March Madness

It's March Madness and if you missed the basketball mayhem this weekend then you were one of the unlucky ones. This past weekend was filled with jaw-dropping moves, surprises and upsets and close championship games, and this has nothing to do college basketball.

It's March Madness and if you missed the basketball mayhem this weekend then you were one of the unlucky ones. This past weekend was filled with jaw-dropping moves, surprises and upsets and close championship games, and this has nothing to do college basketball.

This madness took place in Hot Springs and it showed off middle-aged men battling teenagers, moves that left you wondering if they did that on purpose, teasing for every blown lay up and moments where the good-hearted trash talking made up for tired legs walking up and down the court.

It was the fourth annual Tom Ferrier Memorial Basketball tournament, and featured the basketball prowess of seven teams made up of players from places all over the area including Plains, Hot Springs, Ronan, Polson and Kalispell.

Many of us know Jim Lawson of Hot Springs as a football guy. This year he was the architect of the Plains/Hot Springs defense that helped the team make it to the playoffs for the first time in the co-op's history. However, this weekend he was the architect of the basketball tournament and even played on one of the teams named "Old School."

Lawson started the tournament and named it after his wife's brother Tom Ferrier who died when he was 18 years old in a car-wreck.

"He was a good basketball player. He was real good," says Lawson. "So when I wanted to have a tournament we put it in his name."

Even though Lawson laced up his basketball shoes for the weekend, his passion for football still took precedent. All of the money raised by the tournament is going towards new bleachers for the football field. Along with the new bleachers, they hope to add a concession stand below the bleachers and a new announcer's stand above the bleachers. Approximately $1,000 was raised over the weekend for the project.

Besides looking towards the future of the football program, the proceeds of the concessions at the tournament was given to senior Reiley Winebrenner who was named to the Class-B All star team coming up on June 18th.

Players named to the team need to raise $500 to attend the game, but Winebrenner will be splitting the cost with fellow teammate Brian Green of Plains who was named to the team. A couple hundred dollars was raised during the weekend. Last year, the tournament raised money for Carter Ferrier, graduated senior of Hot Springs, to attend the game.

Lawson says supporting their former all-stars and paving a foundation for new surroundings for the football team will all help in creating a winning tradition for the Savage Horsemen.

"It definitely helps. Stuff like that is just going to be encouragement for other kids to come out and play. It's just like with the bleachers if we can keep things looking nice and take pride in stuff it's going to encourage more people," says Lawson.

Still, football season lies several months in the future and for now we'll have to settle for the basketball tournament, which in itself was very entertaining.

Watching several of the games you might think you're watching a version of Freaky Friday where everyone's role was reversed. During the last game on Saturday Winebrenner, an all-star in basketball was reffing the game, while his football and basketball coaches played the game. Luckily though, his coaches accepted his new found authority well and didn't question any of his calls.

However, his basketball coach, Ricky DePoe, did miss a wide open layup and received a lot of grief for the miss. Afterwards, when asked what he had to say to his team about the miss he joked, "with how many you guys miss you can let me miss one."

Although Winebrenner reffed in this game his team ended up winning the tournament the next day that included several well-known ex-athletes from the county including Mitch and Trent Thompson, Nate Holland and Jeremiah Moog who was named the MVP.

Now spectators can go back to watching March Madness on the television, which is a downgrade according to Lawson.

"This a lot better entertainment, because we're here live. It's better than watching it on TV. Actually we got a lot of people that come and go. They would rather come watch this than watch it on TV," says Lawson.