Charlo’s Stephen Delaney talks about the Vikings’ trip

cross-state during the football playoffs

It's not exactly breaking news that Montana is huge. You don't even need to plan your trip right to see the sun rise and the sun set in the same day in Montana on a nonstop drive through the state.

On Nov. 5, the Charlo Vikings took a 679.88-mile trip for their quarterfinal matchup against Fairview High School. Fairview is so far away (literally five blocks from the North Dakota border), it's closer to Minneapolis, Minn., than it is Charlo. In fact, Charlo is closer to Salt Lake City than it is Fairview. By 100 miles.

Those numbers probably don't do as much justice for the Vikings' Stephen Delaney as to exactly how long the trip from Charlo to Fairview is as spending about 10 hours on a bus does.

Delaney experienced the trip the hard way. Two days to get to Fairview. A heartbreaking loss in the Class C football quarterfinals. And what, if at all possible, probably seemed like an even longer two days to get home.

Nevertheless, Delaney and his teammates made it there and made it back. But how do you kill so much time on a bus? Delaney stated the obvious.

"You kind of have to be creative," Delaney said. "There's not a lot you can do on a bus. It's fun to hang out with all your friends. Our team is so tight."

Surprisingly, one of the things the team didn't do much of on the excursion was schoolwork. But that didn't mean the student-athletes weren't studying. A lot of time went into looking over sheets to prepare defensively for the task at hand.

That's one aspect that wasn't lost on the Vikings. While it's tough to maintain focus for football with such a long, boring trip, Charlo was all business.

"It's not a fun trip, it's a business trip," Delaney stated adamantly. "We're not going to have fun, we're going to win a game on Saturday."

That's not to say they didn't have fun along the way. On a trip filled with little scenery and only the company that a locker room could provide, it's not a complete shock that one of the highlights for Delaney was getting off the bus, specifically in one spot. On the Friday preceding their playoff game, the Vikings stopped in Billings and practiced on the Rocky Mountain College football field.

"It's fun to get off the bus and get the legs moving again," Delaney said. "Getting to practice in a different city was fun."

Breaking up the trip into segments offered some relief for a team relying on sleep and friends to get across the state without being driven crazy. Delaney said the dead time was definitely the worst part of the trip, though he was able to last about 540 miles before he really got restless.

"There's not a lot between Miles City and Fairview," Delaney said. "Just a bunch of small towns." Being a senior in Montana, Delaney is no stranger to spending multiple hours at a time on the road. Between divisionals and state for football, basketball and track, he probably spends more time on a bus than in his own ride. Heck, former football star

Jerome Bettis owes him the "Bus" nickname.

And yet, the quarterfinal trip was unprecedented for him and his teammates.

"Fairview was definitely the longest any of us have traveled," Delaney said.

Delaney's bus riding days, at least in high school, are nearing an end, however. He has a basketball and track season awaiting him in the winter and spring. Following those trips, he, along with teammate Kolten Andrews and head coach Mike Krahn will take one last bus ride to Butte for the eight-man Class C All-Star Game during the first weekend in June.

Just call it one for the road.