BUTTE — Senior Butte High quarterback Colton Shea is looking to do justice to the Bulldog signal callers that have come before him, and he'll get his first shot on Friday evening as Billings West comes to town.
"I'm just really excited, we play a really good team in Billings West," said Shea, who led Butte's JV team last season. "They're gonna be a good challenge for us to get rolling into conference play. There's been a lot of really good quarterbacks here and I'm just looking to follow what they've done."
Shea is succeeding past Butte QBs Bo Demarais, Jace Stenson, Blake Drakos, and Tommy Mellott. And Butte head coach Arie Grey, heading into this 17th season guiding the Bulldogs, has full confidence that he'll be a worthy successor.
"Colton's done a great job for us in the offseason, he did a really nice job for us with our sub-varsity team and then really kind of took the reins in the spring and in the summer," said Grey. "He's just a good leader, a hard-working young man. So we're excited to see what Colton can bring to the table this year."
The Bulldogs open their season against West a year after Butte kicked off its 2023 campaign with a wild comeback victory against the Golden Bears. The Bulldogs overcame six turnovers and erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to pull out an improbable 21-17 victory at Daylis Stadium.
Butte delivered an even more shocking rally against Kalispell Glacier at home in its Week 3 conference opener, roaring back from a 21-0 fourth-quarter deficit to stun the eventual Class AA runner ups.
Those big wins kicked Butte off on a path that had the Bulldogs on track to lock up the Western AA's No. 1 seed. But after dropping the final two games of the regular season, Butte landed the No. 4 seed, defeated Billings Senior at home in the opening round of the playoffs and then fell to Bozeman in the quarterfinals.
The Bulldogs have had plenty of time to mull over the ending to 2023 and here heading into this season with a heightened sense of urgency.
"I think we just gotta game plan good, just keep bringing the physicality, keep the energy up," said senior Torre Tempel, who was exclusively a defensive back last season but will also play receiver this year. "Translate what we brought to practice into the game. And I think that'll help us a lot."
The Bulldogs and Golden Bears kick off at Naranche Stadium at 6 p.m. on Friday.
