Stuart named to Rocky Hall of Fame

Jake Stuart, a Gildford native, learned a couple of weeks ago that he would be inducted to the Rocky Mountain College Hall of Fame for his basketball career.

"I was a little surprised.I didn't think that I had given Rocky enough money to make the hall of fame," Stuart told the PCN with a laugh. "It's an honor for sure."

Stuart's college career presented him with many challenges and triumphs on the court. Despite several challenges Stuart had close to 1,400 points, and over 400 rebounds in his three seasons with the Battlin' Bears.

Stuart, a shooting guard with the Bears, grew up in Gildford and played high school ball for the Class C Kremlin-Gildford KouGars, and helped them win state titles in 1998 and 1999. Stuart's biggest game of his high school career came in the 1999 State C title game as Stuart was able to post a dominant 36 point, 10 rebound double-double. He was 7-of-11 from the three point line. His team had defeated Chester that year.

"In my opinion, our best player got into foul trouble," Stuart said. "He had three fouls in the first six minutes of the game. That was actually the only time I shot well that year. It was a state championship game, so it was a good time to do that."

Stuart went on to say that he got a lot of credit, but he felt this his team was loaded full of talent.

"We had another kid that did all of the dirty work, so I didn't have to," Stuart said. "He was a great rebounder, great scorer, and very unorthodox. Teams planned for me and then he would do everything. Teams would plan for me and forget that we had four other good players."

After his senior season, Stuart attended the University of Montana for two seasons, the first of which was a redshirt year, and he eventually transferred to Rocky Mountain College in 2001. A transition that did not start off so hot, despite all of the hype that followed Stuart.

"At the start of that year I did not play that well," Stuart said. "There was a lot of pressure."

He also realized that he was no better than anyone else in the Frontier Conference.

"The Frontier at that time was pretty competitive," Stuart said.

Stuart did crack the starting lineup set by head coach Bill Dreikosen in his first season despite his struggles and then he was struck by injury, spraining his ankle for the first time in his entire basketball playing career. He lost his starting job.

"When I got healthy again I kind of expected to get the starting job back, but our team was doing better without me starting," Stuart said. "And I was playing better coming off the bench."

Stuart admitted that he was frustrated about losing the starting job, but he knew that coming off the bench as the sixth man relieved some of the pressure that affected his playing on the court.

"It was probably two or three weeks of me feeling bad for myself and then I accepted the sixth man role and then I started playing better," Stuart said.

The team flowed well with Stuart being a reliable player from the bench but during that time, the team would have to figure out a rift that eventually exploded into a shouting match amoungst his teammates.

According to Stuart, the team consisted of men that didn't have much in common. Several teammates were from rural areas and five or so were from not-so rural places in California.

"We were all new to the program and it took halfway through the year before we found common ground," Stuart said. "And the common ground that we found was that we were all on the same page and we wanted to win. There was a lot of tug-of-war."

He went on to say that near the end of the year there was a blowup at practice.

"Everyone got everything off of their chest," Stuart said. "They were all minor problems. We went on a five game winning streak at the end of the year. We all got on the same page and we found out we kind of liked each other."

They would enter the Frontier Conference Tournament as the sixth seed that year at 9-18 and beat the third seed, second seed and first seeded team (Carroll College) to win the 2002 Frontier Conference Tournament.

The team would find even greater success the next season, going 24-10 during the regular season, and winning the Frontier Title for the second year in a row, defeating Carroll once more.

The Frontier championship wins sent the Battlin' Bears to the National NAIA Tournament, Rocky Mountain lost their first game in both 2002 and 2003.

During Stuart's senior season many of his former teams were either graduated or no longer playing with Rocky Mountain. Despite the team looking vastly different Stuart helped lead the team to a 17-14 record.

Stuart was able to help pave the way for the next generation of Battlin' Bears as he hosted a college visit to former Rocky star Devin Uskoski, who lead the Bears to the 2009 NAIA Division I Title.

"He was a super kid," Stuart said. "And he will be in the hall of fame in the next three or four years. Devin was probably the best player in Rocky history."

The 2009 team is also on the ticket for this year's Hall of Fame Inductees. Also on the list is Paul Edwards, Mark Adams, and Jeannie McGonagle.

The Banquet will be held at the Pub Station in Billings on Friday, September 20.

Stuart currently lives in Malta with with wife Ashley and their children Regan and Emree.