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Izzy Dawson, Kyle Holter named Leskovar Athletes of the Week
East Middle School seventh grader Izzy Dawson and Butte Central senior Kyle Holter are the Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week.
Dawson takes home the girls’ honor after completing basketball and wrestling seasons at East. She competes in the Unified Sports program at the school.
“Izzy is a hard-working, determined young girl,” coach Kelci Thatcher said of Dawson. “She is kind and caring, always offering a helping hand to others as she has a great smile. Izzy was a leader on the basketball floor, both often civilly and defensively. She was the leading score for the Eagles. She also did a great job of getting the ball to her teammates.”
Holter is the boys’ honoree after helping lead the Maroons to the third-place trophy at the Class A State tournament in Bozeman. Holter scored in double figures in all four of BC’s games as the Maroons closed the season at 23-2. Over the past two seasons, Holter and the Maroons went 49-3.
As a freshman, Holter played on BC’s 2020 State championship team. He started his last three seasons, and he will go down as perhaps the best high school defensive player the Mining City has ever seen. He helped the Maroons take home the 2022 title in Missoula.
Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is honoring the finest student-athletes from the Mining City in an effort to encourage more children to get up, get out and try all kinds of sports and activities.
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KC basketball schedule
Following is the Knights of Columbus Athletic Club’s four-man basketball schedule for the week of March 13.
Monday
6 p.m. — Poi Time vs. Parish
7 p.m. — OFU vs. ButteSports
8 p.m. — ButteSports vs. Crib Crew
9 p.m. — Hoopin’ Heathens vs. Bomb SquadTuesday
6 p.m. — Roll Diggs vs. Parish
7 p.m. — Longie Trucking vs. Logan’s
8 p.m. — Logan’s vs. Rosary Rattlers
9 p.m. — Towel Boys vs. Poi TimeWednesday
6 p.m. — OFU vs. Hoopin’ Heathens
7 p.m. — Dream Team vs. Fighting Irish
8 p.m. — ButteCast vs. Longie Trucking
9 p.m. — Towel Boys vs. Rosary RattlersThursday
7 p.m. — Roll Diggs vs. Bomb Squad
8 p.m. — ButteCast vs. Fighting Irish
9 p.m. — Dream Team vs. Rosary Rattlers
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Podcast No. 65: Brooke Badovinac
On the basketball court, Brooke Badovinac has a calm, cool demeanor as she lights up the scoreboard and her competition.
That earned the Butte Central senior the nickname “The Assassin.”
She scored 671 points as a junior. That is the most high school points scored by a Butte boy or girl in Mining City history. Despite drawing double teams — and even the triangle-and-two defense at least once — Badovinac still scored 23.4 points per game as a senior.
She matched Kellie Johnson-Mead’s girls’ school record of 42 points in one game.
In November, Badovinac signed to play basketball at Montana Tech, so Butte hoops fans will have four more years to watch “The Assassin” in action.
Listen in as Badovinac talks about beginning her hoops career at the Knights of Columbus, playing Saturday mornings in the Little Kids Hoops program. Listen as she talks about facing that triangle-and-two defense and what it was like to rewrite so many records.
Listen as she talks about winning the KC MVP before her classmate Dougie Peoples, and listen to her take on the BC boys playing at the Class A State tournament in Bozeman this week.
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Charlie Merrifield was an icon’s icon
There are sports icons, and then there are sports icons.
When it comes to athletics in the Mining City, we have a lot of names that have reached legendary status. We have guys like Bob O’Billovich, Milt Popovich, Sam Jankovich, Brian Morris and Colt Anderson. We have Lexie Nelson, Kellie Johnson, Meg Haran and Liza Merrifield.
We have so many that you cannot name them all off the top of your head. So many greats led the Bulldogs and Maroons to titles. Some went on to play their sports at the highest level.
Others coached athletes so they could reach heights they never knew were possible.
Then, there are icon’s icons. The Mount Rushmore types, and those are rare.
We are talking Eso Naranche. We are talking Swede Dahlberg. We are talking Charlie Merrifield.Merrifield died in his sleep Monday morning. He was 90, and that somehow seems way too young.
His death came shortly after he watched his grandson Casey and the Butte High Bulldogs clinch a berth in the Class AA State boys’ basketball tournament at the Western AA Divisional in Kalispell.
He undoubtedly went to bed thinking about those Bulldogs and dreaming of the upcoming track season.
