BUTTE — Butte Central’s Cade Holter will be among the four players from the Mining City to step on the field for Saturday’s 73rd annual Montana East-West Shrine Game.
Holter has had a year to remember: He sank an incredible 55-foot buzzer beater to send the Butte crosstown game into overtime, was a first-team all-state selection in boys basketball and earned Southwestern A honorable mention recognition in football.
“It’s been an exciting year, for sure,” said Holter. “I feel like, overall, as an individual had a good year, but none of that was done without the people I had around me, for sure. I had great teammates, great coaches, great supporting cast, so all the credit goes to them on that. I just did what they allowed me to do.”
Now he’ll get the chance to showcase that talent in the Shrine Game on Saturday, where he will be a safety for the West team in front of his family and friends. What makes this even more special for Holter is that this opportunity was never a guarantee.
But a phone call ultimately changed everything.
“It was a dream come true, really. I mean, you grow up in Montana, you really want to play in this football game. I think very football player has that mindset,” Holter said. “With Christmas Day when I saw that I was an alternate, it kind of gave me hope that I’d play. I started kind of with that last day losing that hope a little bit, but when I got that phone call to play I was excited and I couldn’t have got up here faster. I was ready to go.”
Saturday’s Shrine Game will kick off at 7 p.m. at Bob Green Field on the campus of Montana Tech. The game will be broadcast live on CBS stations across Montana and online at MontanaSports.com.
