By Merrick Parnell EBS CONTRIBUTOR
Big Sky’s youth hockey program, the Montana 64s, hosted their first-ever senior night as part of a weekend-long hockey event in Big Sky at the Marty Pavelich Rink that began on March 2.
The honored group of seniors was the first to graduate from playing in the program, alongside some players who helped start the youth hockey program several years ago.
“Charlee Sue Dreisbach had expressed interest in putting together a team to play games as a freshman, so she and I got to work on finding and recruiting more players and tracking down games and opportunities to compete,” said Big Sky Coach and Representative Joseph McFadden.
In addition to Dreisbach, the Big Sky Hockey seniors honored were Keelan Grupe, Mason Dickerson, Aidan Germain and Drew DiTulio. The senior night festivities are part of a weekend of games in which teams from Lewistown came to Big Sky to play the 64s.
The idea for the senior night came after the Salmon, Idaho, youth hockey program allowed the Big Sky seniors to be celebrated in their tournament, which Big Sky attended back in February. A few of the Big Sky seniors got the wheels turning and put together a weekend of their own.
The teams had a mix of players from eighth- to 12th-grade on the co-ed team. The team’s makeup was five seniors, two sophomores, one freshman and multiple middle schoolers. Saturday night proved to be a primetime event in Big Sky.
“There were about two hundred plus folks watching Saturday night hockey in Big Sky from younger players in respective organizations, family members, friends and schoolmates, as well as tourists checking out the loud noises and bright lights,” said McFadden. “It was an incredible turnout for a hockey-crazed crowd that lasted till around 9:30.”
Lacey Cook was a parent and hockey fan in attendance on Saturday and was thrilled with the experience.
“It was a great event! [It was] truly awesome to see the program grow with these amazing kids and for them to get to celebrate their sport and be celebrated by the community, their peers, family, and friends, it was super rad!” Cook said. “Truly electric just to be there.”
Over the weekend, the Montana 64s U19 team beat the Lewistown Eagles twice in their two-game series, while the 14U/mixed-age team split with the Eagles.
“Big Sky’s Senior night was a huge success as all of the parents and people from the community came out and were loud for our seniors,” said Keelan Grupe, a Senior on the 64s who helped organize the event. “To hear the crowd erupt after each goal was something I had never experienced before. The support from everyone was unbelievable.”
