Tanner Trafton has been the talk of Lewistown for the last month or so.
His 6-foot-6 frame has turned heads wherever he goes in Montana for quite some time. But it’s his verbal commitment to continue his football career at Montana State next season that has the folks of Fergus County talking.
“The support has been amazing, especially from my family since I have a huge family here,” Trafton said in an interview on Sunday night. “They all live in town and they come to every single one of my sporting events. They are all super excited.
“There’s a good base of Bobcat fans in Lewistown and they all invited me up to their box seats the next game I came to tell me how proud they are of me. The support here has been great. It seems like every time I go out, people wish me the best of luck and say they are excited to watch me in the future, which has been super cool.”
Trafton and his Fergus County High School teammates have also been the talk of the Central Montana town of about 5,900 this fall. Behind the athleticism of Trafton, a versatile wide receiver and defensive lineman who also stars in basketball and track, the Golden Eagles were the surprise of Class A this season.
After dropping their season opener to Laurel 38-12, Fergus ripped off five straight wins in which the Golden Eagles allowed a total of six points. A sixth straight win over traditional power Belgrade preceded a 49-18 loss to Billings Central. The Golden Eagles surged into the playoffs with a win over Dawson County (Glendive) High, then shutout Sidney in a 21-0 win in the first round of the Class A playoffs.
Last week, Trafton and his teammates saw their dream run end in heartbreaking fashion. Trailing defending Class A state champion Columbia Falls by one point late in the fourth quarter after rallying from a 16-0 halftime deficit, the Golden Eagles went for two late in the fourth quarter. Fergus could not convert and the Wildcats ran out the clock in a 23-22 victory to advance to the Class A semifinals.
Lewistown finished its season 8-3. Trafton caught 32 passes for 564 yards and four touchdowns. He also had two interceptions, a sack and 41 total tackles while playing cornerback.
“Going into this season, I knew it was going to be a good one just because of how hard we worked in the off-season compared to seasons past,” Trafton said. “We have a large core group of seniors who really bought into everything and of course, the underclassmen really looked up to us toward the end of the season.
“We came into the season, dropped the first one to Laurel and we realized what it’s going to take to be successful in the Eastern A going into the playoffs. Everything went up from there. I don’t know if I expected to do that well but I never doubted for one second how our guys were going to do. We ended up doing awesome.”
Trafton announced his commitment to MSU on his personal twitter page on September 26. He said getting the decision out of the way helped him focus on the rest of his final prep football season.
“It was 100 percent a relief,” Trafton said. “It was good to get that out of the way so I could focus on my team and finishing out my high school career on a high point, making good memories with my senior class so we would have something to look back on for the rest of our lives.”
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Trafton hopes that he can harness some of that momentum first for basketball season — the Golden Eagles qualified for the Class A state tournament in hoops for the first time in 17 years last winter —then in track, where he hopes to improve on his silver medal in the 800 meters and finally during his college career with the Bobcats.
When Jeff Choate first took over as the head coach at Montana State, he hired former Montana Western head coach B.J. Robertson as his director of high school relations. The engaging Robertson has helped Montana State scour the state for small-town talent, establishing relationships with prospects early and letting relationships develop. Trafton said he heard from the Bobcats shortly after Choate’s hire.
Following Trafton’s junior season, Montana State officially started recruiting the rangy athlete. Trafton asked if he could come watch a practice and said MSU’s coaching staff was “totally inviting.” Following that practice, he said he “met with (MSU wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator) Matt Miller for a few hours and really hit it off).”
Last summer, Trafton attended three camps at MSU, eventually earning a scholarship offer. He contemplated the offer along with an offer from Montana and a collection of various scholarship opportunities at all of the Frontier Conference schools in Montana.
“They were all great places too and that’s what made it such a hard decision,” Trafton said. “Frontier Conference football is super high level football as well. And Montana is a great place, great tradition there. And MSU is amazing. All of them are great schools, especially Carroll and Tech. I felt that MSU fit me the best but it was a hard decision.”
Trafton’s instant connection with Miller — the 190-pounder was recruited as an athlete that will likely play wide receiver or tight end at the college level — and Choate along with his desire to pursue pre-medicine with designs on going to medical school helped Montana State win out. Trafton, a 4.0 student, is in line to receive a substantial amount of academic financial aid and the MSU football program “said they’d try to take care of the rest for me.”
“I just really liked how Coach Choate talked about how family oriented they are and how much they care about kids from Montana and how much they want to build it around kids from Montana,” Trafton said. “They talked about how their players come in and do their work every single day and don’t complain and are really good football players but even better people off the field and how much they care about academics. I really like the whole idea of how they run their program and how to be a successful person outside of football.”
The articulate, well-mannered teenager already seems like he’s on the right track to a successful life after his athletic career ends. Trafton is just happy he has an opportunity to represent for his community at Montana State for the next few years.
“It’s a huge honor and it means a lot to me,” Trafton said. “It’s a huge accomplishment and it’s always been a dream of mine. Even playing NAIA football or basketball would’ve been great and I would’ve been totally happy for that. But to get the shot to play at a D-I school and football for the Bobcats, close to home, it’s totally a dream come true, it really is. I’ve worked for that my whole life and I’m so excited to get there and see what happens and do whatever I can to help the team and be the best person I can for the school. I’m just super excited.”
Photos courtesy of Trafton family. All Rights Reserved.
