CHURCHILL – They say too much of anything is bad for you. Well, unless that anything is championships and you are the Manhattan Christian basketball teams.
Over the weekend, the boys and girls squads swept the District 11C titles for the second consecutive year.
“It’s pretty cool, even all sports, not just basketball, our school is pretty dominant when it comes to Class C. I think that just goes to show how serious we take our athletics and I think it’s impressive,” said Caleb Bellach, a senior on the Eagles boys team.
And there’s been a big camaraderie this season between both the Manhattan Christian boys and girls teams.
“We just want each other to succeed, so every game we root for each other. Like when (Bellach) gets a big dunk, we are all cheering for him or Sam (Leep) makes a 3 or someone like that. We are always cheering on each other,” said Jillian Frye, a senior guard on the girls team.
And they have a common link behind their two district trophies — Jeff Bellach, who coached both squads to championships.
“It’s pretty cool for him and cool for us because he spends all his time with us in the gym and he cares about us and he wants us to succeed,” said Frye “And I think us getting the district championship for him means a lot to him.”
And not to mention Bellach now has 200 career wins as a head coach.
“Oh yeah, he was excited. He didn’t tell anybody until he told me and my mom the day after, so then my mom wanted to brag about it. But he didn’t want to say anything too much,” said Caleb, Jeff’s son.
“I kind of just laughed because it’s just like him because he’s really just humble. I have him for golf, too, so I’ve seen two different sides of him and it’s just funny how different both sides can be,” Frye said.
The titles are sweet for both the boys and girls, but they are now in the rearview mirror. Bellach and his team have their sights on more hardware at the divisional tournament in Butte starting Thursday.
“One game at a time. We have Darby our first game and we’ve done our scouting as much as we can and I think we’re ready,” said Frye. “I mean, we’ve put in new defense and all that and just get ready and stay focused. One game at a time.”
“The expectation is to meet Arlee in the divisional championship,” Caleb Bellach said. “First up, we got to play Clark Fork (Thursday) night and then the next night whoever our opponent is. We just have to play our game and take it one step at a time and I think we’ll end up with the matchup we want.”
