M-ette added to U of M Hall of Fame

A former M-ette standout Greta (Koss) Buehler had made the most of her college years at the University of Montana (U of M) in Missoula during her years as a Lady Griz forward, enough so that the school has chosen her to be forever enshrined in the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame. Buehler will be formally inducted into the GSHF at a banquet on Friday, Oct. 7, per gogriz.com.

"It's a big honor, kind of a point of pride to be singled out by your school to be in the hall of fame," Buehler said. "It's kind of humbling because I know that there are a lot of athletes that are also qualified to be in there."

Buehler humbly mentioned that some of those athletes include former teammates during her time playing at U of M.

Buehler was a part of the Malta M-ettes throughout her high school years from 1989-92 and was a valuable part in Malta's first state championship win during her junior year in 1991.

"It was intense and was against Fairfield who still obviously is a big rival against Malta," Buehler said.

Buehler and two other starters fouled out in overtime but the team held on to win.

"The other girls pulled it out while we watched on the bench, so that was pretty exciting," she said.

Their 54-52 double overtime win over Fairfield helped spark off quite the rivalry, with either team or both being in nearly every state Championship game since then. There have only been five championship games without either team in the now 25 year span.

In her years at Malta, Buehler still had some growing to do in stature but she was a proficient scorer as a guard in legendary late M-ette Head Coach Del Fried's system.

"I didn't play inside very much," Buehler said. "We had some other post players that were good and I probably weighed 105, so I wasn't sure they wanted me inside anyway."

During the summer prior to her senior year, she knew she would be a part of U of M's Lady Grizzlies.

"I went to basketball camp with Skyla Sisco and a couple other girls the summer before my senior year," she said. "That's when I met all of the coaches at U of M and then Rob (Lady Griz Head Coach Robin Selvig) started calling me and I committed early. It was kind of the place I wanted to go so there wasn't much of a question."

She graduated from U of M with a degree in Exercise Science in 1997. All throughout her college career Buehler was a force on the basketball court. She had grown to six-foot-two and had a knack for rebounding as a forward and was also used as a point guard.

"As I grew I had guard skills," she said. "I don't know how I had rebounds. I just wanted to get the rebounds."

Buehler helped lead the Lady Griz to a 100-21 overall record, while also winning four Big Sky Conference titles and advancing to four NCAA tournaments, which included a couple of wins in the tournament.

"I obviously played for a really good coach who had the program going really strong," she said. "The community of Missoula supports the Lady Griz amazingly well and even back then we had crowds of five thousand. And I played with really good players there."

She also mentioned that like Malta, the U of M had a tradition of winning.

"That's what we wanted to do continue the tradition," Buehler said. "When you play with good players that are competitive and want to win it makes it a lot easier. I've played with some good players."

Buehler said that among her fondest memories of college was the rivalry against the Montana State University Lady Bobcats.

"Anytime we played Montana State, those were fun games and we kind of got geared up for them," Buehler said. "It was kind of neat because the State of Montana kind of checks it out and tends to pick a side."

Another fond memory was playing in the NCAA tournament.

"Those just have a different level of intensity," she said. "We played at Tennessee and at Stanford so those were big crowds and fun games."

She also loved the underdog role at the NCAA tourney.

"They were fun because a lot of times we weren't necessarily picked to win so when we did it was an upset," Buehler said. "It's always nice to go and win games that maybe you aren't expected to win.

Not only did Buehler make an impact as a college player, she also saw time as a professional player for the Utah Starzz in the Women's National Basketball League's inaugural season in 1997.

She went to an open tryout in Salt Lake City after the league had hosted its first draft.

"I think there were three hundred to four hundred people trying out," she said noting that teams only drafted five players. "I originally signed as a practice player and a few games later I got moved to the active roster."

Buehler would play the rest of the season.

"It was a neat experience to be able to do it," she said. "I'm thankful that I got the experience."

After the first season Buehler was cut but it wasn't a discouragement.

"I guess it was closure for me because I was ready to do something different," she said.

After playing professional basketball Buehler went back to college for a teaching degree then taught and coached for a span of ten years at Billings West High School, where she led the varsity girls' basketball team to the State AA Championship and won 58-47 over Bozeman in 2005. The team also won in 2003 and 2004 when Buehler was the junior varsity head coach.

"Coaching is different and I enjoyed trying to pass on something that I had so many opportunities with," she said.

During her coaching career, Buehler and her husband Eric welcomed two sons Austin and Brett into the world and in order to spend more time with her family, Buehler stepped away from coaching. The Buehler family currently resides in Helena.

Thinking back on her career as a player and coach, Buehler gave credit to Del Fried who set the path for many M-ettes to go on to be successful in high school and college.

"The one thing that he really emphasized was fundamentals and that helped me throughout my career to think the game through a little bit," Buehler said. "Coming from a culture of winning in Malta made it an easier transition to go to Missoula where there was also a culture of winning."

She gave credit also to Robin Selvig.

"I can't say I was even near them or in their league as a coach but to take a little bit of how they handled situations shaped how I looked at the game," she said. "The fundamentals thing was in high school and continued throughout college and then when I coached, a big thing I wanted was for them to be fundamentally sound."