In her memory the Browning Middle School gym is enormous. To a sixth grade girl used to playing in a half-court gym with walls for out of bounds lines, it must have seemed that this court was endless. With only 60 kids K-8 in the East Glacier school, there just wasn't enough bodies to field two separate teams, so there was no team for girls. It was play with the boys or not play at all, and Simarron wasn't about to just sit and watch. Being a Schildt meant being a basketball player.
Sterling remembers that season fondly.
But we won the 8th grade tournament at the end of the season. Wrapping around the head with a brightly colored band, they protect the eyes completely. It was like tunnel vision. Sterling says he endured rec spec jokes all the way to high school, even after he ditched them for his first pair of contacts. And although the bespectacled Schildts were teased about their gear off the court, players learned quickly to respect them on the court.