In 2003, the head coaching job for the Butte High girls’ basketball team was not very appealing.

It was so unappealing that I’m not sure the school got more than one person to apply for the job after Tom Pomroy Jr. decided to give up coaching and focus more on his growing family in June.

Butte High only expected one varsity player back from the previous team that won a playoff game but fell just short of a state tournament berth. However, Sonja Rogers moved with her family to Lewistown between the school years.

Rogers, who was a star in her two years at Butte High, helped lead Lewistown to back-to-back Class A State titles before going on to a standout career playing for Robin Selvig at the University of Montana.

Her leaving town meant the cupboard was completely bare for the Butte High girls’ basketball program.

While the team was usually competitive, the Bulldog girls had not played in the Class AA State tournament since 1994. With a bunch of players with virtually no varsity experience making up the varsity roster, it did not look like Butte High was even close to beginning to think about making a trip to state.

Any coach who was looking to win right away knew not to apply.

The Bulldogs needed someone who was willing to put in the time and build a program from scratch. They needed a coach who was taking the job for all the right reasons.

They needed Jeff Arntson.

Coach Arntson, who was beloved as a teacher, was a coach’s coach. While he took over the program with head coaching experience at Outlook and Hot Springs, Arntson was a longtime assistant coach at Butte High. He served stints as an assistant in the boys’ and girls’ programs with the Bulldogs.

The hiring of Arntson could not have sparked a ton of enthusiasm with Bulldog fans who did not know the coach well. Jeff was a quiet, unassuming man who was probably known more for being Arch’s brother.

With larger-than-life character John Thatcher leading the Bulldog boys’ program, Jeff Arntson seemed like a pretty boring hire at the time.

At least that is how I viewed the hiring of Jeff, a guy I had gotten to know and really like as a young sportswriter at The Montana Standard.

Thatcher was a fiery coach in the mold of Bobby Knight. Arntson was more like Tom Landry.

Arntson’s run with the Bulldogs, though, was anything but boring. In fact, the next 10 years coving the Butte High girls’ basketball team was part of the most exciting run of my writing career.

Those Bulldogs turned into a must-see show.

After a slow start, Butte High went 135-100 in those 10 seasons under Arntson. The Bulldogs qualified for the Class AA State tournament eight straight years from 2006 through 2013. They played in the State Championship game three times — in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

Their run to the championship in 2006 was a Cinderella story. The Bulldogs beat Great Falls High in a nerve-racking 24-21 semifinal game, thanks to a huge 3-point shot by sophomore Brianne McClafferty in overtime.

Butte High, though, fell to a 20-win Bozeman team in the championship game and finished the season with the second-place trophy and a 10-14 record.

After that, the Bulldogs really took off. They returned to the championship game in 2008 and 2009, only to see their title hopes fall short to Missoula Big Sky and the Tinkle sisters, Joslyn and Elle.

Before Arntson took over the Bulldog program, the Butte High girls had never played in a State Championship game.

Butte High held the No. 1 ranking in the Class AA many weeks over that span. Perhaps the highlights of the era came on back-to-back seasons when the Bulldogs beat Class A Anaconda in jam-packed arenas.

On Feb. 8, 2008, the night Leo McCarthy launched Mariah’s Challenge at the Civic Center, Butte High beat Anaconda 56-41 in a battle of No. 1 teams.

It was the first time that I ever saw the girls upstage the boys in a game. Even the Butte High and Anaconda boys’ players seemed like they were in a hurry to just get to the girls’ game already when they played first that night.

A year later, when both teams were ranked No. 3, the Anaconda officials mistakenly used a boys’ ball during the rematch in the Snake Pit in Anaconda. Butte High escaped with a 57-55 overtime win. To this day, that is the greatest girls’ basketball team I have ever watched.

It might be the greatest basketball game I have ever seen, period.

Butte High games were exciting from start to finish in those days. The Bulldogs would win the jump, and Gwenn Abbott would score seconds into the game almost every game.

It was such a sure thing, that I could write that down in my play-by-play notes before the game even tipped off. They played a full-court game, and Arntson would get nearly every girl on the roster in every game.

Arntson’s tenure with the Bulldogs saw Lexie Nelson become the school’s all-time leading scorer — boy or girl. It was the coach who helped keep track of that record to make sure Nelson got the proper recognition, too.

Nelson went on to become a star at Eastern Washington before playing pro ball overseas.

Several other Arntson players went on to stellar college careers. That includes Natalee Faupel at MSU-Northern, Joey O’Neill at Weber State and Carroll College, Kabri Emerson at College of North Idaho and Montana Tech, Hattie Thatcher and McClafferty at Montana Tech and Kalli McCloskey at Rocky Mountain College.

Abbott could have played college ball, but opted for track at the University of Montana instead.

No coach ever won more games with the Bulldog girls than Arntson. Only Harry “Swede” Dahlberg, Bob Rae and Pat Foley won more games with the Butte High boys.

Counting his stints in Outlook and Hot Springs, Arntson won more than 400 games in his career.

When I think of the Butte High girls’ basketball glory days under Arntson, though, it isn’t the wins that stand out. It isn’t the big games or the championship appearances.

What I remember are the post-game interviews.

Again, they weren’t exciting. Coach Arntson was never flashy. His demeaner never changed, win or lose. But he was always classy.

Never once did he take credit for a victory. Those were all about the players.

Never once did he deflect the blame following a loss. Those were all about him.

When travel coaches tried to take the credit for the team’s success, Jeff never said a word. He just went about coaching his teams.

“I truly enjoyed my time,” Arntson told me when he retired as head coach in June of 2013. “I tried to make it the best basketball program possible. I enjoyed working with the kids and the assistant coaches, and I’m proud of the teams we built.”

Before the 2021-22 season, Arntson’s son, Bryan, was named head coach of the girls’ program. That meant that Jeff was back on the bench as an assistant. He would take the bench with Bryan during varsity games and with his daughter Courtney Schad during subvarsity games.

It was great to see Coach Arntson back where he always seemed to belong. Coaching basketball.

He missed the 2022-23 season while his wife, Terri, battled Leukemia. She passed away shortly after that campaign.

Jeff was back on the bench last season. But you could tell he was heartbroken, and you could see that he wasn’t feeling well.

You could also tell he still loved the game. He still loved the players.

He eventually lost a leg because of diabetes, and he was missed as this season started while he was in a nursing home trying to rehab.

Coach Arntson passed away two days after Christmas at 67. He will be sorely missed, but his memory will live on and on.

He will be remembered as one of the greatest basketball coaches this town has ever seen. He will also be remembered as one of the nicest people to ever coach any sport.

More than anything, the unassuming Arntson will long be remembered as the coach who did his job for all the right reasons.

 — Bill Foley can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.