A basketball tradition
<p>Carley VonHeeder shoots over a Columbus defender Friday afternoon in loser out action at the girls' Class B state tournament in Great Falls. In 1987, her father, Derek VonHeeder competed in the same arena during the boys' state tournament for the Plains Horsemen. </p>
GREAT FALLS – Last week the Plains Trotters were in Great Falls, competing in the State B Girls’ Basketball Tournament.
The tournament took place at the Pacific Steel and Recycling Four Seasons Arena and featured the best basketball teams from across the state.
The 2014-15 Trotters put together a very successful season and earned top finishes in both the district tournament in Columbia Falls and the divisional tournament in Kalispell to earn their spot in Great Falls.
A few years before this year’s Trotters made their run to the final competition of the year in Great Falls, a Plains Horsemen squad, the 1987 team, played for the state’s championship on the hardwood of the Four Seasons Arena.
One of the players on the 1987 boys team representing Plains in the basketball tourney in Great Falls was Derek VonHeeder, whose daughter, Carley VonHeeder, a junior, will play for the Trotters in this year’s state tournament competition.
Looking back on his time competing in state tournament games, Derek VonHeeder remembers the competition as fierce throughout the tournament but the games left all of their participants with lasting memories.
“The games were tough, but the memories last a life time,” Derek VonHeeder said.
He remembered the team’s final game in the 1987 tournament, against Wolf Point, as a particularly hard fought game.
Plains would go on to defeat Wolf Point 85-81 for the State B Championship.
During this year’s tournament Derek VonHeeder said he was excited to attend the games and to see his daughter compete for Plains High School, in the same arena he once played in as a student athlete for Plains in 1987.
He added he was also looking to getting his picture taken with his daughter before the competition.
“I can’t wait to go on the court and take a picture with my daughter,” Derek VonHeeder said.