Merrifield officially retired as the head boys’ track coach at Butte High a decade ago. The truth is, he was a track coach until the very end. He was working with track athletes — from Butte High and Butte Central — in the days before he passed.
The man would eat, drink, breathe and sleep track. On his first date with Betty Whelan, he took her to a track meet.
Somehow, he won her over, and the two were together ever since. Rarely would you see Betty without Charlie by her side.
Charlie was one of Dahlberg’s students and then one of his assistant coaches.
He first started coaching track for the Bulldogs as an assistant under Dahlberg in 1963, and was part of Butte High state championship teams in 1963 and 1966.
When Dahlberg hung up the whistle after the 1966 season, Charlie assisted George Tarrant for seven seasons.
In 1974, the same year I was born, Merrifield took over the Butte High program, and the Bulldogs won back-to-back titles in his first two years. Butte High’s boys also won the 1981 and 1982 crowns under Merrifield.
During his remarkable career as head coach, Charlie saw Bulldogs win an individual title 60 times. His relay teams also took home seven golds.
“If Charlie had a strength as a coach, it was bringing the best out of athletes,” Pat Kearney wrote in the final days of Merrifield’s run as head coach in 2013. “He guided some of the remarkable athletes ever to compete at Butte High. This list includes Mike Houlihan, Bryl Thompson, Danny Hanley, Kelly Davis, Ron Collins, Scott Hemmert, Josh Paffhausen, Jake Larson, Zach Ueland and Tony Cunneen.”
Charlie, though, did not limit sharing his wisdom with just his Bulldog boys.
In 1982, Merrifield worked with Morris, the Butte Central star, helping him win the 110- and 300-meter hurdles while helping the Maroons capture the team title.
More recently, he worked with Rileigh McGree, helping one of the all-time great Butte Central girls in her remarkable career, which is continuing at the University of Montana thanks, in part, to Charlie.
Merrifield was a Bulldog legend, but he was colorblind when it came to the track. Nobody around knew more about the hurdles than Charlie, and he was happy to share his knowledge with any man, woman, boy or girl who wanted to clear a hurdle.
Charlie was also funny. Really funny.
One time the late Swede Kenison accidentally fired the gun for a false start, disrupting the 100-meter dash at the Swede Dahlberg Invitational.
Charlie started laughing at his friend, and then he yelled, “Someone take that gun away from Barney Fife.”
In 2017, longtime Kalispell Flathead coach Dan Hodge was called to the Butte Sports Hall of Fame. Charlie, his coach at Butte High, was called to the same Hall in 2003.
Charlie sat in the Butte Civic Center crowd, smiling ear to ear, as Hodge talked about his old coach.
Hodge told of the time Charlie set up the track and clocked Hodge at 13.9 seconds in the 120-yard hurdles in the dirt at Naranche Stadium.
That would have been a national record had Merrifield set up the track correctly. Instead, he made the track 10 yards short and with nine hurdles instead of 10.
Charlie burst out laughing when Hodge pointed out that Merrifield was a math teacher.
That story made my night, and not just because I looked and snapped a photo of Charlie laughing at the story.
From time to time, I have made mistakes in reporting on track. Charlie would notice every time. He would call me to tell me the time or mark I listed for a certain event would have been a world record.
He knew it was just a typo, but he loved to pretend like I just didn’t know any better. He did that when I noted that Butte High great Erika McLeod high jumped more than 17 feet.
Of course, I meant the long jump, not the high jump. Charlie laughed and laughed as he pointed that out.
A girl clearing 7 feet in the high jump would make national news. A 17-foot mark would be out of this world.
Interviewing Charlie during or after a meet was never an easy thing to do. Usually, you talk to a head coach for 3 to 5 minutes, or so.
With Charlie, you got 30 seconds. If you were lucky.
It wasn’t that Charlie was rude or short. Everything he gave you was gold. It was just that Charlie had too many things going through his mind at a track meet to stop for more than a few seconds.
Charlie’s last official day of his head coaching career was a good one. On the Saturday of the Class AA State meet in Bozeman in 2013, Charlie watched his grandson Jake Dennehy place fourth in the discus.
After Jake threw for the final time, he gave his grandpa a big, long hug.
It would have been the perfect ending to his long coaching career, had we thought it was the end. We knew better, though. We knew Charlie would coach track until he took his last breath.
