Butte High stars taking talents to junior colleges

My son looked at me in disbelief as we stood on the running track at the Knights of Columbus and watched the Little Kids Hoops program one Saturday morning.

He could not believe what he was watching, and neither could I.

Grady was in kindergarten or first grade, and this one player with really long hair was impressing everybody, especially us. Temporary backboards are put on the main hoops for players in the second grade and under in the kids’ league, lowering the rims to about 7 feet from the ground.

But this player still stood out.

Every shot attempted was good. More importantly, this player made sure to share the ball to get some of the other boys and girls involved in the game.

Eventually, Grady tugged on my shirt as he looked at his future teammate and classmate in football and baseball at Butte High and said, “Dad, that girl is good.”

“Yeah, pal,” I said. “I don’t think that’s a girl.”

We were watching Cayde Stajcar play for the first time. We were both blown away.

It took a little longer for me to finally watch Hudson Luedtke in action. He was another athlete whose name we all knew long before he stepped onto a high school field or court. Like with Stajcar, he had the right DNA cocktail to be something special.

It wasn’t until Aug. 25, 2022 when I finally got to watch Luedke play, and he did not disappoint. Luedtke caught a 10-yard touchdown as Butte High beat Billings Senior 36-28 in a non-conference football game at Naranche Stadium. He was a freshman for the Bulldogs.

That same night, Stajcar, also a freshman, caught a touchdown. His went for 80 yards as Butte High’s newest dynamic duo put the rest of the state on notice.

I watched that night with the same awe that my son expressed when he saw Stajcar play for the first time. I couldn’t help but think that I might have just made a huge mistake.

Earlier that month, I decided to move away from my job as a full-time sportswriter so I could focus on my own thing.

I was incredibly burnt out after a decade of posting at least one story per day on ButteSports.com. I was tired from working so many hours and never being able to go to a family wedding or graduation party.

The main reason for that decision, though, was that my son was about start his high school career. After a more than two decades following around other people’s high school athletes, it was time that I got to watch my own for a change.

I was not going to miss his freshman football game in Helena because I had to cover a soccer game in Butte.

As I watched these two freshmen contribute to a varsity win — something I never thought I would type about a Class AA high school football game — I could not help but think I was about to miss out on four years of incredible writing moments.

Nothing makes writing about sports more fun than a great player. Having two superstars at once would be off the charts, and this was potentially the best two classmates at Butte High since Gary Kane and Todd Erickson with the Class of 1989.

Stajcar and Luedtke lived up to that billing, too. Stajcar stood out in football for the Bulldogs for three years before sitting out his senior season with a health issue. He played varsity basketball as a freshman and then returned to the team as a senior.

Of course, he was best known for his play on the baseball diamond. As a sophomore, he became the first Montana winner of the baseball Gatorade Player of the Year award. He is a slick-fielding shortstop all five tools.

Two weeks ago, Stajcar committed to play baseball at Central Arizona College. The Vaqueros play in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference. They are a five-time National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national champion in baseball, with the latest title coming in 2022.

While playing in junior college, Stajcar will be eligible to be drafted by a Major League Baseball team. He could also transfer to a four-year NCAA team down the road.

Luedtke will also get his start at a junior college program. In recent days, Luedtke committed to play for new coach Ty Larson at Casper College in Wyoming. The Thunderbirds play in the NJCAA Region IX (Division I).

This is a great opportunity for Luedtke, who did not get the offers from the bigger schools that he wanted after shattering Butte High’s all-time scoring record — despite being routinely double and triple teamed for his entire career.

Larson is an up-and-coming head coach, too. He recently coached under Bobby Hurley at Arizona State, but we will not hold that against him. Before that, Larson coached under Chris Beard and Rodney Terry at the University of Texas.

Or, as his father Matt Luedtke said, “He was flying first class with Beard recruiting 4- and 5-star guys. Now he is driving 7 hours to offer Hudson Luedtke.”

Hudson will definitely be worth the drive and the full-ride scholarship. He was a four-year All-State player in football and basketball for the Bulldogs. I don’t know of any other Montana athlete to ever pull off that trick.

Hudson worked harder at his craft than any player I have ever covered, and I cannot wait to see how great he is now that he will be able to focus on one sport.

My bet is that he will parlay his two years at Casper into multiple offers with NCAA Division I schools. If we’re lucky, he’ll come home to Montana to play.

His four years at Butte High were certainly fun to watch, and they went by way too fast. The same goes for Stajcar, who still has a month of playing time for Butte High on the baseball team.

Years from now, both are ticketed to the Butte Sports Hall of Fame, where they will go down with Kane and Ericson as one of the all-time great athletic duos.

Even though I did not get to cover their teams full-time as a sportswriter, I still had a good seat to watch the great era in Butte High sports. So, I don’t feel like I missed out on anything at all.

I still got to watch two great teammates who are as polite and humble as they are talented, and I loved every second of it.

The best thing, though, is that we know these two remarkable careers are still very far from being over.

Two brand-new fanbases are about to be as blown away as my son and I were when we watched that morning at the Knights of Columbus.

— Bill Foley, who was never fun to watch play anything, 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.