Butte High’s and Butte Central’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams will put their seasons on the line this week.

The Bulldog teams will host Western AA playoff games Friday night at the Richardson Gym. Butte High’s girls play Helena Capital at 6 p.m. before the boys take on Missoula Sentinel at 7:30. The winners of those games move on to the Class AA State tournament, which is next week in Bozeman.

BC’s teams will play in the Western A Divisional tournament in Whitefish. That tournament begins Thursday, with the Central girls playing at 10:30 a.m. against Bigfork. The BC boys play Columbia Falls at 6:30 p.m. The top four teams from the divisional tournament advance to the Class A State tournament next week in Billings.

All four of the head coaches — Quinn Carter, Bryan Arntson, Brodie Kelly and Matt Luedtke — have made appearances on the ButteCast in the past. Today, we bring them all on the show — one by one — as we look forward to an exciting week of hoops.

Let’s listen in to see what the coaches thinking as we take the season into March.

First up is Butte Central’s Quinn Carter, who helped lead the Maroons to the 2011 State title when she was Quinn Peoples and a senior at BC. Coach Carter then took her talents to Montana State University-Billings.

Coach Carter’s Maroons enter the divisional tournament with a 7-13 record after winning two Western A play-in games. BC throttled Stevensville 59-13 at the Maroon Activities Center on Thursday. Then they went on the road to upset Corvallis in a 44-42 thriller in the Bitterroot Valley.

While the Maroons have a losing record, they hit the road riding some serious momentum. Bigfork is 16-2 overall. The team enters the tournament riding a 15-game winning streak. Bigfork won the Northwestern A with a 12-0 record.

So, the deck is stacked against the Maroons in the first round. Of course, it was seemingly stacked against the super-young Maroons all season long.

Listen in as Coach Carter talks about her team qualifying for this tournament and what it means to the building of the third-year head coach’s program.

Note, that at the time of this conversation, Coach Carter did not have the final stats from Saturday’s game. In addition to scoring 17 points, sophomore Rylee Forbes pulled down 20 rebounds.

Second, we have Butte High girls’ coach Bryan Arntson.

Arnie is in his fourth year leading the Bulldogs. He is looking to take the Bulldogs to the Class AA State tournament for the first time since his first season in 2021-22.

Butte High is very familiar with their playoff opponent. The Bulldogs swept the regular-season matchup with the Bruins. Butte won 41-34 Feb. 1 in Butte and 36-35 this past Thursday in Helena.

At 13-6 overall and 9-5 in league play, the Bulldogs are the No. 3 seed out of the Western AA. Capital (8-11 and 5-9) is the No. 6 seed.

Butte High will be without senior starter Addie Hiatt. She suffered a season-ending knee injury in last Tuesday’s Senior Night win over Helena High. The Bulldogs, though, still have plenty of weapons, and Arntson’s team seems like it is peaking at the right time.

Butte High has won six of its last eight games.

Listen in as Coach Arntson talks about his team and what he expects in the playoff game.

Next, we have Butte Central coach Brodie Kelly, who is the longest-tenured basketball coach in town. By a long way.

Kelly is finishing up his 21st season as head coach of the Maroons. Of those previous 20 seasons, Kelly’s Maroons have qualified for the Class A State tournament 18 times.

That is an unprecedented run that Kelly says has not been easy. None of those trips to state ever came without some serious stress. That includes the state championship seasons of 2020 and 2022.

This year was a struggle from the start. After losing a key player because his family moved out of town just before the school year, the 2024-25 Maroons have also battled illness like never before.

The Maroons enter the postseason at 9-9 overall, but BC is 6-4 in conference, and Central has won five of its last seven games. As the Maroons eye Columbia Falls, Kelly said his team is healthy for the first time since early January.

At 15-3 overall and 10-2 in league, the Wildcats are the No. 2 seed from the Northwestern A. Columbia Falls beat BC 72-65 Dec. 14 at a tipoff tournament in Frenchtown.

A lot has changed since then.

Listen in to hear Coach Kelly’s take and see why he knows this divisional tournament is going to be anything but easy.

Last, but certainly not least we have Butte High boys’ coach Matt Luedtke. He is in his sixth year as head coach of the Bulldogs, and he is looking for his sixth straight trip to the Class AA State tournament.

That came after the coach won two Class B State titles in Choteau.

To get back to State, the Bulldogs have to be one tough opponent in Missoula Sentinel. That is something Butte High couldn’t do in two tries during the regular season

Sentinel came to Butte and beat the Bulldogs 53-37 Jan. 11. The Spartans completed the regular-season sweep with a 60-49 win Feb. 4 in Missoula.

Butte High has won 9 of its last 11 games, building a 13-6 overall record and 9-5 mark in conference.

Sentinel rides to town at 10-9 and 8-6.

This game promises to be a great one, and the atmosphere should be absolutely electric.

Listen in as Coach Luedtke talks about his team, which, like always, is playing its best at the right time of year.

Today’s podcast is brought to you by Casagranda’s Steakhouse. Eat where the locals eat.