I thought about it was how much money (psychiatrists) made. Then I did the research and I thought, ‘Wow, that is really cool.’ I’ve been interested in it for years and years.”

Amanda Cram, an assistant at Glacier for four years before taking over the head coaching duties this season, has seen Rademacher’s controlled aggression from 2016 on.

“She’s a dream,” Cram said. “She comes ready for practice every day – she’s naturally competitive, but focused. Those are two qualities I don’t think all athletes get.

“She’s a great teammate. I’ve seen her leadership flourish over this season. And clearly she’s one of the best basketball players in the state right now.”

Glacier lost a lot of talent off last year’s squad – junior Ellie Keller was the lone starter back besides Rademacher. Three more juniors – Kaylee Fritz, Emma Anderson and Kenzie Wiliams – moved into major roles and helped the Wolfpack go 11-11.

Rademacher counts the four juniors as her best friends.

“I’m the senior in the group,” she said. “And it’s been really cool to make them friends.”

The Golden Girls, Glacier’s next opponent, have 6-foot Montana Lady Griz signee Willa Albrecht leading the way. She averages 11.6 points and 5.7 rebounds.

“Billings West is tall,” Cram said. “Not like Helena Capital, but they have three girls at 6 feet. They’re quick. They will pressure in the halfcourt extensively.”

The teams did not meet this season. Glacier opened with the Great Falls schools and suffered a 61-51 setback at Great Falls Russell in December. West handled CMR 52-25 in the Eastern AA championship Saturday.

It’s a tenuous comparison that Cram discards quickly.

“We’re a much different team than we were early in the season,” she said.

Added Rademacher, “I definitely think we’ve come a really long way from December. I think it’s very noticeable.”

The goal for the team is a Saturday night game – a top-four finish.

“Has been since May,” Cram said. “We haven’t advertised it, but that’s our goal.”

Mental attitude is important when you get to the final level. Psychiatry, meanwhile, is in part the study of abnormal behavior. This is fitting in that Rademacher is no normal player. She courts foul trouble, but almost never fouls out; she drives and rebounds and defends and hardly changes expression. Not even in Butte.

“I could tell she was upset,” Cram said, smiling. “But her being upset turns into … being in a mode I hope we see at the state tournament.”