Local girls’ basketball team completes summer season
by Danny Waldo
The Big Sky Elite AAU girls’ basketball team recently completed their summer travel schedule.
Big Sky Elite is a program developed by local youth coach Chris Tarabochia, designed to give girls’ exposure to higher level basketball competition, in addition to giving its players an opportunity to be seen by college coaches from across the country.
This summer, Big Sky Elite competed in NCAA viewing tournaments in Spokane, Washington and Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as an AAU sanctioned event in Sandy, Utah. The NCAA viewing tournaments bring in coaches from around the country, providing the girls a rare opportunity to play in front of coaches from schools as far away as Florida and Connecticut.
Big Sky Elite fielded three teams, one made up of girls entering their freshman year of high school, one comprised of freshman and sophomores, and a third team of incoming juniors and seniors. Each team competed in a division equivalent to their age group, giving the team’s exposure to the talent level at their age group from across the country.
While each team experienced a different level of success this summer, everyone had the opportunity to compete against higher level competition, gain experience playing in games with shot clocks (something Montana high basketball does not have), and get exposed to college coaches from each of the Frontier Conference schools, Montana and Montana State, as well as a number of regional and national schools.
The three teams were made up of girls from the Gallatin Valley, as well as across the state. Six girls from Bozeman competed on the three teams, with the remainder of the players coming from as far away as Kalispell, Great Falls, Helena, Billings and Stanford, Montana.
Big Sky Elite hosts tryouts throughout the year, and will be looking to compete in some tournaments come this fall. If you have a high school-aged daughter, or know of someone who does, and are interested in competing for Big Sky Elite, log onto www.bigskyelite.com for more information. •
