MISSOULA — When the Missoula Sentinel Spartans took home their first boys state basketball title since 1986 last Saturday, it served as a special moment for the program and school.
And for head coach Sam Beighle and assistant coach Jay Jagelski, their special bond came full circle in the process.
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Sam played for Jay when Jagelski was manning the sidelines for the Spartans as the head coach from 2012-2020, and under his tutelage, Beighle was the Montana Gatorade Player of the Year in his senior season in 2017-18.
"He just understood what he needed to do to become a better player, become a better teammate. And then that's carried over into his coaching," Jagelski said. "He is breaking everything down from what we're doing on defense, offense, to what the kids are going to do, every possession. He knows exactly what he needs to do and what he wants."
Beighle never had the coaching itch at first, but once he got it, he spent a season as an assistant in Jagelski's final year as Sentinel's head coach, and a couple more after that, before throwing his name into the hat for the open head coaching job.
One of his first calls when he got the job? A familiar face.
"Quite honestly, I wouldn't have taken this job if I didn't know ahead of time he was going to help me," Beighle said. "I didn't have quite the experience he did and I needed somebody that was seasoned and had seen it all.
"We had our learning curves. We lost games probably because of me at times. And you know, it's just, like, just understanding that, like, you have to be willing to change and keep learning."
"He had a plan and stuff and he had a vision and I felt like I kind of fit into that pretty good, because we kind of see, kind of think very similar in terms of our philosophy," Jagelski added. "So it was just something that kind of just fell into place pretty quickly.
"Just spending time with him, in a different light, in a professional sense. When you're a player, coach, obviously it's completely different. And in these last few years, we have very similar approaches to the game and stuff. We joke around with each other. We have pretty good relationship, even though there's quite an age difference there. We understand each other and we kind of get each other and how we do things. And so it's definitely been a different relationship now, but it's a fun relationship and one that I think is going to continue like this for a while."
The two have worked together for three years now as colleagues, adding to the work they accomplished when the relationship was coach to player. This includes a run to the state championship game with the Spartans in their first season back in 2023-24.
"He coached us really hard. He coached so hard because he cared," Beighle said. "There's a fine line between pushing somebody too far and then just being a really hard coach. And he worked the line perfectly. He knew how to get the most out of us. And quite honestly, I don't think I would have gotten as close to my full potential if it wasn't for him as a coach."
Now together, they helped Sentinel reach its full potential with a state championship.
"He's ahead of his years," Jagelski said. "He's 26, but he's probably more like a 40, 50 year old in terms of how smart he is, how he approaches the game, how calm he is in that matter. And it's even made me even learn from him, you know, and I'm 20 years into this. So it's been fun watching him just kind of grow these last few years."
"And just being able to experience a state championship with him, because we've been through some battles here as player, coach, or coach, coach," Beighle added. "And it's just like to see it all come together, we were emotional.
"I knew that we had a team that was capable of this and I didn't want to let them down. And so, you know, this year just was consumed with a lot of hard work from our end as coaches, constantly going to the drawing board, like how can we put our kids in the best position to win? And we lucked out in the end and it worked out."
