Arlee's Malatare making his mark at EOU

Arlee alumnus and former prep basketball standout Phillip Malatare (AHS class of 2018) was recently named Newcomer of the Year by the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) for his hardcourt contributions during the course of his junior season with the NAIA Eastern Oregon University (EOU) Mountaineers at La Grande, Ore.

Malatare’s 19.2 points per game average was second in the league, and he hit a fourth-best 83.3% of his free throws.

Malatare also was named to the all-conference first team for the Mountaineers. He scored a career high 29 points against Whitman College while turning in five double-doubles over the course of the season.

“Phillip has that ‘it’ factor you look for in recruiting,” Mountaineer head coach Chris Kemp said. “He was at his best when the pressure was turned up in big games and close games."

Prior to the covid pandemic, Malatare played two seasons with the North Idaho College (NIC) Cardinals alongside fellow Warriors teammate Tyler Tanner (AHS class of 2017), while Arlee alum Zach Camel (AHS class of 2013) served as an assistant on the coaching staff.

Malatare was named to the all-state team three times during his tenure as a Warrior. He also was named to the state C all-tournament team three times, culminating with tournament MVP honors to cap his senior season.

He scored a prep-career-high 48 points against Seeley Swan his senior season and was an integral part of Arlee's back-to-back state C championship titles. Warrior teammates Tanner, Will Mesteth and Malatare were sometimes identified by media coverage under the rubric of the Warrior "three-headed monster" backcourt during his prep junior campaign due in part to their behind-the-arc shooting proficiency along with the triple-threat capability they posed on offense that accounted for about 70% of Arlee's scoring that season.

When the Jocko Valley and the environs of its surrounding reservation community were plagued by a rash of suicide incidents, Malatare, his teammates and then-coach Zanen Pitts translated their hardcourt success into a platform for raising awareness about suicide prevention, among other concerns, with the founding of the "Warrior Movement."

Although the full scope of their efforts and how deeply they would reverberate is often difficult to measure, their impact as a positive force for change has borne its share of fruit. In addition to videos and other media that document these efforts, a chronicle of the challenges of their 2018 championship season has since been told in a book by Abe Streep titled “Brothers on Three: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana” (Celadon Books, 2021). The publication recently won the 2021 Montana Book Award in recognition of “literary and/or artistic excellence" that "deals with Montana themes or issues.”