A Meeting in the Middle

Six-Man Mecca, a photo by mdt1960 on Flickr.

The MonDak Thunder is a six-man football co-op between the two schools of Westby, Montana and Grenora, North Dakota. Clark Fork is also a co-op between Alberton and St. Regis, Montana. The two programs played this past weekend in a six-man football game held at Reed Point. Nothing unusual here unless you start looking at a Montana road map.

It is 635 miles between Westby, Montana and Alberton, Montana. It’s a bit farther (665 miles) if you count the distance between the Grenora, North Dakota and St. Regis, Montana. As it turned out, it was only 434 miles from Westby to Reed Point and a mere 314 miles from Alberton to Reed Point.

One MonDak fan traveling from Grenora said he made the drive in about seven hours, but he also picked up a speeding ticket in Fairview on the way.
Nevertheless, it was only 121 miles for me—just a little over two hours which included a coffee and fuel stop in Red Lodge.

I was curious about this game not only because both teams brought stellar records to the contest, but I wanted to know how this game materialized in the first place when schedules were put together last spring. After asking a few questions to those in the know, I discovered the rationale wasn’t as mysterious as I had dreamed.

It really came down to filling a bye week and both teams were facing byes at the same time. In particular, Clark Fork hails from the understaffed Western Conference with only six teams. As a result, even with one out-of-conference, regular-season game, Western teams would end up with two byes in their schedule unless they were willing to consider some “creative scheduling” as Clark Fork engineered with MonDak.

Westby-Grenora and Clark Fork battle at Reed Point.

And so it came to be. Two football teams representing the extreme geographic regions of our country’s fourth largest land mass state met in Reed Point on a Saturday afternoon. As it turned out, MonDak was the victor in a well-played contest of East vs. West.

I wrote an earlier post about how teams from years and years ago may have met halfway and played football in a middle-of-nowhere wheat field. I’m not sure how much truth there is regarding such folklore since I’ve never been presented with any particulars. Nonetheless, the Clark Fork vs MonDak showdown might be a modern-day version of such meetings. Thanks to improvements in communications and transportation, it will never have to be as primitive either.

Postscript: In true rugby fashion, the twenty-eight members of the MonDak football team wear jerseys that are numbered one through twenty-eight. There’s no one playing center wearing number fifty-three, or a defensive tackle wearing number seventy-five.

And twenty-eight is a formidable roster for a six-man football team.

Plan B and Zenning in Bridger, Montana

The "scoreboard on the hill" at Bridger.

Like some guy who just retired, I just sat there and watched the game—for once. Well, a good part of it anyway.

Plans for Great Falls Central to see their six-man showdown with Stanford-Geyser were nixed due to the loss of a friend and the resulting funeral to attend on Saturday. I considered the next best thing—the nearby Bridger Scouts were at home on Friday night for a six-man contest with Reed Point-Rapelje—a mere one-hour drive from home.

I’ve attended at least two other games in Bridger over the years, so this was probably more about a trip to get my weekly dose of small town high school football rather than attend a game in some remote location I’d never visited. Thus, my decision to sit and watch the game as the camera equipment was demoted to secondary.

But, strange things happen when you sit and “observe” from one location. You start seeing things that you might not see while moving about during a given event like a football game in Bridger, Montana—things that an image from a camera might not illustrate very well.

Anxious Parents.Near the back corner of an end zone, I watched with fascination as a concerned Reed Point-Rapelje mother juggled a conversation with (what were probably) other parents while intensely watching the game. I suspect she had a son on the field. The group of parents were right at the back corner but as each play came up, this particular mother would drift away from them—perhaps only five or ten yards—toward the goal post and once the play ended, she drifted back toward the congregation and picked up the conversation again. This went on for at least an entire quarter.

A Scoreboard Community.Bridger has a low-seated scoreboard that is placed on a small hill overlooking the gridiron. It is so low, that an adult could stand in front of the lower-positioned stats (such as the down or quarter indicator) and block a good portion of the displayed numeral. Further, the scoreboard is beyond the lighting of the gridiron floodlights and as a result, makes for its own “illuminated community.” Here—away from the gridiron’s lighted perimeter—is where you’ll find many of the students congregating, or as in the case of the younger kids, taking up their own football game just like any other Friday night football setting in the country.

While those approaching retirement consider the climate (as in weather) of what will likely be their final residence, I suspect one of the retirement home factors for me (when that day comes) will likely include the proximity to the settings and action of small town high school football.

Shoutout: Chinook Sugarbeeters and their resounding victory over Power-Dutton-Brady complicating the Class C eight-man North with a three-way tie for first: Chinook, PDB and Ft. Benton.