Jim Stergar has been the head coach of the Billings Central boys’ basketball team for the last decade and a half.

Last Saturday night in Great Falls, Stergar’s Rams beat Dillon 70-40 in the championship game of the Class A State tournament. The win was the 16th in a row for the Rams, and none of those wins were all that close. They outscored their three opponents at State by an average of 26.3 points.

The title was the third for the Rams under Stergar. They also won it in 2019 and 2021.

Stergar’s run at Billings Central followed a nine-stint run at Billings Senior. He also coached several seasons in Ronan, where he mentored 2000 Montana Gatorade Player of the Year Matt Luedtke.

Before all that, though, Stergar was an Anaconda Copperhead. The 1989 Anaconda High School graduate was a part of some pretty good football, basketball, baseball, track and golf teams in the Smelter City.

As a senior, Stergar and the Copperheads advanced to the Class A State championship basketball game, where they fell to Livingston.

Stergar played one season for Rick Dessing on the Montana Tech men’s basketball team before transferring to Montana Western to play for Casey Keltz. He transferred schools because playing for Dessing made him want peruse a career as a teacher and a coach, and Montana Tech did not offer a road to teaching in those days.

Today, Stergar, who says he recently turned 39, has no plans on giving up coaching. He loves doing what he does, and that is helping mold better men. The winning just seems to follow.

Listen in to this episode to hear what drives Stergar and the hear that he still very much is a Copperhead.

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