BAKER – High school football teams in the Eastern and Western ends of the state are already accustomed to long road trips for games. But when the playoffs begin, those distances and travel times are supercharged.

Just ask the Baker Spartans.

After finishing fourth in the Eastern B, the state playoff bracket dictates that they must travel to face the No. 1 seed out of the Western B division. That team happens to be the Eureka Lions who finished the regular season 8-0.

Eureka also happens to be 667 miles away from Baker in the Northwest corner of Montana, which means the Spartans have by far the longest trip among travelling teams in the first round of the high school football playoffs.

The Spartans face a trip that will take approximately 10 hours, 45 mins one way by car according to Google Maps. Of course, that doesn’t account for pit stops, practice time, road conditions or the usual road trip setbacks.

If one travelled the same distance on the East coast, you could drive from Portland, Maine to Richmond, Virginia and pass through 11 states in the same amount of time.

Point being: Montana is very large, and getting from point A to point B often takes a very long time. Long road trips are nothing new and travelling across the state for a playoff game sure beats staying home during the postseason!

Below is a breakdown of every road trip in the first round of the high school football playoffs separated by Classification.

CLASS AA

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Missoula Big Sky at Bozeman

207 miles 3 hours, 26 mins Great Falls CMR at Helena High

91 miles 1 hour, 36 mins Missoula Hellgate at Billings

343 miles 5 hours, 13 mins Billings Skyview at Missoula

348 miles 5 hours, 26 mins Kalispell Glacier at Great Falls

227 miles 3 hours, 49 mins Belgrade at Helena Capital

89 miles 1 hour, 33 mins Kalispell Flathead at Billings

448 miles 7 hours, 1 min AVERAGE 250.4 mi 3 hours, 45 mins

CLASS A GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Whitefish at Frenchtown

129 mi 2 hours, 23 mins Glendive at Billings Central

222 mi 3 hours, 16 mins Lewistown at Havre

177 mi 2 hours, 49 mins Butte Central at Libby

308 mi 5 hours, 3 mins AVERAGE

209 mi 3 hours, 23 mins

CLASS B

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Townsend at Fairfield

118 mi 1 hour, 54 mins Shepherd at Florence

381 mi 5 hours, 55 mins Cut Bank at Manhattan

269 mi 4 hours, 6 mins Missoula Loyola at Huntley Project

365 mi 5 hours, 26 mins Baker at Eureka

667 mi 10 hours, 45 mins Glasgow at Columbus

321 mi 4 hours, 59 mins Bigfork at Red Lodge

435 mi 6 hours, 53 mins Jefferson at Malta

319 mi 5 hours, 5 mins AVERAGE

359.4 mi 5 hours, 38 mins

8-MAN

GAME

DISTANCE

TIME

Choteau at Fairview

447 mi 7 hours, 5 mins Twin Bridges at Thompson Falls

264 mi 4 hours, 17 mins Culbertson at Fort Benton

333 mi 5 hours, 20 mins St. Ignatius at Park City

326 mi 5 hours, 35 mins Shelby at Alberton-Superior

280 mi 4 hours, 28 mins Belt at Scobey

359 mi 5 hours, 49 mins Flint Creek at W. Yellowstone

215 mi 3 hours, 33 mins Ekalaka at Great Falls Central

430 mi 6 hours, 44 mins AVERAGE

331.8 mi 5 hours, 21 mins