53 years later, Westby Rangers celebrate first basketball title during school's 100th anniversary

JERRY WORLEY For 406 MT Sports

WESTBY — From multiple corners of the earth, five hundred Westby alumni converged and registered in June for the 100th anniversary of their first graduating class of 1925.

Among them were the 1972 Class C boys basketball championship team. Fifty-three years after they became the first Sheridan County team to win a state basketball title, every player is still alive.

So Stan Sorensen, who was a junior on the team, made a flurry of phone calls as he drove to the reunion this summer. He was trying to persuade the hesitant Rangers to reunite and snap a photograph of the 14 living members.

It paid off.

Thirteen made it, including student manager Ron Nelson and assistant coach Rich Remi. Coach Remi, “drove all the way from Helena for the photo then drove back