Basketball players come in all shapes and sizes. They also come from towns of all shapes and sizes.
The University of Montana and Montana State University have a combined four players from tiny Class C schools around Montana. And all four are making noticeable contributions to their teams this season. There are also numerous Class C players excelling at the in-state Frontier Conference schools as well.
Montana State’s Taylee Chirrick played her final two prep seasons at Roberts High, where she led the state in scoring. Now as a sophomore at MSU, she’s one of the primary candidates for the Big Sky Conference MVP. Teagan Erickson helped lead North Country (Saco-Whitewater-Hinsdale) to a state hoops championship and is now part of the rotation at MSU as a sophomore.
“You can go Class C to AA and great talent is great talent,” MSU’s 21st– year head coach Tricia Binford said. “This state has it everywhere. I was a small-town kid myself and I just love that they’re gym rats, they love the game. In Montana, we’ve got a lot of blessings, we’ve got a lot of great talent in the state of Montana.”
Binford prepped in Carbondale, Colorado, which had a population of 3,000 when she was there. From those humble beginnings, she vaulted to Boise State and became one of the best college players in the nation before going on to play in the WNBA with the Utah Starzz and Cleveland Rockers.
Her former assistant, Nate Harris, is now the head coach at UM. He grew up in Ronan. His team features Draya Wacker, a Melstone product who’s playing 18.4 minutes per game this season.
“I think for a lot of those Class C kids, once it clicks for them, it’s the same swagger that got them there is what’s going to help them here,” Harris, who coached Big Sky MVP Peyton Ferris of Twin Bridges when he was at MSU, said earlier this season. “Once they get to the big city there’s so many things that are different than where they grew up. In Draya’s case, she was out in Melstone – they have one restaurant. Rather than have one game each month where they might have one good player, every night there’s a good player.
“Once you realize it’s just the same work that got you here that gets you through it and that same swagger you had when you were scoring 40 on Circle is the same swagger you need to have to impact a game against Eastern Washington.”
The most notable current Montana Class C player is Chirrick, who’s affectionally refered to as the “Roberts Robber f0r her penchant to steal the basketball from opponents. Chirrick was the Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year as a true freshman and has taken her game to the next level as a sophomore, evolving into one of the top all-around players among mid-major schools. She has 124 steals this season, tying the Big Sky single-season record and she’s considered one of the best defensive performers among all NCAA Division I players in the nation.
Chirrick, a leading candidate for Big Sky Conference Player of the Year, averages 4.3 steals per game, which ranks second in the nation behind only Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo. Her 17.9 points per game is second in the BSC, while she ranks third in field goal percentage (.470), sixth in assists (3.7) and seventh in rebounds (6.9).
Chirrick exploded into the national spotlight in January when she became the fastest player to record a triple double. In under 28 minutes of action, she scored 31 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and made 11 steals against Portland State. The 11 steals tied her own school record, which she set the previous season. It was just the fourth triple double in NCAA history that featured 30+ points, 10+ steals and 10+ assists.
She worked hard in the off-season to improve her game despite coming off a freshman season that saw her awarded the BSC’s Defensive Player of the Year.
“Just shooting and being confident in myself,” Chirrick said. “Last year I was coming off the bench, and I just knew what the team needed from me last year was more so on the defensive end, because we did have a lot of offense, so I didn’t necessarily get to use my offensive side last year and I was a little bit timid. This year it’s been fun and I’ve been able to step up. In high school I was both a defense and offense player, so to be able to find that and tune back into that it’s been really fun to be both this year.”
Erickson, an athletic sophomore who won consecutive state titles in the high jump, is scoring 6.0 and grabbing 3.5 rebounds, which is the most by any bench player on the Bobcats. Fans around the state and the BSC have been waiting for her to throw down a dunk ever since seeing a clip of her putting one down in when she was still in high school.
“The fun thing about coming from a smaller school like that is you are a leader for your school and your team,” Chirrick, who played with Erickson on the AAU circuit, said. “I think (Erickson and I) both knew that coming in and just being able to find our role here in college. She’s a super athletic player, super long, lengthy and a player that I know if I throw up a pass, she’ll be able to jump up and get. It’s super fun to play with someone like that.”
Seth Amunrud is the latest Class C star to transform into a D-I contributor. He prepped at Manhattan Christian before going to Dawson Community College in Glendive for two seasons. That helped land him a spot with his hometown Bobcats.
This season, he has scored in double figures six times in conference play, including scoring 22 points against Portland State last week and following it up with 21 points the next time out against Sac State.
Amunrud is averaging 7.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game off the bench so far this season to help the Bobcats earn the No. 2 overall seed in next week’s Big Sky Conference tournament.
