Senior Night is for the moms. That is something I have said for years.

The mothers make a huge deal out of the last home game for their senior players, and the fathers kind of uncomfortably go through the motions.

As I walked through the blowup Bulldog onto Naranche Stadium with my senior son, his mother, grandmother and two sisters Friday night, I realized that I might have been wrong about that.

As we walked, I was filled with pride that my son was a Butte High Bulldog. Not only was it an honor to watch my boy play for the home team at Naranche Stadium, it was something that I did not think was possible just a few years ago.

In 2021, we thought he might be headed to a life in a wheelchair because he was showing some real signs of having muscular dystrophy. We drove around the state and took him to children’s hospitals in Salt Lake City and Seattle before we finally got some good news.

Instead of an irreversible genetic disorder, Grady was suffering from side effects from the heavy doses of medicine he was given during severe asthma attacks that required Life Flights to Missoula in 2015 and 2019.

In July of 2021, a little more than a month before he started eighth grade, a Seattle neurologist told us that Grady would grow out his problems. The high doses of steroids destroyed his leg muscles and made him gain weight. He needed physical therapy to learn how to run again.

During his physical for his freshman year of football, Grady was 5 feet, 4 inches and 225 pounds. During his physical for his senior year, he was measured at 6-1, and 190. He grew 9 inches and lost 35 pounds.

That was all fueled by his desire to win football games with the Bulldogs. When he wasn’t lifting with the team early in the morning, he was spending his Saturday nights working out at the Knights of Columbus. So, every snap he takes for the team makes me beam with pride.

But that pride does not stop with my son. As we walked onto the field for Senior Night Friday, I thought about so many of the other seniors who were walking with their families at Naranche and with Butte Central on Montana Tech’s Bob Green Field.

I coached or coached against many of them in baseball and grade school basketball. Others I just know from watching them play with my son. I couldn’t help but get a little emotional when I thought about them playing their last football games on their home turf, too.

Because of health reasons, Cayde Stajcar did not play football his senior year, but he is very much a part of the team, wearing his No. 0 to every game. I knew Cayde was going to be something special the first Saturday morning I took my son to play in the Knights of Columbus Little Kids Hoops Program.

Not only was Cayde an incredible athlete at a young age, he went out of his way to make sure the other boys and girls got to shoot and have fun.

As a Little League coach, I never beat one of Cayde’s team. The same could be said for Brooks Vincent, who just seems to be so dang good at every sport he tries.

I have photos of a tiny Kaleb Celli and Grady with Montana Tech stars like Zach Bunney, Quinn McQueary and Nolan Saracini. I’ll never forget throwing him passes from our deck to the trampoline as Kaleb gave me instructions to “Odell me” so he could make a one-handed catch like Odell Beckham Jr.

Now Kaleb is making those tough catches for the Bulldogs, and in the playoffs, nonetheless.

Hudson Luedtke will go down as one of the greatest Butte High athletes of all time. He is the all-time leading scorer for the basketball program — with one year left to play — and should earn All-State honors in football for the fourth straight year.

I have followed the career of Gunner Bushman since his mother and I were competing sixth-grade basketball coaches. I thought baseball was his best game until I saw him play defense for the football team this year.

College coaches should be beating down his door.

That goes for Mitch Verlanic, too. For the past two years, he has proven to be one of the best Butte High defensive players of the century.

I coached Bridger Brancamp in baseball, and he did not like baseball too much. Football and wrestling are more his game, and nobody on the team works harder than him in the weight room.

Jeremiah Johnson used to walk into my house, grab the remote control and turn Netflix to “Quarterback.” He told me he was going to play for Oregon. He’s not, but he is one of my favorite Bulldogs of all time, even though he doesn’t play a ton.

Just hearing his name, or nickname “Niner,” makes me smile.

Peyton Johnson has some blazing speed, and he turned out to be one heck of a running back, just like his cousins Kameron and Kobe Moreno.

I feel like I know Kadyn Sommer, Gannon Sullivan, Waylon Hicks and Keegan Swisher because I always focused so much on the trenches. That is something parents of linemen do.

Over at BC, Ryan Peoples taught my son how to climb a fence. They were climbing into the baseball field while their older siblings played in a coach-pitch game.

A year or two later, Ryan was Grady’s first fight. I’m not sure who won that fight at the Stodden Park playground. But Round 2 nearly started when they argued about the outcome.

I knew the name Colt Hassler long before Grady played with him on the Dirt Ballers baseball team. He could hit the baseball out of sight by the time he was 11 years old.

Everyone calls Kelton Keane “Stewie” or “Stew.” He was primed for a big senior year. Unfortunately, he injured his knee on the first kickoff off the season this year. I truly hope he will be back in time to play baseball.

I’ve known Tony Stajcar’s parents for nearly 40 years. While he probably gets his speed from his dad, Mark, I know he gets his toughness from his mom, Annette, whom I still call “Gert.”  Tony is almost as tough as his twin sister, Arika, who plays volleyball and basketball for the Maroons.

I got to talk to Jack Nagle after he booted a last-second field-goal to lift the Maroons to a win over Hardin earlier this season. It was the only BC game I got to watch this year because the Maroons and Bulldogs always play at the same time, and not against each other. I wish I could have seen him play a few more times.

Those are just some of the senior football players I feel like I know pretty well. I also followed the careers of so many seniors who play volleyball, soccer and golf. For instance, volleyball player Gracie Jonart smacked at least 200 hits off me when I was the pitcher in her coach-pitch games.

I also knew Mattie Stepan was a tough competitor when, as a first grader, she delivered the hardest foul of Grady’s basketball career at the KC.

As her dad pointed out, though, Grady missed the free throws, so it was a good foul.

So, I did not hear much of what the public address announcer was saying about Grady as we took the arm-in-arm senior walk. The PA system at Naranche leaves much to be desired, plus I was thinking about all those seniors.

That is about the time I realized that Senior Night is not just for the moms.

 — Bill Foley, who is usually uncomfortably going through the motions, 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.