Now, he will be missed by so many. I miss him already.
Every time I would see him, Charlie would smile and stick out his hand. When you saw him in the hallway at Butte High, he would tell you to “hit it,” to see how strong of a grip you had on that handshake.
The grip was never as strong as Charlie’s. Nobody’s was.
That scene played out when I talked to Charlie for the last time after a basketball game a couple of weeks ago. Charlie shook my hand with his iron grip, and then told me I should have mentioned that “Jumpin’ Joe” Kelly did not have the benefit of the 3-point line when I wrote about Butte Central star Dougie Peoples passing the Butte legend on the all-time scoring list.
Charlie was right.
Then, Charlie flashed that grin, as if I had just written that Erica McLeod jumped over the moon.
Butte High and Butte Central athletes compete on the Charlie Merrifield Track. It is a fitting name and an incredible tribute to the great coach and great man.
Somehow, though, it doesn’t seem like enough to honor and remember Charlie.
That’s because anything short of adding his face to Mount Rushmore just seems way too little when trying to explain the impact of this icon’s icon.
— Bill Foley can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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Podcast No. 64: Rick Anderson
Rick Anderson is a grandpa who is fighting back against Cystic Fibrosis.
The retired attorney started Butte’s NCAA March Madness Calcutta Cystic Fibrosis Benefit nearly a decade ago, and the event has helped raise much needed money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
In that time, amazing breakthroughs in the treatment of the disease have been made. A lot of fun has been had, too.
This year’s event will be held Wednesday, March 15 at the Butte Country Club. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the actioning of teams will begin a 7. Last year’s winning team took home more than $62,000.
The Calcutta gives 90 percent of the money out in prizes. The other 10 percent goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The event also features a Dutch auction and a whole lot of appetizers.
Listen to this podcast as Rick discusses the first 10 years of the Calcutta, how it started and how it is going. Listen to him give the credit to everyone but himself.
Listen in as he talks about his grandson and granddaughter who are living with Cystic Fibrosis and hear why Rick could let that go without a fight.
Click on the poster below for more information on the Calcutta.
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Montana is starting to look a lot like North Korea
Have you ever tried to swear on a text message?
Thanks to the stupid invention that is autocorrect, it is not an easy thing to do. That is why we see a lot of talk about ducks and shots in the Yankees-Red Sox text chain I have been a part of for about the last five years.
Autocorrect is the same technology that keeps wanting to call Tommy Mellott “Tommy Mellon,” as if the Montana State star quarterback could do the Triple Lindy off the high board.
Sure, my wife says I need to find some better friends, and she is probably right.
She will see me laughing at something one of them texted and ask what is so funny. When I try to explain, she just rolls her eyes because not everyone has the sense of humor of an eighth-grade boy.
When appropriately discussing the Yankees, however, swearing is a must.
It is also hard to not use obscene language when taunting your friends about politics, basketball, football or their mothers.
If Republican legislators in Montana get their way, however, such eloquent, sophisticated banter could be much harder to communicate in the future.
House Bill No. 349, which passed the Montana House on Friday, would require manufacturers of phones and tablets sold in Montana to install and enable obscenity filters by July 1. Failure to do so would result in a $10,000 fine.
Yes, the party of less government and fewer red tape is pushing for more government overreach and whole lot of extra red tape.
It might be the silliest piece of legislation since North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un came up with the really good idea of outlawing sarcasm in his country.
The beauty of the law is that old timers like us will have to ask our kids how to turn the obscenity filter off if the Montana Taliban gets its way.
You know that will happen, right? The children will figure out how to turn the filter off, while those of us whose VCRs still flash 12:00 will not.
It is hard to say exactly what an obscenity filter will filter, but those of us not smarter than a fifth grader might have to start using euphemisms and suggestive vulgarity instead of swear words. We are all going to have to talk like we are on the radio and write like we are in the newspaper.
That, though, could be more fun. I have always maintained that suggestive humor is the best.
The Opie and Anthony Show was much funnier on the airwaves than it was on the unregulated satellite radio. Seinfeld on NBC was funnier than Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO.
That is probably why you usually see people smiling ear to ear when they chant “Let’s Go Brandon.” Sure, I have more respect for the people who just say “F-word Joe Biden” than I do those who are too chicken S-word to say what they really mean, but I kind of like the intention of a suggestive loophole.
