MANHATTAN — There are now two very good high school football teams in the town of Manhattan.
Both the Class B Manhattan Tigers and 8-Man Manhattan Christian Eagles — just in their second season as a program — are a win away from wrapping up undefeated regular seasons and will head into their respective postseasons as No. 1 seeds.
Both teams also emerged as conference champions with the Tigers claiming consecutive Southern B titles and the Eagles seizing the 8-Man South crown while toppling traditional conference powerhouses Drummond-Philipsburg and Ennis.
Manhattan's success this year comes as little surprise. The Tigers have appeared in three Class B championships since 2019, winning it all in 2020 and advancing to the title game last season where they fell to Florence in overtime.
Putting that loss behind them has been key to Manhattan's run this season.
"I think we did a good job at the beginning of the year putting that behind us," said Tigers head coach Wes Kragt. "New year, new team, we graduated a lot of kids last year. So, we have a lot of new guys that have stepped up for us and some younger sophomores that have played some big minutes for us."
But the rapid ascension of Manhattan Christian's football team — which went 5-3 in its first season — has turned heads. For a school known for sustained success on the basketball court, getting its athletes to commit to football, as well, started with drumming up some hype.
"The first thing is just generating excitement, getting a basketball school excited about playing football," said Eagles head coach Ben Holst. "And after you've gotten the excitement, start teaching the basics of football, blocking and tackling. And then building on it this year."
Before Manhattan Christian started its own program, players had the option to co-op with Manhattan, though only a few did each season. And with both schools growing, the Montana High School Association pressed MC to found its own team.
"The MHSA really wanted us to be done with the co-op," said Holst. "Both schools are growing, it wasn't working anymore. They told us, 'You guys need to figure out if you want to have football,' and we did. And so we had to create our own team."
Manhattan wraps up the regular season at Columbus on Friday, while the Eagles host Lodge Grass.
