COLUMN: Tourney Time

Over the past several years I've covered a lot of high school basketball games in gyms across the western United States. Easily one of my favorite parts about this has been covering the annual 5B District Tournament in Belgrade and last week was no different.

It is always filled with a lot of passion from both the teams and fans and an atmosphere that is hard to match.

My first experience at the tournament five years ago was definitely an eye-opener and I had no idea what to expect. After a season of sitting in the stands trying to cover games, it didn't cross my mind to go and sit courtside in the media seating. I had become accustomed to sitting in the absolute worst spot possible usually behind the loudest and most obnoxious fan of the opposing team or kids playing "romper room" who would bump into me about five times while I was trying to take notes, so when I saw the size of the arena I decided to sit as far away from anyone as possible.

I had just started to take notes for a game when I got smacked square in the face by a hamburger wrapper. I looked a few feet down from me and could see it was thrown by a Big Timber student. I don't think he intended to hit me, but the group he was with thought it was really funny. They didn't think it was quite as funny when I grabbed it and threw it right back at them, but I sure did.

I soon would start sitting courtside and that is such an amazing way to watch basketball and it allows me room to set up my laptop and not get inadvertently kicked by a kid or nailed with a hamburger wrapper. Sitting this close I only have to worry about getting smacked by a ball, so I pay pretty close attention when I'm typing. This year the one second I let my guard down the ball flew right by me and landed square on my keyboard which I'm sure did not do any favors for my computer.

Sitting watching the games I can't get over the passion and energy in the Belgrade Events Center. People love their teams and there isn't anything quite like communities coming together for high school basketball. It truly does bring small towns together. The atmosphere with large contingents of fans, wild student sections, and awesome bands makes this tournament something special.

For the past two years, I have also had a parking pass which makes things a lot easier. I'm not sure what is going on in the event center parking lot but its almost like once the tournament hits people and they forget how to park in between two lines. The pass really helps me not lose my mind. I also get to see someone from a television station completely ignore the parking lot rules and park wherever they want. Each year a television station employee parks in crazier places and this year one was pretty much parking on the sidewalk. I'm sure next year I'm going to see one try and park inside the arena.

As much as I like the fans and the enthusiasm, I somehow always get an obnoxious fan from the opposing team directly behind me at courtside or in the stands and this was once again the case this year. They teach you at journalism school not to care about the team you are covering, but I think that is a load of crap. I love the teams I cover and while I'm not sitting courtside screaming, I'm screaming on the inside. When I hear the opposing fan spewing a bunch of nonsense and verbally accosting the referees for an hour and a half it gets really old. They don't seem to be cheering for their team, they instead are yelling at the referee the whole time and that really takes away from the fun. The bigger the game, the worse this gets, but luckily the team I'm covering always has fans that can drown out this noise.

I covered a lot of games at this year's tournament and it was a blast watching the Whitehall boys and girls finish third and I can't wait to see what they do at the next tournament.