The Montana Class B State Finals

Yes, my beloved Mustangs won the Northern Divisional tournament and qualified for state. Oh, here's the good part. It's right here in Bozeman. The 3M Company (Mighty Malta Mustangs, three m's, get it?) open with Whitehall tomorrow at 2 PM.  It's a good team. Not overly tall but very athletic.  They beat Fairfield for the divisional title. Fairfield and Malta have a huge rivalry but I'll touch on that more next week when the state class B girls tournament is in full tilt.

Whitehall is streaky. They match up well with Mustangs size wise. Malta plays tremendous man-to-man defense with a lot of pressure. They held Fairfield's stud to 1-14 from the floor last week. Malta is well coached by Dave C.  from Saco (down the road about 30 miles and drank a lot of beer with him in the softball days) and Tom who attended MHS with me. Good guy but didn't graduated in 1981 (and 83er, his cross to bear, or is it bare? Damn it. The English language can be so confusing. Why did, or I should say "how", did I minor in it?) but Tom is a good man. His younger brother Jim is a great friend and loves to spend money with me. Which brings me to my next story.

Jim lives in Big Timber. It's 55 miles east of Bozeman. The Mustangs practiced there tonight. Jim texted his boys in BT the following "Hey, make sure there is a nice safety ladder available at the Herder Gym. The Mustangs will probably cut the nets down after practice."  Just classic.  I called Jim when I got the text. "Jim, you made me laugh my ass off!"  Jim says "Chipper, the people in Big Timber hate Malta because Randy (another Malta boy) and I always are telling them how great it is."

Let's hope that Malta can hoist another state championship banner this weekend and follow it up again with a girl's title in Hamilton. And yes, I'll be there for that as well.

Sorry to bore you. I just love Malta.