Editorial: Trojans give community sense of pride

It only took a few steps into the Belgrade Events Center Monday night to see there was something special in the air.

Not only did Whitehall have a large crowd for their challenge game against Three Forks, they were vocal well before tipoff. It was electric.

It reminded me so much of the buzz of excitement created last fall by the Whitehall High School football team.

As the Trojans made a deep run into the MHSA Class B Playoffs, downtown came to life with painted store windows, decorated vehicles, and you couldn’t go anywhere without someone talking about the Trojans.

I was asked very politely the other day why there has been so much coverage of the Whitehall sporting teams post season success in the Ledger the past several months?

The answer was simple. The sense of pride the Trojans bring to the community, and the work ethic shown by an amazing group of kids is well deserving of each and every accolade in the Whitehall Ledger, in the Montana Standard, or on the local news station. These kids represent our community and do it well.

In the late summer of 2016, I did a redesign of the web site and one of the great features, as a publisher is I am able to see the amount of views each story gets. As the Trojans were making their way to the semifinals, the views would get into the thousands. It was incredible to see how many people were following the team. Each game they won the views would increase and it showed me even more how much high school sports means to a community.

I often hear that it’s just a game. I really don’t think it is, especially for a high school in a small town. This is about our community and being able to enjoy some well-deserved success.

At the divisional wrestling tournament in Anaconda, the passion from the Whitehall crowd was incredible. It was off the charts. Much like the football team, it was a great group of kids who were experiencing success, and a large crowd was on hand to witness it. The same could be said for the game Monday in Belgrade.

And how about those Trojans! I’m sure they didn’t want to be in the challenge game after finishing in second place, but they played with passion and fire.

Next week the boys basketball team will be heading to the Divisional Tournament in Billings. There is already a buzz in the air and it should be an exciting week of basketball.

Win or lose, we will be proud of our Trojans, and the Ledger will be proud to cover them along the way.