Coed basketball competition will return to Boulder April 23–24 for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic—and like the Ballin’ in the Big Rock and Jon Boster tournaments before it, this month’s tournament is shooting not for payouts, but to benefit a worthy cause. This time, southwest Montana’s basketball community is stepping up, and onto the court, to help one of its own.
March 12 should have been nothing but celebration for Three Forks High School Boys Basketball Coach Terry Hauser, as he led the Wolves to their first state championship title in 21 years with a 72-57 win over Harlem. Instead, tragic news: His brother, Taylor, had been flown by air ambulance to Salt Lake City after experiencing a stroke that morning. Layne Glaus, a Whitehall High School graduate who now coaches basketball at Manhattan Christian School and is friends with the Hausers, said that Taylor, in his early 40s and the older of the two, remains hospitalized in Salt Lake City “going through rehab, and basically everybody around the family is trying to raise money to help pay for the medical costs.”
“He’s got one of the biggest hearts out of anybody,” Glaus said, adding that Taylor Hauser worked in construction around Bozeman. “He’d help out anybody if they were in the same situation, he would be the first guy spending his time, money and efforts bringing somebody else back or helping out their family.”
Glaus, who competed against Jefferson in high school and later played on coed teams in Ballin’ in the Big Rock and the Boster tournament before that, is helping to hold this year’s tournament along with Kylie Simons, Megan McCauley, Whitney Giulio, Lindsey Parsons and Brady Dawson, all of Boulder.
Originally, Simons said, the group was working with Boulder native Brady Minow to revive the Ballin’ tournament, which Minow had spearheaded before it went on hiatus because of the pandemic.
“I was just going to help her kind of get it going, and it just got all too last-minute,” Simons said, explaining that the group decided, “let’s just throw together a co-ed tournament and raise money for something.” Minow, who now lives in Louisiana, has been advising and supporting the Boulder-based organizers throughout the process, Simons said.
The group initially planned to raise funds for Boulder Elementary School sports as a way to thank Superintendent Jeff Elliott and teacher Devyn Ottman for their support of co-ed adult basketball, including facilitating use of the school’s gym for the tournament. But then, through their longtime friend Glaus, the group learned of the Taylor Hauser’s stroke and the family’s effort to raise funds to cover medical expenses.
“[Taylor] was one of Three Forks’ biggest fans and went to all their games,” Simons said. “It’s fun to give something back.”
The bracket to compete in the tournament is nearly full and closes today, April 13, Simons said, and teams’ $200 entry fees go almost entirely to the Hauser family. Referees donated their time, Glaus and Simons said, and a portion of the shirts awarded to winners were donated. The only overhead cost the entry fees will cover before being donated, Simons said, is shirts for the second-place teams and gas money for volunteer referees.
Additional donations to the Hauser family made through the tournament, Glaus said, will go entirely to the family.
Glaus said that the tournament will include “people from all over the state. I know one of my buddies is traveling from Missoula to play, there’s a couple guys from Great Falls,” and that “anytime you have a tournament like that, it’s good for the community,” because of increased business patronage and hotel stays. He said competition will likely run 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 23 and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on April 24.
To donate, contact Kylie Simons at (406) 465-2061 or Megan McCauley at (406) 459-0387.
