GREAT FALLS — The annual All-American Bowl that takes place in San Antonio, Texas, welcomes in the top 100 high school football players in the country to compete on a nationally televised stage.
Great Falls' own Broden Molen — a five-star long snapper — will be playing in this upcoming January's game. He made the announcement via X back in July.
"It just means everything to me," Molen told MTN Sports last Thursday. "Never would have imagined I would have made it to the level of being able to perform in front of thousands and thousands of people."
Molen said "it's an amazing opportunity."
"I've been working my whole life to be able to get to a point of being recognized and noticed throughout the entire nation," Molen said. "Feel like this is my opportunity to finally get there."
Over this last summer, Molen attended numerous camps where he performed at high levels. That led him to attend a camp where they would select a long snapper for the bowl.
"I went to that and won the camp," Molen said. "I ended up getting selected to play in the All-American Bowl."
His family was with him to embrace that moment.
"Completely just out of this world, I was literally jumping with joy," Molen said. "Ran over, gave my dad a hug, gave my little brother a hug, called my mom immediately after."
Molen's special teams coach at Great Falls High is Zack Ringler, and he said Molen has "an extreme level of confidence."
"From a very young age, it was easy to tell that he was going to be able to compete as a long snapper at the next level, and that's a stressful job," Ringler said. "Getting the ball back in that transition, or scoring on PAT, field goal is really mentally stressful, and he's built for it."
Molen thinks that it'll mean a lot to be able to face so much other talent from around the country.
"I'll get to see what other states are like when it comes to football, and I also get to show people what Montana football is really about," Molen said.
Ringler thinks the same.
"Like Broden said, you know they can play, Montanans can play at this high level too," Ringler said. "They just want to go out and represent that, and represent the Bison."
Molen takes the field in the All-American Bowl Jan. 11.
