Butte High and Butte Central prepare for inaugural baseball season

“It’s awesome. I really hope it’s going to be history in the state of Montana and I hope it just continues to grow. To have the opportunity to be a part of the very of first year, it’s pretty neat,” Butte Central head coach Richie O’Brien said.

Many schools across the state elected to sit out of the first year of baseball, but both Butte Central and Butte High will be a part of the historic season.

Hamilton and Frenchtown played in what was believed to be the first sanctioned high school game in Montana on Tuesday.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the weather. Both Butte High and Central have practiced exclusively indoors, as a sheet of snow still covers the fields. Central has prepared for the season inside the Maroon Activity Center, while the Bulldogs have gotten ready in the Quonset hut.

It is not ideal, but with the season rapidly approaching each team is doing what they can.

“This works out pretty good. We can take ground balls on the turf, really the only thing we can’t do is outfield stuff because it’s not high enough,” Butte High head coach Jim LeProwse said.

Central was scheduled to start its season Saturday in Columbus, but an expected winter storm led to a postponement. The Bulldogs are scheduled to open their season at home against Belgrade on Thursday.

Weather has already had an impact, but it has not taken away from the excitement of the first high school baseball season.

“It’s exciting, I think the kids are really excited about playing for their school, I think they really like that idea,” LeProwse said.

Traditionally, baseball in Butte has been played over the summer as a part of American Legion. Last season, the Butte Miners won both the State and Regional Championships.

There are players from that Miners championship team on both the Maroons and Bulldogs rosters. Now, for the first time, those players will be representing their school rather than Butte as a whole.

“It’s super cool, it’s a big part of history. I’m glad I have the opportunity to be a part of it,” Butte senior Ethan Cunningham said. “The first year of Butte High baseball, we want to set the tone for the future of the program.”

There will be no shortage of school spirit in the opening season.

“Central is big on pride. It’s always been about the name on the front, not on the back. It’s going to be the same for baseball,” Butte Central senior Rye Doherty said.

The Maroons and Bulldogs are scheduled to play in their inaugural matchup on April 3 at 1 p.m. at 3 Legends Stadium.

With the Miners’ season taking place over the summer, the high school season will lead right into the American Legion schedule.

LeProwse, also the head coach of the Miners, believes that high school baseball will get players sharper than usual for the Legion season.

“They’ll play more games than we have in the past, we’ve never played games in Butte, Montana, in March,” LeProwse said.

The affect that high school baseball will have on Legion still remains to be seen. Now that kids have the option to play during the school year, there could be reason to believe more players will continue playing over the summer.

“A lot of kids in Butte, once they’ve had to make that choice between Legion and having their summer, a lot of them chose the summer. I think we’re going to see a lot more kids stay involved for a lot longer now,” O’Brien said.

After many years of playing in the summer, high school baseball is officially upon us. For fans of the sport, the long wait is over.

“We’ve been waiting for this forever and it’s finally here,” O’Brien said.