Will 2026 Be the Year of the Bulldogs?

If 2026 starts the way 2025 ended, Butte High Bulldog fans could be in for a very special year on the hardwood.  Your Butte High Bulldogs boys baskeball team is 4-0 going into the holiday break and it has indeed been a long time since a season started like this.  It's been even longer since the Bulldogs brought home a state championship.  Could this be the year?

I know we're only 4 games into the season but after last night's blowout of previously undefeated Butte Central and their wire-to-wire win over Billings West last Friday, this team certainly is raising eyebrows.  Butte Central is a very good team who hangs their hat on intense man-to-man defense but last night, Hudson Luedtke was simply on fire. When he wasn't hitting the Bulldogs were getting the rebounds behind 6'9 sophomore Brady Hanson who also got a monster dunk in the second quarter.  Luedtke, though, seemed like he could not miss scoring a game-high 32 points from everywhere on the floor including some impressive moves in the post.  The Dogs got great play from guards Josh Liston and Mike Verlanic who are simply deadly from the perimeter and senior Cayde Stajcar is simply an impressive all around athlete.

The Dogs are nothing to laugh at coming off the bench with bruiser Kendel Noctor and 6'9 senior Ryan Hanson inside and a contingent a speedy guards like Rhett Arntson, Raeder Gray and forward James Pearston providing plenty of firepower and defense.  They certainly seem strong in all of the areas.

Could this be the year that the Bulldogs win the state championship that has eluded the program since 1984?  The state tournament is certainly a long ways away and we haven't even started conference play but with a start like this, you can't help but ask the question.