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Podcast No. 196: KC honors Colt, Bulldogs from 1967, 1968
With help from Jim Michelotti, Bernie Boyle turned the Knights of Columbus Hall into an incredible sports museum years ago.
The main floor, the weight room, gym are all filled with team and individual photos. It would take a week to truly examine each of the photos. Yesterday, the KC museum got a whole lot better during an afternoon celebration in front of a packed house.
A couple of signs were added to the wall of main hall to honor some outstanding Butte athletes. The first is a sign recognizing Butte High’s back-to-back Class AA State championship football teams from 1967 and 1968.
Many of the teammates — or the sons and daughters of players and coaches — were there to celebrate.
Then came a surprise as Bernie unveiled a sign to honor the career of Colt Anderson. Colt, of course, played nine seasons in the National Football League. That followed a legendary career playing for the Butte High Bulldogs and Montana Grizzlies.
He was recently hired as the special teams coordinator of the Tennessee Titans.
Colt, who is in town for his Dream Big Event this week, was tricked into attending. He was told his father, Mike, was being honored for his induction into the Montana Officials Association Hall of Fame.
Colt became emotional when he learned that he was the man of the hour. He praised his parents as well as his brothers and sister.
Listen into this podcast to hear Bernie Boyle introduce the back-to-back champion Bulldogs. After Bernie, former Bulldogs Paul Cutler, Marty Judd and Glen Welch took the mic for a few words.
Then Mike Anderson introduced his son as the sign was unveiled.
Following the ceremony, I sat down to talk with Welch and Judd. Then I talked to the Cutler brothers, Al and Paul.
Finally, listen in as a conversation with Anderson received a surprise guest as Colt’s Butte High coach Greg Salo sat down. Salo was also a part of those Bulldog championship teams from yesteryear.
Today’s podcast is brought to you by Casagranda’s Steakhouse. Eat where the locals eat.
Glen Welch, left, and Marty Judd 
Al Culter, left, and his brother Paul 
Colt Anderson 
Greg Salo 
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British Petroleum decision shows that public participation can work
Now it’s time to step up fight for Centerville
The “Dirty Dirt Train” has been derailed, and it was the public who did the dirty work.
Our children and grandchildren will be the winners.
Josh Bryson of British Petroleum/Atlantic Richfield announced Tuesday that the company now intends to remove all on-site contaminated material when it begins cleanup under the Consent Decree along the Silver Bow Creek corridor.
This apparently means that the Consent Decree cleanup will be done to the standard of the Parrot Tailings cleanup, and that is very good news. There will be no “gray fill” or “dirty dirt” left behind for future contamination.
This news comes no thanks to our local government. In fact, in comes despite the work of Butte-Silver Bow and the chief executive.
This news also proves that public participation in important decisions like this can be a good thing. While the government pushed back and did not listen to the public, it is obvious that British Petroleum and Atlantic Richfield certainly did.
Finally. Thankfully.
It should also reinforce residents of Centerville that we can stand up and fight back our chief executive’s plans to dump toxic waste near homes on the Butte Hill.
The “Dirty Dirt Train” has been taken down. Now it is time to derail the toxic plan that would make Butte neighborhoods unsafe for generations to come.
We owe this victory to a handful of environmental watchdogs who decided to take on this important fight. When the people learned what was coming, those watchdogs had an army of supporters behind them.
With that support, they were able to overcome the secret decision making that was concocted behind closed. They were able to shed some light on what our local government was deliberately trying to keep in the dark.
That secrecy is what has held back the cleanup process for so long. It was that secrecy that put the financial concerns of a rich foreign company over the health and safety of the people of Southwestern Montana.
The first secret plan that we beat back was to dump toxic waste near Copper Mountain Park and by homes in the Timber Butte neighborhood.
The second secret plan was to dump the same waste instead in the Kelley Mine yard, including the historic Dublin Gulch and near homes in Centerville and Corktown.
With some help from my curious dad, who walks the trails by the Mountain Con Mine nearly every day, I was able to expose that secret Dublin Gulch plan late last summer. That led to some public outrage, which insisted on dumping the more than 800,000 cubic yards of toxic waste into the Berkeley Pit.
We were first told by BP/ARCO and our chief executive that the Pit was not an option. We maintained that it should be to the point that suddenly they thought it was a good idea.
All of the waste apparently cannot be dumped into the Pit, so the plan from our chief executive is still to dump the worst of the waste a chip shot away from homes.
