UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Two years later, the Tribune Sports Desk still the same

The last 105 weeks have been like a left-handed dream.

That's two years and one week, folks ... and no offense intended for the many portsiders eyeballing this column (I'm sure by now you've figured out that I'm not a southpaw).

It was on a Friday night, March 13, 2020, when the world as we knew it came to a dead stop.

The coronavirus pandemic had struck our little piece of Heaven we call Montana. It was just four cases statewide, but it was enough - in the eyes of former Governor Steve Bullock and the Montana High School Association - to virtually place the entire state on lockdown.

And here I was, inside the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on the campus of Montana State University, covering the Class AA Combined State Basketball Tournament. We had just completed the boys' semifinals, and the lineup for the Saturday games were set.

Except ...

The announcement from the MHSA stating that all of the remaining games in the eight state tournaments had been cancelled hit like a freight locomotive on a chicken coop. There would not be a championship game; instead, the semifinal winners would be declared co-champions.

Then they sent everyone home. Or at least back to their hotel room.

The players that were still there reacted like they had been cheated out of a dream - especially the graduating seniors. Several cried on the shoulders of their coaches and teammates. Others dropped to their knees in disbelief, pounding on the playing surface with clenched fists, screaming "NO! NO! NO!" - peppered with adjectives that are not fit to be printed for obvious reasons.

Others just sat right where they were standing, whether they had a chair or not - in stunned silence.

At that point, the games of that night were secondary.

I went back to my hotel room and wrote my story. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or go horseback, although I had already shed plenty of tears for these kids.

I noted toward the end of my story that I had felt like I had just written an obituary. Two years after the fact, I still do.

I finished my story, posted it online and sent it to print - that was back when we were still printing the paper at 205 River Drive South - and said, "To hell with it," and loaded up the car to drive the 187 miles back to Great Falls. This was at about half past midnight.

I couldn't get a cup of coffee until I got to Townsend. By that time - not quite 1:30 a.m. (but still oh-dark-thirty) - it had started spitting snow.

By the time I reached Winston, it was a whiteout. I just took another sip of coffee, lit a cigar, and kept going. It had let up a bit in Helena, and I was thinking the drive up I-15 would be quick and uneventful.

No. It was a full-blown, USDA-approved blizzard, zero visibility or less, from Lincoln Road to two miles south of Cascade.

It was complete with whiteouts, trucks driving slower than I was (and I was keeping it at 30 MPH or less ... usually less), and deer that didn't have the sense that God gave a kumquat.

They probably felt the same toward me, but I digress.

I finally made it to my front door at about 6 a.m. - still oh-dark-thirty - and was greeted by my wife. She, of course, questioned my sanity for making such a drive.

Yes, I caught hell from various other sports scribes in the state (without mentioning any names), except for my boss at the time, Scott Mansch. But, in retrospect, if I had it to do all over again, I would have done it the exact same way.

After all, I was writing an obituary.

Tribune Sports Writer Lee Vernoy can be reached at lvernoy@greatfallstribune.com, and followed on Twitter at @GFTrib_LVernoy.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: UNFINISHED BUSINESS: Two years later, the Tribune Sports Desk the same