BILLINGS — The Glasgow Scotties have been road warriors to begin the 2024 football season.
Glasgow has traveled 1,200 miles round trip for its two road games at Shepherd and Columbus and have opened the year 3-0. But it hasn’t come without some adversity.
On Glasgow’s trip to Shepherd, the bus blew a tire. The following Tuesday the bus overheated going to Malta for a JV game. This hasn't seemed to affect the Scotties, as it’s been business as usual despite the hiccups in travel.
“Everything is four hours away. Billings is four hours away. Great Falls is four hours away. The closest town is Williston (N.D.), and that’s two hours away,” Glasgow head coach Patrick Barnett told MTN Sports.
“They’re used to traveling like this. This isn’t something new, but it’s hard when you wake up Saturday and you’re super tired because you had bus travel.”
More adversity hit Glasgow in Columbus when the Scotties lost standout Wyatt Babb in the first half. The extent of the injury is unknown, but Glasgow used that as a call to rally the troops for a comeback win over the Cougars.
“That’s for sure. Our team is built a big part around (Babb), so when he went out we knew we couldn’t just give up right there,” said Glasgow senior Connor Hudyma.
“We were pissed that (Babb) went down, because it happened last year, too, and we fumbled it. We were not going to let that happen again. There’s no way we were going to let that happen,” said senior Khye Gamas.
Glasgow will find out how it stacks up against the state’s elite this weekend, as the Scotties welcome in No. 2 Manhattan — the 2023 Class B runner-up that has steamrolled opponents in its 3-0 start.
“It’s amazing,” Hudyma said of getting to play against the state’s best. “It prepares us for these close games like (Columbus) and hard games like (Columbus) that we’ll need to be ready for once conference gets here and then when playoffs rolls around.”
Even travel interruptions haven’t slowed down Glasgow in 2024. We’ll see if the second-ranked Tigers are up to the task Friday night.