Think about that. The waste is too toxic for the Berkeley Pit, but the chief executive says it is OK to bury it under 18 inches of dirt near homes and a park.
At a recent meeting of the Butte-Silver Bow Council of Commissioners, one commissioner who is a member of the largely secret repository siting committee put together by the chief executive, said that the waste cannot leave Silver Bow County.
Oh? Tell that to the people of Missoula.
When they Superfund cleanup of the Milltown Dam was going on years ago, the residents of Missoula County did not have to fight to keep the waste away from their neighborhoods. Instead, they put it on train cars and shipped it away to the Opportunity Ponds in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County.
That toxic waste crossed four county lines on the way to its resting place.
Some waste from Anaconda and Butte has also been dumped at the ARCO-owned Opportunity Ponds over the years.
But our chief executive insists on keeping the Superfund waste close by so it can haunt Butte citizens for the rest of eternity.
Now it appears we beat British Petroleum/ARCO back to where they should have been in the first place. Now, they are back to where they would have been had our local government not done all of its negotiating in secret since the signing of the Consent Decree in 2020.
When I am chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow, any and all meetings will be open because I trust the members of the public to participate in these important decisions that impact all of us.
It appears the center of Butte will get the cleanup the people have been promised.
Now more than ever, we have to keep fighting so the people on the Butte Hill get the environmental justice they deserve, too.
— Bill Foley, who is running to be the next chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. For more on his candidacy, visit foleyforbutte.com.
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Delaney’s pink works for Magic
Apparently, it was the Sunday pink uniforms that did the trick.
While wearing pink to honor the late Delaney Doherty, Coach McCaul McCarthy’s Mining City Magic softball team made an improbable championship run in the 14U division at a tournament in Helena.
McCarthy, a former standout softball and basketball player at Butte High, is a cousin of Doherty, a Manhattan softball star who was killed in an automobile accident last summer. Her team wears pink jerseys and socks each Sunday in honor of Delaney. The players also wear a memory logo on theirs sleeves.
This Sunday, McCarthy’s Magic team entered Sunday’s tournament play seeded sixth. Playing for Delaney, they battled their way through three long and hot games to win the championship. The Butte girls beat No. 1-seeded Bozeman 11-7 to cap the championship run.
Players on the team are Taylor Regan, Ellie Graham, Regan Warren, Lilly Sandoval, Brea Henderson, Cliry Conway, Rigby Bauer, Jordyn Giop, Karlee Jeffrey, Bella Schrapps, Joee Regan and Preslee Johnson.
Shane McCarthy is the co-head coach with McCaul. Joe Warren and Brent Giop are the assistants.
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Once again, Class AA administrators show that they don’t get it
The three days spanning Feb. 29 through March 2 should have been highly embarrassing for the administrators from Montana’s Class AA high schools.
They should have been ashamed to show their faces after that. However, they apparently do not feel the appropriate shame.
Feb. 29 through March 2 was the weekend of the Western AA and Eastern AA Divisional basketball tournaments, and the Class AA totally got outclassed by the Class A.
That was middle of three straight weekends of basketball tournaments at the Butte Civic Center. It started with the Western A Divisional. Next was the Western AA Divisional, which was followed by the Class A State to tournament.
Two of the tournaments were packed with excitement from the opening whistle on Thursday morning until the final buzzer on Saturday night. The other one was the Class AA tournament, and it was largely a snoozefest.
The Class A tournaments had an electric atmosphere. Most of the schools brought their bands and cheerleaders, and they had great student sections.
Each game featured a halftime show to entertain the crowd.
At the Class AA tournament, the halftime performance was watching the old guys sweep the floor and counting how many people peppered them with jokes about not being as fast as Tate Hakala.
Oh, the basketball was good, and the atmosphere was fun when Butte High played. Other than that, though, all we had was stands slightly filled with parents.
It really felt more like a travel tournament than a high school event.
This, of course, is 100 percent the fault of the Class AA administrators. They purposely sabotaged the divisional tournaments.
On the surface, that might sound like a ridiculous accusation. Hear me out, though.
The Class AA finally agreed to go back to divisional tournaments for the first time since 1990 following the 2017-18 season. Chuck Merrifield, Butte High’s activities director, finally wore his colleges down.
For years, Merrifield had been pushing to move back to divisional tournaments because he is the rarest of breeds of Class AA administrators. He actually gets what sports are all about.