If the Senate passes the bill and Governor Greg Gianforte signs it into law — and you know he will — we will have to start suggesting swear words instead of typing real obscenities and then retyping them because of stupid autocorrect.
That could be a lot of fun — if I knew for sure my friends were smart enough to figure it out. A couple of them are, but not all of them.
Plus, using the blank-word method is confusing. There are multiple P-words and multiple C-words, and we seem to be adding to the list of words considered dirty every day.
It is hard to keep up with the words the powers that be tell us are bad.
Are we going to have to start abbreviating with two letters like the states in a mailing address?
My text chain includes three Red Sox fans and two Yankees fans. It used to be 3 on 3 but one Yankees fan took the B-word way out and left. It is basically 3 on 1 Red Sox now because another Yankees fan is unarmed when it comes to a battle of the wits.
That dip S-word just swears at us on the rare times that he chimes in. Thanks to HB349, he might not be able to do that.
Then I will be down to just three idiot friends because that D-word won’t even be able to send the middle finger emoji anymore, and that is just a shame.
I am pretty sure when the founding fathers wrote the Bill of Rights, they intended for me to use a middle finger emoji when I walk around with my Uzi.
How am I going to properly emphasize the need to put some respect on Rafael Devers’ name without an expletive?
When Aaron Judge strikes out in a key situation, and he will, I will have to text “All sit the F-word down!”
Or will the filter get rid of that, too?
We will have to start communicating like 13-year-old girls with texts like OMFG and LMAO.
Who wants to do that? I am not even sure what that means.
HB349 will also likely lead to higher prices for cell phones. The manufacturers are not going to eat the cost of complying with government meddling. They will pass that S-word on to the customers.
Yes, we get the idea of the bill. It is to “protect the children.”
Well, that and to divert attention as our rich out-of-state elected officials give ginormous tax breaks to the super-rich and sell off our natural resources to their wealthy, out-of-state friends.
The party that wants to ban books and put “parents back in charge,” is looking to take parents out of the equation in the first place.
Parents should already be able to protect their children by monitoring their cellphone and tablet use. They should already be talking to their children about the time they spend on their devices and what they are spending it on.
Gianforte already took overreaching steps to block the use of TikTok over Wi-Fi on state college campuses because, he says, China is using the app to spy on Americans.
You know, those same Americans who share their every inner thought and location on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or whatever other new social media comes out this week cannot have their privacy compromised.
That last line would not go over well with Kim Jong-un. Or Greg Gianforte.
You know who would applaud our governor’s banning of an app? You guessed it. China and North Korea.
Both of those authoritarian countries would be big fans of a mandatory obscenity filter. So would Russia and any other country where the people are not free to do as they choose.
If parents want to stop their children from accessing obscenity, they already have the tools. If a phone does not have parental protection on it, then they can buy another kind of phone.
Or, they can simply not buy their children phones and tablets in the first place. They could buy them a book — if they are not already burned.
Why infringe on the rights of the rest of us idiots to be, well, idiots?
I get it. My friends and I are clowns for the humor we express when S-wording on the Yankees and Red Sox.
But that is our right, and we are not hurting anybody but our own feelings.
We should not have to ask our children how to turn off the obscenity filter so we can text like adults.
— Bill Foley, who once accidentally did the Triple Lindy from the high board, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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Podcast No. 63: Ted Ackerman
With Montana Tech’s men’s basketball team hosting the first two rounds of the NAIA National Tournament Tuesday and Wednesday, I thought it would be fun to catch up with an Oredigger great from a half century ago.
From 1971 through 174, Ted Ackerman scored 1,681 points while playing for the Orediggers. His 1972 team averaged just under 92 points, and the 1973 team went 20-8, giving the school its first 20-win season.
Ackerman then coached Butte High’s girls’ basketball team, where his teams compiled a record of 96-80 from 1982 through 1989.
Listen in as Ackerman talks about his playing days at Great Falls Russell and Montana Tech. Listen as he talks about coaching All-Americans and Butte Sports Hall of Famers at Butte High.
Listen to him talk about creating the masterpiece that is The Miners Hotel and the 51 Below Speakeasy. Listen as he describes what it was like to watch his daughter, Krystal, inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
This podcast is a great way to gear up for the biggest home Montana Tech basketball games in nearly 40 years.
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Leskovar Athletes of the Week: Brityn Stewart, Jace Stenson
Butte High basketball players Brityn Stewart and Jace Stenson are the Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week.
