I agree with explosive 1. How did all of these 13 year old 7th graders get the passwords to their moms internet accounts. Why would Trevor Morris tranfer to keep from putting on a purple jersey? Maybe he wanted to play for a college level coach like Jim Sampson, although Fischer is also a former grizzly assistant, or maybe, if you actually knew the kid or anything about him, he wanted to reunite with Charlie. They went to middle school together at Meadow Hill and won the Maverick tournament (8th grade championship) in a run away. I'm sure Charlie talked Trevor into coming to Hellgate and probably told him what a good coach Sampson was.
As far as Sampson never making it to state, he has been developing the same core group of players for the past two seasons. The only two players that contributed to Hellgate last season who aren't there now are Matt Guffey and Brian Gaul and neither one was a star or a focal point, just a solid senior leader. This seasons team is last seasons team. I think the only player that suits varsity this year that didn't last season is Michael Newman. McGillis, K. Shaffer, Barnes, Cox all started last season and Joe Johnson has been Charlies back up since he was a sophomore. J. Shafer, Van Fossen, and Gale all suited as sophs last year as well.
As far as the Laslovich vs. Fischer debate, the one thing that sticks out to me about sentinel compared to other teams is that they don't seem to improve much from the beginning of the season to the end. Last season, Big Sky started 1-8 and finished the regular season at 9-11, wining 8 of its last 11 games. Then they took CMR, eventual state champs, to OT at state and might have won if Steven Thomas wouldn't of been giving a "phantom" fifth foul. Sentinel seems to start out on a tear ever year. 8-1 this year, buy to state last year, 4 regular season losses 2 seasons ago. But then when the state tourney roles around, its 0-2 barbeque. With the Hasquets, Morris, Poitras, Stensland, Ayala, Monanco, Gaertener how did they not even win a game. Two years ago you coulda thrown Henkel into the mix, but he did miss significant time in the tourney because of his ankle. The point is I guess that Sentinel seems stay as good as they are going to get from start to finish, whereas Hellgate (who struggled early with a 4-3 start) has gelled and Big Sky (who although is just 3-11, played Hellgate to within two points until the 4th quarter, and only lost to Helena High by one, plus they have last season as proof) are ever improving and the only thing that could cause that is intense practices and a good motivator to lead them. Coaching is clearly the driving factor. That said, 1. Jim Sampson for his basketball knowledge and as another post said "tough" love. 2. Josh Laslovich, for making everything of what he is given (talent wise) 3. Joe Fischer. although he may have the state appearances, he just coasts in. Must be a decent coach though managing all of those egos the last few years.