Chuck knew that the Class AA athletes were getting the shaft for nearly 30 years. He knew that some schools went more than a decade without playing in a tournament at all.
Year after year, Chuck brought up divisional tournaments. Year after year, they shut him down.
He did not change his argument as he brought up the cause each year. Apparently, he just wore them down and got them to bring back divisional tournaments at the end of the 2017-18 season.
But the rest of the administrators made sure it was never done right.
First, they implemented a rule that the tournaments could not be played in arenas — like the Four Seasons in Great Falls, the Adams Center in Missoula, the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman, the Metra in Billings or the Butte Civic Center.
Rather, they had to be played in smaller high school gyms or college gyms.
The Eastern AA Divisional made its debut in Butte in 2018. The boys played at the Richardson Gym at Butte High, and the girls played at Montana Tech. In several instances, the boys and girls from the same school were playing at the same time in gyms across town.
This year’s Western AA Divisional at the Civic Center was the only one of the divisional tournaments in seven years to be played in an arena. The Eastern AA was played at MSU-Billings, while a Class B divisional was played at the Metra.
Oh, and they made a rule where only the home teams could have a band and cheerleaders at the tournaments. They didn’t realize that the tournaments are about all the school’s students. Or, more likely, they don’t care.
“They did everything in their power to make it half-assed and cheap,” said Butte High graduate Luke Powers, who recently resigned as head coach after four years leading the boys’ team in Belgrade.
As bad as they tried to make the tournament experience, at least the boys and girls had a fighting chance on the court. Until now.
Recently, the shortsighted Class AA administrators decided to scrap divisionals for basketball and volleyball. They decided to reduce the number of teams in the State softball tournament from 12 to eight.
Powers was the coach of the Butte High boys’ basketball team from 2015-16 through 2018-19, and he helped Merrifield fight for divisional tournaments. He absolutely despises this decision. He said it was the final straw in his decision to step away from coaching.
“To me, it’s not about the kids,” Powers said. “It’s about going through the motions to get it over with. It’s a terrible decision, and it’s bad for kids.”
Powers isn’t the only coach who wanted to keep divisional tournaments. He said when the girls’ and boys’ coaches of the 16 Class AA schools were given the choice to get rid of the tournaments, they voted 32-0 in favor of keeping them.
Yes, 32-0. That is a vote that even Rudy Giuliani could get behind. Not the Class AA administrators, though.
They voted to go against the coaches and against the student-athletes. Merrifield was the only AD to vote to keep the tournaments. Again, because he gets it.
The No. 1 reason these administrators give for the decision is money.
Yes, money is tight. It is a shame that some school districts are cutting back on teachers as mill levies fail around the state.
Still, it is rich to hear administrators with six-figure salaries use money as a reason to take something away from student-athletes. With a little bit of work, those administrators could probably come up with enough sponsorship money to pay for the tournaments in a week or less.
So, excuse me for not buying the money excuse. Plus, money does not seem to be an obstacle for the Class A, B or C.
“That’s a poor excuse from people who don’t want to deal with that weekend,” Powers said of the money justification. “The only administrator who really wanted to work at that and make it a great experience is Chuck.”
More than anything, the divisional tournaments give all the teams a fighting chance, and that is what sports is all about.
Next year, the bottom four teams in the Class AA won’t even get a chance to play in a playoff game. Really, what the heck are we doing here?
“You want a chance,” said Powers, whose No. 8 seeded Panthers beat No. 1 seed Bozeman in the Eastern AA Divisional a couple of years ago. “You want to a chance to improve every year because you aren’t always blessed with talent. That’s motivating.
“To take away that chance to be a Cinderella is just absurd. The system that we got rid of because it was (bad) is coming back, but we made it (worse).”
Like with basketball and volleyball, the reason they give us to cut back in softball is money. But we know better. We know they just want to get it over with.
While players, coaches and fans look forward to the postseason, the Class AA administrators apparently view it like an appointment for a root canal.
These are, after all, the same people who used class time as an excuse for avoiding divisional tournaments all these years. Then, they scheduled a large portion of the basketball games for Tuesday and Thursday nights so they can have weekends off.
When the divisional tournaments came back in 2018, the administrators dropped the regular-season from 20 to 18 games. Now that they dropped the divisionals, they are only adding one more game back to the season.
So, while they are adding to football and wrestling, they are taking away from basketball, volleyball and softball.
