GREAT FALLS — What started as half of a joke has turned into a full hobby and new adventure for former CMR basketball coach Brian Crosby. Crosby spent nearly 20 years coaching basketball in Montana. After stepping away from coaching he knew that he wanted to stay connected to basketball and he's found a new platform to help him do that. His voice. He used it during his days as both a coach and a sportscaster, but now he is using it for a new podcast.
He has created the 406HoopsCast to help showcase Montana basketball and tell stories about life and basketball in the Big Sky.
"Coaching is a very tight fraternity, especially in Montana. And that's one thing that I've kind of missed not coaching as I have missed that connection with with other coaches per se," Crosby said. "This is a way for me to kind of be able to still be involved a little bit with that world. And I'm really kind of enjoying it so far."
He and his students had the idea of making podcasts and now, Crosby uses a new soundboard every week to create a new podcast about Montana basketball and to give students the chance to learn about podcasting.
"It's a very easy and accessible medium," Crosby said. "I had a small window to get peoples' attention on tv, but people can listen to this anytime. I had a friend say they listened on the way to work. The equipment is fairly easy too, and I want students and everyone to have a chance to do it. That was the impetus behind was getting new equipment, helping as many people as possible, and finding stories to tell."
Crosby said he wants to see where the podcast goes and talk to as many people as possible around the state and perhaps beyond that can help share the stories of Montana hoops.
"I think there's a lot of stories and a lot of people want to tell, and the response is better than I thought. I think it's a little different perspective. The questions might be a little bit different. Hopefully it leads to some different answers and different conversations."
Crosby's first guest was none other than CMR boys coach John Cislo, who shared his perspective of this year's team.
"We are, I think, a very inexperienced basketball team and they see how late we are and rotations and how it's costing us. And our focus the next couple of weeks was going to be defensively knowing our rotations though were supposed to be and make sure we're contesting shots and and hold them accountable for the next month. And hopefully that gives us an opportunity to make a state tournament."
His goal is to share stories of all classifications of high school basketball and college basketball within the state. Growing up in Roundup, he has spent lots of his life around Montana and the basketball that's been played and coached in the state. It won't necessarily be about basketball he said, but it's a first step to finding more stories and sharing them, whether it's a student or anyone interested in podcasting.
"Maybe that door will open a little bit and we can have some kind of some fun, frank conversations because, you know, I mean, we'll get to the point where there are some topics that are probably a little bit more, you know, off of just like basketball, you know, maybe, you know, who knows? We'll see where it goes."
The 406HoopsCast is available on numerous platforms, including Anchor and Spotify.
