Sidney Herald

Taken to places they never expected because of their love of basketball, Savage athletes Payton Phillippi and Bridger Rice had a summer vacation of a lifetime.

“To have the opportunity to travel the world to play basketball is not a chance you get every day,” Phillippi, who will be a senior at Savage High School, said. “I thought basketball would be something I would do, but never expected it would take me to another country.” Phillippi and Rice were part of a group of 32 Montana and North Dakota athletes that traveled to Australia for a two-week trip. The two were not the only representations of the region as Culbertson’s Bailey Nickoloff along with Circle’s Tina Van Horn, Ashley Gardner and Alli Fritz also traveled to the land down under.

During a short span, the athletes became more than just teammates. “This trip not only taught me about basketball, but it helped me make a lot of new genuine friends,” Rice, who will be a junior, said. “That’s probably the best thing, to know that I have 31 new friends.”

The talented group also had the luxury of four experienced coaches in Savage’s Staci Lange-Rice, Saco’s Amber Erickson, Scobey’s Larry Hendrickson and Glasgow’s Willie Thibault.

“We were lucky to have just a great group of girls,” Lange-Rice, who is Savage’s head girls basketball coach said. “They are all talented basketball players, but great kids off the court as well. I wasn’t aware of any problems. Everyone had a great time.”

While the group had a short time to practice in Billings before flying to Los Angeles, Calif., playing together was a new experience for all 32 girls.

“Just being able to play with different girls from all over the state was a great experience,” Rice said. “I learned new things by playing with them. There were some extremely talented girls there, so I felt very lucky to be with them and took in as much as I could.”

One factor in the trip was, of course, the travel which was also a new experience for many. The group traveled from California to Fiji and then to Brisbane, Australia, a total time of around 16 hours.

“I am not going to lie, it took forever,” Phillipi said. “The flights were really long, especially on the way home.”

Once they made their way to where they were staying in Elanora, Australia, it was time to play some ball. The group, that was split into four teams, had to travel anywhere from 15 minutes to two and a half hours to play games.

So what is basketball in Australia like? “They definitely have a different game going on. Half of the year there key goes out at an angle and the other half it is straight like ours, so I think that was the hardest thing for me to get used to,” Rice, a post player, said. “Their game is also more physical which is nice, because I fit right in.”

For Phillippi, the physicality of the game there made her thankful for the referees back in Montana.

“Everyone gets on the refs here. But playing in Australia where they barely ever call fouls or traveling, you really miss them,” she said.

The teams faced a wide variety of competition.

“They had club teams and professional teams, and we played against both when we we were there. In some games, we played against players that were 12 and in others there were athletes in their 40s,” Phillippi said. “It was definitely different.”

Even when facing some of Australia’s top professional teams, the Montana and North Dakota athletes competed well.

“They did great,” Lange-Rice said. “I think it was a very strong showing from all four teams. Every game was extremely competitive.”

While the basketball went very well, there was one setback as the teams played six or seven games instead of the expected 16 games, Lange-Rice said. Though the group didn’t get as much basketball in as they would have liked, they had no trouble passing the time.

“We did tons of sight seeing in Australia and in Fiji,” Phillippi said. “While we were there, we went whale watching, surfing, scuba diving and a lot more. It was just a blast.”

The ocean was a favorite for Rice.

“When we went snorkeling, it was so pretty,” she said. “We were so close to the ocean life.”

The chance to travel is one of the benefits of the trip, Lange-Rice said. “The girls got a chance to see an entirely different culture. That’s very important, because sometimes we forget how much there is outside of Montana,” she said.

When the group arrived in Montana, they were ready to be home, but the athletes embarked on a journey they will never forget.

“If anyone is interested in going when they take the trip again in five years they should take the opportunity,” Rice said. “I’ll probably never have another experience as awesome as that.”

sports@sidneyherald.com