It sure sounds like we need some kind of class-action lawsuit on behalf of the Class AA student-athletes. Could a sports-minded lawyer please pick up the white courtesy phone?
That Class AA administrators are hurting the games, and they are limiting scholarship opportunities for the student-athletes. So, a lawsuit might be the only way we can get their attention.
As last Feb. 29 through March 2 clearly shows, embarrassment just will not work on these people.
— Bill Foley, who is not a lawyer, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
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Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week: Noah Powers, Elite Electrical players
This week’s Leskovar Honda Athletes of the Week honors go to Butte Motormen player Noah Powers and the players on the 11-12 division champion Elite Electrical team in the Copper City Softball Little League.
Powers takes home the boys’ honor after helping the Motormen, a Butte American Legion Baseball team, win the Dillon wooden bat tournament this past weekend. He led the team with a dominant pitching performance and some clutch hitting.
In the lineup for three of the four games, Powers went 5 for 8 with four RBIs. He also mowed down Lone Peak for a victory that proved to be the tournament winner. He pitched five innings, giving up one unearned run. Powers scattered five hits, worked around three walks and struck out eight batters.
On the season, Powers is batting .346, and he carries a 3.1 ERA.
The Elite Electrical team takes home the girls’ honor after claiming the league title. Coach Josh Schad’s team went 3-0 in the city tournament last week.
Players on the team are Olivia Angle, Cendyl Campbell, Luciana Fantini, Anya Gavillot, Kaliya Kinard, Kayoni Kinard, Karmyn Kjersten, Quinn Kump, Ryan Olson, Keelie Schad and Shyloh Williams.
For the second year, Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warranty, is teaming up with the ButteCast to honor 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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Zerr, Brusa run to Wulfman titles
Ben Zerr and Jamie Brusa ran to overall titles at the Wulfman’s CDT 14-kilometer Trail Race Saturday.
The race started at Homestake and ended in Pipestone this year. (Click here for complete results)
Zerr, a 20-year-old freshman on the Montana Tech cross country team, claimed the men’s overall title, winning the race in 1 hour, 1 minute, 29.1 seconds. Zerr is from Kailua, Hawaii.
Bozeman’s Sawyer Kesselheim took second in 1:03:15. Three Butte runners followed on the men’s side. Ian Barville took third in 1:03:25, John Kirtley took fourth in 1:04:18, and Don Foley placed third in 1:07:52.
Foley won the master’s title.
Brusa, 36, defended her title on the women’s side. The Belgrade run completed the course in 1:06:14. Brusa finished a close second to Montana Tech superstar Rebecca Richtman two years ago.
Whitehall’s Nicole Murray took second in 1:10:47. Murray won the master’s title.
Bozeman’s Emily Allison placed third on the women’s side in 1:11:24. She was followed by Butte’s Riley Crissman in 1:11:54, Butte’s Kristen Wanke in 1:12:56, and Melrose runner Alyssa Jany in 1:13:23.
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Podcast No. 195: Brett Badovinac
Can you imagine being so good at a sport that you can’t remember how many state championships you won?
That is the case with Brett Badovinac, whom we call Bado for short. Bado knew he won three open state championships, but he wasn’t sure how many masters titles. The master’s division is for players 40 years or older, and Bado won seven of those titles.
He also wasn’t sure if he won an open doubles title with his longtime partner who just happens to be my brother Don. They did. In 2018. They also won four masters titles and one golden masters’ crown. That’s the 50-plus division.
Bado also has won the Bill Ryan and Al Bersanti Memorial Handball Tournament at least 10 times. He won 11 city singles titles and 13 more in doubles. His 11 city titles are tied for Jack Cavanaugh for the most in Butte handball history.
Butte has long been a big handball town. When the all-time great handball players from Butte are discussed, you hear names like Cavanahg Bill Peoples, Ray Gallant, Bob Brady, Jack Whelan, Jack Shannon, Tom Pomoroy, Steve Stanisich and Butch Starin, just to name a few.
You also have to throw Bado’s name in that list. Someday, he should be a slam dunk for the Butte Sports Hall of Fame, even though he is probably most well known for being the father of Brooke Badovinac, the cold-blooded scoring machine who now plays for Montana Tech women’s basektball team.
Bado, though, is still writing his handball story. Recently, he competed in the national championships in Southern California.
