Montana Hoops is not simply a photo essay about basketball hoops. It started out that way, but the project grew into a narrative about rural Montana. It’s a story about small town spirit, lonely dirt roads, fading mascots, heartbreaking rivalries and ever-present hope all bundled into one very American symbol: the basketball hoop.

 

This book is the result of two long road trips with my brother into the prairie towns that make up the majority of a vast and beautiful state. A dangling string left hanging on a beloved net, waving in the wind like Montana hospitality itself, leads us on a journey through Montana Wheatland and onto the Hi-Line where kids play basketball together late into purple evenings. Many of these towns are smaller now and absent of young people as the agricultural dream is reluctant to pass to the next generation. But there is no shortage of hope and spirit as you will see in the hand-painted messages on grain bins: Go Pioneers!  There are also signs of heartbreak and some of hope. The message painted on a main street building reminding kids they have much to live for. And in Judith Gap (with humor), 'Smile it could be worse'. I will take you into Tribal Lands and you will see the amazing spirit of Rez Ball. I will show you what is, in my opinion, the best of Montana.

 

The photos were taken the summer of 2020 during an unforgettable time of stress, illness and economic collapse in our country. They show how these issues reached all the way to the prairie towns of Montana and how these rural communities coped with grit, tenacity and humor.

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My hope is that these photos and stories lead you into the spirit of rural Montana.