For many high schools around the United States, there is usually at least one other high school in their town or near them. Because they are so close together, they compete against each other in academics and athletics.
Competitions, especially sports games, are more significant than others in a season when played against a big rival, especially when it’s a cross-town rival.
Missoula is no stranger to this as it has three main public high schools within the town. The schools are Sentinel, Big Sky, and Hellgate, and they compete against each other throughout the year in many athletic and non-athletic events.
These cross-town rivals add an extra edge to the game for many players and fans, but things can quickly go from a friendly rivalry to a school-wide war.
The GOAT Game Controversy
For basketball, Missoula hosts a special cross-town game called the GOAT game. The GOAT game is based on the spirit of the student section instead of the actual outcome of the game. Only two of the three schools play in it each year, and the rotation is based on who loses and wins.
This year, the GOAT game was on January 30th and was between Big Sky and Hellgate. Big Sky won the GOAT game for the first time last year and Hellgate has won multiple times until being dethroned by Sentinel in 2024.
The Big Sky theme this year was Top Gun and was used as a way to honor veterans alive and deceased. In the school’s newspaper, the Big Sky Sun Journal, they mentioned how they have been planning this theme since before the end of last school year.
Hellgate’s theme was Star Wars, with their main slogan being “Knights strike back,” a clever spin off of the movie title, The Empire Strikes Back.
The rubric that judges are given to score points on each school’s spirt include: Sportsmanship, Theme, Shirt Design, and Decorations etc. Hellgate had a point over Big Sky in every category except for sportsmanship and decorations. In sportsmanship each team tied at 20, and in decorations Big Sky had three points over Hellgate with it being 16.6 to 19.8.
Those three points are what led to Big Sky winning the GOAT with a final score of 470-460, but it wasn’t the points that caused the problem; it was the category that the points were awarded in.
Ten days after the GOAT game, Hellgate’s newspaper, the Hellgate Lance, published an article called “Hellgate Students, Teachers Criticize ‘pay to win’ Nature of Goat”. The article accused Big Sky of spending an absurd amount of money to win the GOAT because they have a booster club, unlike Hellgate. The only problem with the article was that they had no proof to back up their claim other than the already known fact that Big Sky has a booster club. The article could also be taken as very passive-aggressive towards judges of the game and the Big Sky student body.
Big Sky responded through the Sun Journal in an article called, “Budget, donation comparisons between Hellgate and Big Sky for 2026 GOAT Game”. The two writers of the article talked to both the Big Sky and Hellgate student governments to see how much money was actually spent. They found that Big Sky only spent $158.37 where Hellgate spent somewhere between $300-$450.
On the Big Sky Sun Journal’s Instagram they posted a pie chart of Big Sky spending for the GOAT game to advertise their article. A private Hellgate Barstool account commented, “Which [BHS] parent funded the creation of this graphic?”, “The Star Wars theme was an honor of my grandpa too”, and “On today’s episode of: can’t win without their parents”.
The two comments about Big Sky using parent’s money are to be expected, but it was a low and unnecessary blow to poke fun at one of the reasons Big Sky did the Top Gun theme, which was to honor veterans.
No Big Sky organization responded to the comments, but some students did with their own private accounts by calling out how much Hellgate spent on lightsabers and how they can’t accept a loss.
As tensions were already high and the rivalry had lost its “just for fun” feeling, Hellgate decided to change their theme for Tuesday’s basketball game to Gertie’s funeral attire. There was also a Hellgate student government video about the theme change, with someone in the video saying to show Big Sky they are the school with better spirit.
Big Sky didn’t respond through words but with action when they won the game in a final score of 43-37.
The GOAT game is supposed to be a fun basketball game that connects the schools across Missoula together. Yes, it’s a competition, but it should be left in the gym after the game ends and shouldn’t be worried about until next year’s game. If people can’t prove that they can handle this kind of rivalry, it may go away entirely.
