SOME SERIOUS MILEAGE

Three playoff games, three long road trips, but you won’t hear

the Ronan football team complaining about it anytime soon

RONAN - With all three of their playoff games on the road, Ronan looked like they were auditioning for the next "Mad Max" movie as they logged plenty of road time and showed they were warriors regardless of the conditions.

Travel didn't seem to affect the Chiefs and they might have even looked forward to it.

"There is nothing like traveling 622 miles [to Baker] with the team. We all are a pretty tight knit group so traveling is always fun," senior Jack Humphreys said. "I think the best part of the road trip was just being able to spend time with the team. After this football season I don't know when or if we are ever going to all be together at one time so being together is definitely the best experience."

Ronan, which saw one of its biggest turnouts for football this year, had a strong group of seniors and, as evident by their play out on the field, there was good team chemistry.

"Its just a great experience," Senior Dalton Molzhon said. "You get to travel through so many different towns that you never knew even existed. I would say the best part of the trip is just spending time with your teammates. whether it be just sitting back talking with them or playing Xbox at the hotel room."

The travel, statistics are staggering, with Ronan traveling a Magellan-like 2,726 miles, according to Google maps.

Depending on what route the bus took and the stops along the way, the distance could be even further.

"We tend to sleep a lot on these bus rides. We always have different movies to watch," Humphreys said. "I like to read on the bus. Some guys play on their Ipods and stuff so we tend to stay busy somehow."

Ronan's shortest trip was a mere 318 miles to Big Timber, 636 miles round-trip, in the first round of the playoffs. In the second round, the Chiefs made it all the way to Baker, near North Dakota, a whopping 622 miles from home and a round trip of 1,244.

The Chiefs stayed over in different towns to sleep, and had a few other pit stops along the way to break up the trip.

"We stopped at three nice places," Humphreys said. "After our practice in Butte, We went and ate at Mckenzie River Pizza. That place always has good food. Once we made it to Miles City we went and ate at the Rib and Chop. They had really good food."

However, Humphreys' favorite eating spot was after the Chiefs had pulled out a victory to advance to the semi finals.

"My favorite place was Buffalo Wild Wings in Billings," Humphreys said. "We got there around 9 p.m. and we were all just hungry from the game. My favorite thing to eat was the wild wings. Nothing beats it."

Molzhon also agreed with the review of the buffalo wings, so perhaps victory makes things taste all the sweeter. Ronan's last trip was to Malta, 423 miles away and 846 miles both ways, and while their season would end there, 2011 was certainly a year to remember.

"The weirdest town we drove through would have to have been Forsyth," Humphreys said. "There was just not much there."

However, Molzhon had a different "weirdest place in Montana."

"If I had to say what it was, it would be Bozeman because no one there seems to like the Grizzlies," Molzhon said.

Humphreys celebrated his 18th birthday while the team was on the road, and was able to score a touchdown against Malta in the game last Saturday. In the end, Ronan proved that despite having the odds stacked against them on the road against tough teams, they could still come out on top. An- other roadtrip meant they were still in the playoffs and as competitive as the kids are, they were more than happy to keep packing a travel bag.

"Even though it would be nice to play on our own turf, traveling is always fun," Molzhon said. "It's just always a fun experience spending time with your teamates and coaches so it never does really get old."