The honors come after the two Bulldogs put up big performances during the Western AA Divisional tournament in Kalispell.
Stewart, a 5-foot-8 sophomore, takes home the girls’ honor after she set Butte High’s girls’ postseason record with 36 points in a 67-59 overtime win over Helena Capital. She also pulled down 10 rebounds in the victory that kept the Bulldog season alive one more day.
With her huge performance, Stewart passed Butte Sports Hall of Famer Deanna Dugdale for No. 1 on Butte High’s girls’ postseason scoring list. Dugdale scored 35 points in a 1982 Class AA State tournament game against Columbia Falls.
Only Lexie Nelson, who tossed in 39 points in a home win over Billings Skyview in 2010, has scored more points in a game for the Bulldog girls.
“Brityn has been a huge part of our team this year,” Bulldog coach Bryan Arntson said of Stewart. “She has gotten better each week. I really think that Brityn is just scratching the surface on how good of a player she can be. She is a great kid and one of the hardest workers we’ve seen. I look forward to seeing her progression from this year to next.”
Stenson, a 6-2 senior who will play football at Montana Tech, takes home the boys’ honor. That comes after Stenson scored 66 points in four games to help lead Butte High’s boys to third place in the Western AA.
After scoring a game-high 24 points in Butte High’s 89-65 loser-out win over Kalispell Flathead on Friday, Stenson scored 33 points in two games on Saturday. He scored 16 as Butte High clinched a berth in the Class AA State tournament with a 79-64 win over Helena High. Then he poured in 17 in a 73-45 rout of Missoula Big Sky in the third-place game.
In the regular-season, Stenson averaged 12.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
“When Jace is locked in, he is one of the most dynamic scorers in the state,” Butte High coach Matt Luedtke said of Stenson. “I have loved coaching him during his time as a Bulldog, and I am looking forward to seeing him continue playing great at the State tourney.”
Butte High will open the tournament at 3:30 p.m. Thursday against Bozeman at the Butte Civic Center.
Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is honoring the finest student-athletes from the Mining City in an effort to encourage more children to get up, get out and try all kinds of sports and activities.
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KC basketball schedule
Following is the Knights of Columbus Athletic Club’s four-man basketball schedule for the week of March 6.
Monday
6 p.m. — Poi Time vs. Bomb Squad
7 p.m. — OFU vs. Longie Trucking
8 p.m. — Roll Diggs vs. ButteCast
9 p.m. — ButteSports vs. Rosary RattlersTuesday
7 p.m. — Logan vs. Parish
8 p.m. — Logan vs. Fighting Irish
9 p.m. — Hoopin’ Heathens vs. Towel BoysWednesday
6 p.m. — OFU vs. Parish
7 p.m. — Hoopin’ Heathens vs. Dream Team
8 p.m. — Longie Trucking vs. ButteSports
9 p.m. — Towel Boys vs. Bomb SquadThursday
7 p.m. — Roll Diggs vs. Fighting Irish
8 p.m. — Dream Team vs. ButteCast
9 p.m. — Rosary Rattlers vs. Poi Time -
Podcast No. 62: Shawn Roxx Hoskins
Remember Luigi, Butte’s one-man, 24-pice band in Butte?
Well, Shawn Roxx Hoskins is Butte’s Luigi of Metal. He not only listens to and plays heavy metal, Roxx lives it. The heavier the metal, the better, too.
“Metal Man” is a Butte original. He has been playing metal on the radio for more than 38 years. You can catch his show at 8 p.m. every Saturday on KMBF. He also has metal gigs coming up in Butte and in Deer Lodge.
Roxx was the 1974 Elks Hoop Shoot state champion. He was a star on the basketball court for the Blane and Sherman schools. He could have played for Butte High, but, being true to his roots, he refused to get a haircut.
Listen in as Roxx discusses his athletic days, his love for the Washington Commanders, growing up in Walkerville and his family. He calls his father, Sonny, a cross between Fonzy and James Dean.
Listen as he talks about his favorite bands and hear how he is the biggest Kiss fan in the world. Listen as he shows that he is as genuine as they come.
Roxx met me at the 51 Below Speakeasy, where you can play trivia every Wednesday and listen to live music most Fridays, and did anything but speak easy. He was animated, funny and loud. This is a podcast you do not want to miss.
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 