Allstar football hits Superior

The Blue Team at the all-star game turned out to be vastly superior at the 8-man All Star game in Butte this weekend. This superiority on the football field could have had something to do with the four Superior Bobcats suiting on the offensive side for the Blue Team.

Quarterback Travis Stroot, running back Drew Walen, Center Brian Labbe and Wide Receiver Tyler Stenberg all received nods to play in the high school honors game. Stroot explains how big of a honor it was to receive the invitation. "It was really cool just to know that I was good enough to be on that good of a team," says Stroot. "It was the last chance to play in high school."

They received invites to the game a week after their state championship game against Wibeaux in December. The four standouts then had to wait more than five months to stay in shape and cash in their invitations.

The Blue team made up of all stars from Western and Eastern Montana easily crushed the Red Team of all stars from Northern and Southern Montana 64-8.

Stroot thought the Blue Team was overmatched from the beginning. "We had a lot of really good players, big players too," says Stroot.

He finished the Saturday night game passing for 166 yards with a 2-yard TD run and one one-yard touchdown. Although, he enjoyed scoring the touchdown he doesn't think making it into the end zone made the day any more special than it already was.

"It was really cool," says Stroot. "The crowd was pretty loud. Mine was only a two-yard run. Basically the offense scored not just me." Teammate Walen also finished the day with a touchdown. For the game he carried the ball 10 times rushing for a total of 72 yards. Stenberg finished the day with six catches for 44 total yards.

The four Bobcats all graduated from Superior high school last Sunday and left the next morning for Butte. There the football stars spent the next week practicing twice a day readying themselves for Saturday.

Although, you could imagine that the four would be out of shape from having a five month layoff Stroot says this did not apply to them. He explains that the four of them having been playing in sports nonstop, since the end of the football season. And, only Stroot was not involved in a spring sport.

Although, most of the football players there had to spend an entire week learning a new offense, the four Bobcats came with a distinct advantage. The offensive coach for the Blue Team was Superior football Coach Dan Lucier.

"It was easy for us," says Stroot. "Coach Lucier ran the same offense. There were a few new plays, but they were pretty much the same plays I ran all year."

It was an effective combination as the Blue Team cruised to the win behind a dominant offensive display.

The best thing about the game for Stroot was adding it to their undefeated regular season and championship run to end his final high school season at a 13-0 record.

"It was a nice finish," said Stroot.

Out of the four standouts only Stenberg is under scholarship to play football at the collegiate level. Next year he will attend Montana Tech in Butte to play for the Orediggers.