No matter what the sport, the Special Olympics always showcases sportsmanship at its finest.

Special Olympians teach us the true meaning of sports. They give us a refresher course on perspective as they find joy and happiness in living a life that is much harder than our own.

If you have not attended a Special Olympics event, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It might change your life.

That just might have been the case last Tuesday as the Montana Special Olympics Bowling Championships were held at Star Lanes in Butte. It would have certainly been the case had you watched the Anaconda bowlers.

This year’s field included seven Anaconda Copperheads. They competed their hearts out in a tournament they had been looking forward to for months.

The best part about it was that those athletes were not alone. Six Anaconda High School seniors — four who are varsity basketball players for the Copperheads — were there to cheer them on.

A member of the Anaconda High faculty contacted me to brag a little bit about the special moment of watching the Copperheads rooting on their fellow Copperheads.

“I could not be prouder of everyone involved in this day,” she said. “The best part of the day was watching our Special Olympic kids so excited to be cheered on by the ‘big kids” who they watch in awe.”

The four basketball seniors cheering on the Special Olympians were Shaelee Novak, Shane Schalk, Jesse Jones and Treyton Patrick. They were joined by basketball manager Renzo McCarthy and Copperhead golfer Grace Galle.

Those six young student-athletes took time out of their day to drive to Butte and make a special occasion monumentally more special for the Special Olympians. They did not just go through the motions, either. Their cheers were genuine.

“These are standup kids who put their hearts in our community,” the faculty member said. “We are incredibly lucky.”

In the long run, those young athletes were the lucky ones. They will take so much more away from the Special Olympians than they probably ever know. They got a lesson in sportsmanship from some aptly-named Special athletes.

That day of bowling was a good day for a community that has felt like it has been under attack the last several weeks. Thanks to an unfair television report and some childish fighting on social media, it has been.

In August, we were all on Anaconda’s side as the Smelter City dealt with a tragic shooting that took the lives of four innocent people and put a town on edge during the weeklong manhunt to find the alleged shooter.

Less than half a year later, the Anaconda community has been painted as one filled with racists. All over a high school basketball game, too.

Anaconda and Arlee played a boys’ and girls’ doubleheader Jan. 22 at Memorial Gym. The Copperhead girls won 50-24 before the Anaconda boys beat Arlee in a hard-fought 53-41 game.

Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.

Not long after the game, the accusations started to fly. Referees, students and parents were accused of being racist against Arlee, which sits on the southern edge of the Flathead Indian Reservation. The schools investigated, a few fans were suspended and a lot of feelings were hurt.

Adults took to Facebook to duke it out over the accusations. KPAX-TV of Missoula did a one-sided story that unfairly painted the Anaconda community in a bad light.

Then, Anaconda’s superintendent threw the town and students under the bus with an editorial to tell Copperhead Nation that it can do better. I believe her intentions were good, but the words read like a confession to crimes that were, at best, exaggerated.

Fans can still watch the entire games on the NFHS Network. Those videos, though, will not show you any evidence to back up any wrong doings by any players or any of the students at the game.

The videos also showed that the four Arlee boys who were injured suffered those injuries during normal basketball play. It does not show proof of racist referees who did not protect the Arlee players from the out-of-control Anaconda players.

Some other videos, though, show an adult fan from Arlee lean over the railing to the court and taunt players from Anaconda as they shook hands following the boys’ game. They show the Arlee coach quickly telling her to stop.

Another video shows an adult Arlee fan walk around the court to confront fans in the Anaconda student section.

Some from Arlee contend that Anaconda students followed the team to McDonalds after the game and taunted players in a racial manner. They also said the referees were racist for not calling fouls on Anaconda.

No, the allegation is nothing to be taken with a grain of salt. But it should be put into context alongside some other accusations that are 100 percent false.

What happened after the game? I don’t know. I do know that Anaconda students tend to gather at McDonalds after games — or on nights when there are no games.

Apparently, some ugly things were said by a small number of people, and that is horrible. It is not even remotely OK.

I don’t want to rehash the back and forth of the ugly arguments. It won’t do us any good, and nobody wants to belittle anyone’s genuine feelings.

I took 300-level classes in Native American studies at the University of Montana, but I cannot possibly put myself in the shoes of a Native man or woman. I have no idea what it is like.

So, I would not dare to tell any Native American what is racist and what is not. I would not tell anyone how to feel.

Native Americans face tremendous discrimination daily. Some of it grabs headlines, while most of it goes on unmentioned and unnoticed by too many. How Native Americans have been treated by our government is a one of the biggest black stains on our nation’s history.

It is a heartbreaking tale.

It is also unfair to so quickly label a community as racist. I know that the three officials drug through the mud with those claims are top-notch referees who are incredibly kind people. I know that they said, as far as they could tell, there were no problems from any players, coaches or student fans during the boys’ game.

I know that the video shows the Anaconda and Arlee boys talking shortly after the handshake line broke up. It shows Anaconda boys waiting long after the game to check on the health of some of the injured players from Arlee.

These two teams actually seem to like and care about each other. The problem is not with them.

I know that, like anywhere else, there are bad guys in Anaconda, and I know teenagers can say some mean, insensitive and stupid things. Adults say and post even worse things.

But Anaconda is not the bad guy here.

The sad reality of this situation is that poor behavior from a small number of adults and some incomplete journalism is reflecting poorly on the student-athletes of Anaconda and Arlee. Both deserve better. These teams and their communities should be lifted up. Instead, both are being torn down.

The games are supposed to be about the players, and that is something that we can never forget. A week after the Arlee-Anaconda games, three fans had to be removed from a girls’ basketball game in Stevensville.

Sports fans are getting worse each year. As a society, we are letting our good judgment deteriorate, and that is steeling the thunder from the athletes who work so hard to try to master their craft.

Hopefully those athletes are not paying attention. Hopefully they do not buy into the bickering and let the insanity overtake the reason. Hopefully they never lose sight of that true meaning of sportsmanship.

It is refreshing to know that there are at least some student-athletes from Anaconda who will never lose sight of that.

Not after getting that refresher course from some Special Olympians.

— 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.