“Those were two pretty amazing years, honestly,” Amunrud said of his time at Dawson. “Coming out of high school I needed some development. I wasn’t quite ready in some areas. I needed to add some weight, needed to improve in some areas.
“Coach Peterson really believed in me over in Dawson and he brought me in and they did an amazing job developing me. The coaching staff there was amazing. The teammates I had there were amazing. I loved it out there in eastern Montana and just had a phenomenal two years there developing and growing. Playing right away was a huge deal too. It really springboarded me to get where I’m at now.”
Amunrud led Manhattan Christian to back-to-back state championships during his decorated high school career that included first-team all-state honors three times and a spot in the Montana-Wyoming All-Star game as a senior. He knew he always wanted to play at Montana State, even if he had small-school roots during his prep days.
“I love Class C basketball,” Amunrud said. “I just love getting to tell my teammates about that experience. I’ve been able to take a few of my teammates to a Manhattan Christian basketball game this year. Coming from Class C the support you get from those communities is amazing. Even just like playing in a state tournament and you have like 5-6,000 fans at a state championship and you’re like, ‘how are there even this many people here supporting us.’ That was a huge part of my journey getting to play at Manhattan Christian. I loved those four years as well and it was a huge blessing to be able to play there.”
Wacker, a junior, is scoring 4.7 points and hauling down 3.5 rebounds per game for the Grizzlies. During her player days at Melstone, she was able to play five seasons as many of the Class C schools are short-handed when it comes to fielding a team. She played varsity as an eighth grader and consequently was named all-state five times, which is tied for the most in Montana hoop history. She was just the 11th player in state history to score 2,000 points in a career.
Elsewhere, Erickson’s high school teammate Paige Wasson has been lighting up the Frontier Conference this season. The duo played for the Saco-Hinsdale-Whitewater team known as the North Country Mavericks and led them to back-to-back Class C state titles in 2023 and 2024. The Rocky Mountain College sophomore is the second leading scorer in the league at 20.7 points per game.
Wasson’s teammate at Rocky is 6-foot-3 Isabelle Heggem of Winifred. She leads the Bears in assists, rebounds, blocks, free throw percentage and assist/turnover ratio. Heggem’s Roy-Winifred team lost to Wasson’s and Erickson’s Mavericks in the 2024 Class C title game.
Another player from the C ranks is Chirrick’s sister, Terryn, who is now at Montana Tech. Terryn Chirrick is in her freshman year at Tech and is redshirting.
Numerous other Class C players dot the college landscape throughout Montana.
Of all those players, Chirrick might have the most unique perspective since she started her career in Billings playing for the Class AA Billings West Golden Bears her first two prep seasons before moving to Roberts.
She’s seen a variety of levels of basketball throughout her young career. Montana State descends upon the Big Sky Tournament in Boise next week. Nothing compares to the tournament season that makes Class C so great to follow.
“It’s super hard to make it to state,” Chirrick, who moved to Roberts High with her sister Terryn, said. “Class C in Montana there’s like 100 (schools), so that’s why it’s so special for teams to get to go to state. Roberts had never made it to state until the last two years of being there. I think when we did come to Roberts and seeing the excitement with the girls that were on the Roberts team when we came that there’s like hope that we could be the first team to make it to state.
“Just to see the change of mindset of our team to say ‘we’re going to do this’ I think it was cool that everyone just wanted to have this main goal to make it to state. Everyone worked hard and that was fun to have with your classmates because you saw each other every day, you were super close with them and then they have this goal to make it to the state tournament. Winning divisionals and making it to state was really exciting for our community of Roberts.
“I’d have to say all of the state tournaments or divisional, district. Any tournaments that we did. Track was super fun. My senior year we won state in track that was super special. Me and my sister (Terryn) ran really well and had all of our points but one.”
Being from Billings may have made her transition from Roberts to Bozeman a bit easier, but the scope of those moves has allowed her to see a baseline of commonality that runs throughout Montana.
‘I’d say the community support made it easy but also your class sizes are extremely different,” Chirrick said. “Being in your English class of eight students in Roberts and then you can have hundreds in your classes (at MSU), so obviously that’s a big difference.
The support of Class C towns and the tight-knitted unity that pervades from business owners to bus drivers to principals has always been a draw for sports fans throughout Montana.
It’s that unity that helps drive the four former Class C standouts playing in next week’s Big Sky Tournament in Boise.
“I think the bond that you create with your classmates, because your classes are so small, you don’t really see that (in bigger schools) and everyone is super close in the community,” Chirrick said. “That’s one thing that I really enjoyed being from Roberts is it’s very similar to Bozeman with the community support. You have people in the community that aren’t necessarily related to anybody playing but they’re just going to come out and support the games just because it’s your town and your community.
“You get a flat tire in a small town, someone’s there for you and I feel that we have same ability here, which is special.”
