Next month, Brodie Kelly will begin his 19th season as the head coach of Butte Central’s boys’ basketball team.

Once again, Kelly’s Maroons open the season as Class A State champions.

In his first 18 season, Kelly led BC to the State tournament 16 times. The Maroons shared the 2020 title with Hardin, thanks to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last March, Central won it all again, beating Lewistown in a state title game for the ages in Missoula.

Before he was a coach, Kelly was a player, and a tough one at that. He originally signed to play football and basketball at Montana Tech. He spent some time as a football player at Montana State.

Then, Kelly settled in as a defensive machine for coach Rick Dessing’s Montana Tech men’s basketball team. Kelly would guard the best player on the opposing team every night. He might guard the point guard on Friday and the post player on Saturday.

Click here to listen in as Kelly discusses those playing days for Dessing. He talks about playing at BC, where he won a state title in basketball and played for one in football.

He also talked about being a part of Butte Central’s Class of 1993 and how he has coached pretty much his entire life.