It could have almost been a scene out of a movie.

Kalispell Flathead senior Dustyn Franchini-White launched a 3-point shot at the buzzer. The ball sailed through the net, and the Braves pulled off a shocking 42-40 win over Missoula Hellgate Thursday in Kalispell.

The Flathead student section rushed the court and lifted up Franchini-White as if he was Rudy Ruettiger, and Casey Kreider got an incredible photo of the scene for The Daily Interlake.

Franchini-White’s buzzer-beater gave the Braves their first win since Dec. 20, and it snapped a 15-game losing streak. It also dropped Hellgate from No. 1 to No. 2 in the Western AA.

More importantly, the victory proved the old adage that any team can beat any team on any given day. It also should have sent the Braves to the Western AA Divisional tournament full of hope that they could shock the world.

The other seven teams in the conference should be shaking in their boots knowing that they, too, could be upset by the Braves, who seemed to play much better than their 3-16 record most of the season.

The shot should have been the start of a potentially magical Hollywood ending.

If there ever is an inspirational movie made about a Montana high school basketball team coming out of nowhere to win a state title, however, you better believe it will not come out of the Class AA.

When it comes Montana’s largest 16 schools, there will be No “Hoosiers.” No “Coach Carter.” No “Air Bud.”

(OK, so I’ve never seen Air Bud. I just wanted to go with the rules of three, and I didn’t want to go with Adam Sandler’s terrible movie “Grown Ups.”)

That is because the highly-paid school administrators of the Class AA are trying to suck the life out of sports. While the other classifications in the state celebrate March Madness, the Class AA administrators give us March Sadness.

In the Class AA, the highly-paid school administrators have decided that basketball tournaments are not important for their athletes.

That is a shame because every team should have a tournament. Every team should have the opportunity to shock the world.

Every team should have the possibility of a Cinderella story to get them through even the most difficult of seasons.

This week, though, will see Class AA basketball go back to the playoff system for the first time since 2017. The top two teams in each conference earned automatic berths into the Class AA State tournament, which is March 13-15 in Bozeman.

The middle four teams play playoff games for the right to extend their season. The bottom two teams from each conference don’t get a chance to earn a ticket to the ball.

That means the Great Falls High, Belgrade, Kalispell Glacier and Flathead boys don’t get a single postseason game. Neither do the Great Falls Russell, Belgrade, Missoula Sentinel and Flathead girls.

The students at Flathead and Belgrade are completely left out in the cold, and that is just plain wrong.

We no longer have divisional tournaments, the highly-paid school administrators say, because those tournaments lost money.

To that, I emphatically say, Bravo Sierra?

Somehow, the Class C, Class B and Class A can figure out how to pull of divisional tournaments, but the bigger schools of the Class AA cannot? The Class C and Class B can also pull off district tournaments and somehow do not go bankrupt.

You might ask, how can that be?

Well, the explanation is easy. The Class AA administrators did not want the divisional tournaments to work in the first place. They never did. So, they sabotaged them.

Before you write me off as a conspiracy theorist who claims Hilary Clinton drinks the blood of children, hear me out.

The first divisional tournaments in nearly three decades were held after the 2017-18 season. The administrators finally gave into then Butte High activities director Chuck Merrifield after he fought for divisional tournaments for the better part of two decades.

Those tournaments, after all, where a highlight of the season until the Class AA decided to go with the playoff format in 1990.

When they gave into the proposal pushed by Butte High, though, the administrators handcuffed the tournaments in an effort to ensure the tournaments would fail. That is the only possible explanation for them making a rule that arenas could not be used for divisional tournaments.

That meant places like the Four Seasons Arena in Great Falls, the Adams Center in Missoula, the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman, the Billings Metra and Butte Civic Center were off limits.

So, when the Eastern AA tournament was held that first year in Butte, the boys played at Butte High’s Richardson Gym, and the girls played at Montana Tech.

They also included a rule that said only the home teams could have bands and cheerleaders.

This, the highly-paid administrators say, was because of money. If bands and cheerleaders from out of town were banned, then every school would save some cash.

They never do that in the Class A, B or C, by the way. Never.

Last year, the Class AA let Butte host the boys’ and girls’ Western AA tournaments at the Civic Center. It was the first time in the seven years of Class AA Divisional tournaments when an arena was used instead of a small gym.

However, the lameness of the Class AA was still on full display as the tournaments were sandwiched between the Western A Divisional tournaments and Class A State tournaments as the Mining City hosted tournaments on back-to-back-to-back weekends.

Oh, the play of the Western AA Divisional tournament was great, and the atmosphere was tremendous when Butte High was playing.

When the home team wasn’t playing, though, it was the snoozefest the administrators wanted in the first place.

Without cheerleaders, bands and halftime shows, the small Class AA crowds provided for a weekend that lacked the excitement of a travel tournament. People were literally falling asleep, and it had nothing to do with the play.

Oh, and they didn’t play third-place games. That would have meant more administrators would have had to stay in town a few hours longer.

The week before and week after, on the other hand, the tournaments were packed with action from the opening tip of the first game on Thursday morning until the final buzzer of the last game on Saturday night.

That includes the time between games and during halftimes.

The Class A usually does it right — other than when it forces some teams to win play-in games to qualify for the divisional tournaments. The Class B and Class C always do it right. The Class AA always takes the shortcut.

They cut out divisional tournaments in volleyball and softball, too, as the motto of the Class AA administrators continues to be, “We’ve got tee times, so just get it over with already.”

In doing so, they are going against everything an educator is supposed to be all about. They are taking away once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for their students and student-athletes.

They might also be hurting the chances that their student-athletes will be recruited by the many college coaches who pack divisional tournaments.

The money excuse doesn’t cut, either. There is no shortage of companies out there that would love to sponsor tournaments. There are plenty of fans ready to pay top dollar to watch a tournament that is run the way a tournament is supposed to be run.

It would be nice if we could find a sports-minded lawyer to get a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the Class AA students. It would be even nicer if Class AA schools would start hiring better administrators.

Until then, call or email your student’s Class AA superintendent, principal and activities director. Ask them why they are holding back your students. Ask them to support going back to divisional tournaments next year.

Tell them their laziness and shortsightedness are doing damage that can never be undone.

Let them know that you would have loved to have seen if Dustyn Franchini-White and his Flathead Braves had a real Hollywood ending up their sleeves.

 — Bill Foley, who now feels obligated to watch “Air Bud,” 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.