Listen into this podcast, which was recorded Wednesday inside the vault at the Metals Sports Bar & Grill, as Bado talks about getting into the sport after college and how it took him years to get to be as good as he is now. Listen as he talks about some of the great handball players he played with and was influenced by along the way. Listen to hear that his father, John, is No. 1on that list.
Today’s podcast is presented by Leskovar Honda, home of the 20-year, 200,000-mile warrantee.
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Butte’s Mike Anderson heading into Montana Officials Hall of Fame
Brian Michelotti, the executive director of the Montana High School Association, announced Wednesday that four officials will be inducted into the Montana Officials’ Association Hall of Fame in 2024.
That list includes longtime Butte official Mike Anderson. Daniel Boucher of Havre, Frank Costello of Billings and Cal Wirtzberger of Havre will also be inducted. Anderson made an appearance on the ButteCast in November 2022.
Following is a breakdown of all the newest members of the Hall of Fame.
Mike Anderson
Anderson graduated from Butte High School in 1972 and matriculated from the University of Montana in 1976, graduating with a bachelor’s in education and soon after also receiving master’s in education. Mike began his 44-year high school basketball officiating career in 1977 as a member of the Montana Officials’ Association. During that time, he worked 21 state tournaments, and 16 divisional/district tournaments. Mike also officiated 38 years with the NAIA Frontier Conference and 15 years with the NCAA Big Sky Conference. Working 5 NAIA postseason tournaments which included 5 NAIA national tournaments that highlighted his tenure. As a football coach, Mike was the defensive coordinator/secondary coach for coach Jon McElroy while at Butte High, winning a state football championship in 1981. Mike later served in the same capacity for head coaches Rick Carriger and Greg Salo, also at Butte High.Mike coached youth baseball for many years, finishing with a 9-year stint as head coach for the Butte AA Miners American Legion Baseball team, where his legion teams qualified for the State AA tournament for 3 years. Mike and his wife, Michele, are the proud parents of Beau, Luke, Colt (Keelie), and Brianna (Cole Dallaserra) and have 7 grandchildren.
Daniel Boucher
Boucherbegan his officiating career shortly after graduating from Missoula Hellgate high school in 1975. He attended the University of Montana and was active in their wrestling program for a short while. After attaining a law degree, he would quickly be swept into the employ of a legal firm in Havre where Dan would go on to serve four decades in the MOA. Dans career included over 50 postseason wrestling events and 26 state tournaments, during which he was voted by his colleagues to serve as head official for many years. Dan also served as MSU-
Northern’s lone official for over 25 years and was selected multiple times for the NAIA, NJCAA Regional and National tournaments. Equal to his time spent as an official, Dan was also an important mentor to young and experienced officials alike across the state and country. His encyclopedic knowledge of the rules made him a valuable member of the MOA and his eagerness to engage in conversation with other officials allowed Dan to make a huge impact on furthering the quality of officiating in Montana. Dan was always at the forefront of rules clarifications and was instrumental in helping guide officials in Montana to a more consistent application of the rules. As the 12th District Court Judge of Hill, Chouteau and Liberty counties, Dan was known to many as a man of very high character. Often referred to as “Judge,” Dan earned the respect and admiration of the wrestling community through his endless patience, calm demeanor, and wise decision-making skills. Above all, participants and coaches alike felt Dan always showed integrity and placed the highest value on getting the call right.
Dan was a dedicated family man. He read nightly to his children at bedtime, was the main homework helper, coached youth soccer teams, volunteered time to read to children at local elementary schools and was always available to help with youth wrestling in many different capacities. Dan enjoyed golfing, going to Griz football games, scuba-diving with his wife and entertaining family and close friends.
Frank Costello
Costello graduated from Billings Central High School in 1975 and went into the insurance business, working with Farmers Insurance Agency in Billings as an agent/owner since 1980. During his career he was a member of the Farmers Insurance Presidents Council and won the Toppers Club multiple times for his hard work and dedication as a top agent.
Frank started officiating basketball with the Montana Officials Association 27 years ago. He worked in numerous districts, divisional and state basketball tournaments. Frank also officiated football contests during his MOA career. Frank served the Billings Officials Association as an assignor and secretary/treasurer for many years. He also served on the Billings Officials Association Executive Committee for several years while officiating. Frank and his wife have been married for 46 years, and has two wonderful daughters, Kierra and Kristin, who have blessed them with 5 grandchildren.
