50 years of girls’ basketball: Malta was Montana’s’ crazy hot spot ‘for leagues | Girls Prep Hoops
GEORGE GEISE 406MTsports.com
MALTA – There is no logical reason why Malta High School has had to produce so many girls’ basketball teams over the years, while schools with similar enrollments and similar resources have been happy to win a few conference leagues.
But the numbers don’t count. Since 1991, when they won their first Class B State title, the M-ettes have won state championships in the top 10 of the entire class and finished second in another six years. Only Northern Division rivals Fairfield – with eight titles and five runner-up finishes – even come close among Montana’s 170-plus high schools.
“Well, over the years Malta has had good coaches and great children,” said former Montana University women’s basketball coach Robin Selvig, who recruited seven Maltese players at the age of 38. running his Lady Griz program.
“I don’t think there’s a school in the state that has sent us more players,” Selvig added, “not even in Missoula.”
In addition, the Maltese athletes who played for Selvig were not only strong contributors to the Lady Griz program. Three of them – Skyla Sisco, Linda Cummings and Greta Koss – rank among the top 14 scorers in UM history. Koss (1995-96) and Sisco (1997-98) went on to become the Most Valuable Player at the Big Sky Conference.
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The pipeline from Malta to Missoula began in 1985 when Selvig offered a scholarship to Linda Mendel. That was six years before the M-ettes won their first state title with senior striker Koss and junior guard Sisco leading the way for coach Del Fried.
That initial title in 1991 did not come easily, recalled Greta Koss Buehler, who now works for the Montana High School Association in Helena after spending nearly 10 years coaching in Billings West.
“Skyla and I and another starter all scored in overtime,” Buehler said. “Being able to win (54-52 at Fairfield) shows you what kind of depth we had.”
Buehler said she became interested in UM after attending a summer basketball camp in Missoula.
“I wasn’t even sure I wanted to play college basketball, but I met Rob and I liked the coaches and the program,” Buehler said. “I think most of the other girls in Malta also went to the camp and this started the recruitment process.”
Cummings followed Koss and Sisco in 1996, followed by Sisters Keller, Cheryl and Juliann, who had gone to Malta from a tiny Turner near the Canadian border. Haley Nicholson and current star guard Lady Griz Sophia Stiles were other M-ettes to join the UM program.
Fried also led Malta to the state championships in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2000 before retiring. He was succeeded by longtime assistant coach Terry Lindgren, who produced state titles in 2007 and 2010.
Current coach Nate Hammond added to the championship trophy case in 2015 and 2016.
For most of those years, Malta had a enrollment of between 150 and 200 students, lower than District 2B rivals Glasgow and Wolf Point but comparable to frequent opponents such as Shelby, Conrad and Harlem. Today, Malta has dropped to less than 130 students, as many cities in northeastern Montana have been losing population in recent decades.
No one in Phillips County has seen more M-ette triumphs than Greg Kielb, a longtime owner of the KMMR radio station that has broadcast hundreds of basketball games over the past 40 years. He fully understands what basketball means to the community, but cannot explain the phenomenon.
“Ever since I came here (in the 1970s) from North Dakota, it’s always been a crazy hot spot for basketball,” Kielb said. I heard that before (MHSA) basketball started (1972), the girls above were playing. Linda Cummings ‘mother was a star in the’ 60s as an AAU team. “
Kielb said that he cannot identify a favorite player or a favorite team of Malta.
“It’s too hard to choose. I remember Greta being the first girl I ever saw who could crossover a dribble from the top of the arc with her left hand and get to the basket before the defense could adjust. And Skyla was as fast as a cat. ”
Both Kielb and Malta High’s longtime athletic director, Scott King, insist that one of Malta’s top players has not even received a scholarship from Montana or Montana State.
“Bobbi Knudsen was one of the best competitors we’ve ever had,” said King, who has served as football and AD coach for many years. “I can’t believe she wasn’t engaged.”
Kielb said Knudsen carried her team on her back (in 2010). She was so good. ”
Knudsen went on to finish as one of the best players in history in the NCAA Division II MSU Billings.
Dozens of other M-Ettes continued to play in Border Conference schools and NAIA programs in North Dakota.