BUTTE — With practices for this year's Montana East-West Shrine Game underway, it offers a chance to look back at the fall and what transpired in the Treasure State's high school ranks.
As good a story as any was that of the Frenchtown Broncs, who defied the odds on a muddy night in front of the home crowd as they defeated Billings Central for the Class A state football title.
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"It's so hard to believe, dreamed of it my whole life," Bailey Corette said. "Ever since I like touched a football in third grade, it's just been our whole goal. To go out there and do it with all our best friends, I couldn't have wrote it any better, you know, like best way to end the season that way with the state championship."
The two teams clashed early in the season on Sept. 12 in Week 3 in Billings, and it was the Rams rolling the Broncs 35-7 as Central was a juggernaut all season in Class A.
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Frenchtown rebounded and never lost again, as the Broncs finished the regular season as the top seed from the Southwest A, and Frenchtown picked up wins over Lewistown and Whitefish en route to setting up a rematch on Nov. 21 in Frenchtown.
"Oh my God, senior year of football was crazy," Henry Griffin said. "I think the first time we played Billings Central was kind of an eye-opener to us. We weren't as prepared as we needed to be for that game. And then after that week, we just kind of locked in and just kept getting better and better and better. And then when we got to play on Mud Mountain is when we took over."
It also served as a bounce-back for the program.
The previous fall in 2024, Frenchtown was undefeated and again a top seed entering the Class A playoffs, but the Broncs were bounced in the quarterfinal round by Havre, leaving a sour taste in their mouths while adding plenty of fuel to the fire.
That all came full circle with the school's first football title since 2009. Now with four player reps and head coach Seth Mason working together in this year's Shrine Game, the Broncs' victory lap continues as they soak up their final moments together before embarking on new chapters.
"It's been awesome. We got four of us here. That's probably the most we've had in a long time," Konnor Klimpel said. "So Just coming out, playing together — Coach Mason is running the defense, so we get to teach everybody the defense. We already know it, so that's pretty sweet."
"It's awesome," added Brayden Ricci. "I mean, you get to play with the best of the best. And my grandpa and my dad also played here in the Shrine Game, and that's been really cool."