Cal Wirtzberger
Wirtzberger officiated for 35 years, all of which were spent officiating football with 6 years officiating volleyball. He was selected to officiate over 30 postseason football games and 5 State championship football games. In 2005 Cal was selected to officiate the Montana East-West Shrine Game. In 2015, Cal received the North Central Montana Activities Directors Special Service Award for his dedicated service to student athletes. Cal also worked as the Havre Football pool assignor and organizer for 13 years and served two terms as Region 4 MOA Regional Director for the Montana High School Association. In his years as an MOA official, he always demonstrated honesty, integrity, responsibility and superior knowledge of the rules and the game. Athletic directors, coaches and players all have described Cal as fair, knowledgeable, and professional. If you were in an official crew that included Cal, you knew you were going to be held to a very high standard, but also have a leader that could help the game flow smoothly no matter the situation. As a mentor Cal has helped all the top current football officials on the Hi-line including his sons Danny and Patch who are current MOA football and basketball officials as well as coaches in multiple sports. Cal certainly left a positive footprint on officiating in Montana. Currently, Cal still lives in Havre and is enjoying retirement from a 40-year career with the BNSF. You can find him cheering on any of the local sports teams or chasing one of his seven grandkids around the state.
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KC to honor 1967, 1968 Bulldogs
The sports museum that is the Knights of Columbus Hall will now include Butte High’s back-to-back Class AA State championship football teams of 1967 and 1968.
A display honoring those Bulldogs will take place at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25. The public is invited to attend the free event to honor the teams that were inducted into the Butte Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
In 1967, Coach Bill Kambich’s Bulldogs beat Great Falls High 14-0 in the championship game in Great Falls. Jim Becker scored both Butte High touchdowns in the title game. He led the team with 13 touchdowns that season, and Butte High put up a 9-0-1 record.
The team tied Great Falls Central in a 14-all battle.
Victories that season included a 54-6 win over Missoula Sentinel and a 47-13 win over Billings West. The Bulldogs shutout Missoula Hellgate as well as Great Falls High. They outscored their opponents 287-80 in 10 games.
Sonny Lubick took over as head coach in 1968, and the Bulldogs beat Great Falls High 33-13 in the championship game in Great Falls. Butte Sports Hall of Famer Monte Sever led the way for the Bulldogs in the title game, scoring three touchdowns and racking up 262 yards of offense. Seven scored 16 touchdowns on the season.
The Bulldogs went 10-1 on the season, and the victory in the title game avenged a 14-6 loss to the same Great Falls team a week earlier in Butte. The 10 wins set a school record, and Butte High scored 326 points in those 11 games.
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The Comeback Player of the Year
We tried not to let him know how worried we really were.
We didn’t want him to know that we unable to sleep most nights, terrified of the future he might have in front of him if our worst fears were coming true.
After talking with his physical therapist, we had a very bad feeling that something was really wrong with our 12-year-old son. His legs simply were not working anymore.
Grady loved baseball more than most boys, but playing it was becoming closer and closer to impossible. He could not run, and he could no longer balance himself on one leg, so he could no longer pitch. His feet were hurting.
It was getting so bad that he had to grab the handle above the passenger door of my truck and pull himself in with his arms. It is just a basic 1993 Chevy Silverado, too. It is not all Walkervilled up or anything.
So, at the advice of his physical therapist, we went to see a physician assistant of a Kalispell neurologist in Helena to get some answers. This was really scary because Grady seemed to check all the boxes for muscular dystrophy, a nasty disease that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass.
There is no cure for the disease, and it scared the hell out my wife and me. So many nights were spent tossing, turning and staring at the ceiling.
Grady was just worrying about whether he was going to be a Hall of Fame running back or a Hall of Fame third baseman.
That is a tough call.
It was just Grady and me as we drove to Helena that day in 2020. The physician’s assistant was great, and she put Grady through a whole litany of tests.
As we were leaving, she told us that she was not sure what was causing Grady’s problems. She ordered an MRI on his spine along with some other tests.
One thing she knew, however, was that Grady did not have muscular dystrophy.
I was so excited at that news that I had to tell him why I was so happy as we made our way back home. I let him behind the curtain of a worried dad life.
“I really thought you had muscular dystrophy,” I told him. “That would have been really bad. There is no cure, and it probably would have meant that you would be confined to a wheelchair in a few years.”
Just as I got the words out of my mouth, the phone rang. I answered the call, which came over the speakers in our car. It was the physician’s assistant, and she had an update for us.
She said she talked with her doctor, and “he doesn’t want to rule out muscular dystrophy just yet.”
Grady heard every word that I could not take back no matter how badly I wanted too. Now he was just as worried as I was.
The next year involved an MRI, a ton of worry, a lot of tests, a lot of visits with doctors and his physical therapist, a ton of fights with the insurance company to pay for it, more worry, and a lot of miles on the highway.
This was all in the middle of COVID, too.
Grady’s problems actually started in the summer of 2019. He said his feet hurt, particularly when he wore his baseball cleats. So, we took him through the hoops to get to see a foot specialist, who told him he had Sever’s disease, a painful condition that would heal when his growth plates closed.
It turns out he didn’t have that at all. He just suffered similar pain because he basically lost all of the muscle in his legs, and that put a lot of stress on his feet. He also gained weight.
Grady still played baseball. He was picked as an All-Star from the Northwest Little League when he was 11 in 2019. But he had to leave the team because his feet hurt so badly.
His 12-year-old season was cut short because of COVID in 2020, and he played in Butte’s Senior Little League in 2021. He got to play for great coaches like Matt Stepan and Luke Stajcar. They were amazingly understanding and helpful. They also knew Grady could hit.
The problem was he had to hit the ball pretty deep to hit a single. It would take him like 10 seconds to get from the batter’s box to first base. Going from first to third was impressible, so the coaches called a pinch runner after every hit.
We made two trips to a children’s hospital in Salt Lake City, but came away with more questions than answers each time. Then, we took him to the Seattle’s Children’s Hospital in July of 2021. A generous gift from the outstanding Jadyn Fred Foundation out of Missoula helped pay for the flight and hotel room.
In Seattle, Grady saw a doctor who said he stayed up all night the night before studying his file. He figured out what was wrong with him.
In 2015 and again in 2019, Grady had to be Life Flighted to Missoula because he was having severe asthma attacks. Each time, he had to be pumped with a ton of steroids to keep him breathing.
Those steroids saved his life, but they badly messed with his body. It was the steroids that were killing the muscles in his legs, not muscular dystrophy.
That was good news. But here is the better news: The doctor told us Grady would grow out of his problems.
It would take some time, and he would have to work hard. But the doctor said Grady would get better, and he was right.
Grady worked with Jake Querciagrossa and Beth Salusso at Lone Peak Physical Therapy as much as his insurance would let him. He was slowly learning to run again.
He played Senior Little League Baseball again in 2022, and he could still hit. But he still couldn’t run fast enough, so he spent more time in the dugout than on the field.
That fall, Grady played football for Butte High. At his physical, he checked in at 5 feet, 4 inches and 225 pounds.
A year later at his football physical, he was 5-11 ½ and 220 pounds. He grew 7 ½ inches and lost five pounds in a year. He is down another 10 pounds since then.
After only getting a handful of at bats while playing junior varsity baseball for the Butte High Bulldogs the last two seasons, Grady is finally starting to show his full potential.
He started playing first for the Butte Motormen, the C team from Butte’s American Legion Baseball program, and he kept getting hits. He drove in nine runs in one doubleheader sweep for Butte.
A couple days later, he got called up to play for the Butte Muckers, who are a step below the Butte Miners.
I felt Like Ebby Calvin LaLoosh’s dad after “Nuke” got called up to the “Show” on “Bull Durham” when I heard Grady was getting to play with the Muckers.
He continued to hit and play pretty good defense at first base after the promotion.
This past weekend, Grady played and contributed for the Muckers and Motormen as both teams had a great showing at the Butte Muckers tournament at 3 Legends Stadium.
Grady got to play more baseball in one nine-day stretch than he did over the last five years combined.
His coaches really seem to like his play, and they love his enthusiasm. They say he is a leader.
That passion is something that comes when you get a new lease on life. It is something that happens when suddenly all those painful steps start to come pain free. It is something that happens when you can feel and see the payoff from all that hard work in the weight room.
It is something that happens when you go from worrying about living in a wheelchair to running the bases.
Grady might not be the MVP, and he is still a longshot to be a Hall of Fame third baseman. But he is without question the Comeback Player of the Year.
Even though the Boston Red Sox are once again mired in mediocrity, this so far has been the best baseball season of my life because I get to see my all-time favorite player having fun again.
Life is just so much better when your child is healthy and happy.
It sure makes for some easy sleeping.
— Bill Foley, who is not a Hall of Fame third baseman, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 