Butte High junior point guard Cadence Graham has committed to play college basketball at Montana Tech, where she’ll be coached by her father Jeff.
BUTTE, Mont. — With one year left in her high school basketball career, Butte High’s Cadence Graham has already established herself as one of the all-time Bulldog greats. And with the leap to college ball now on the horizon, her next stop couldn’t possibly come any closer to home or closer to family.
Graham made it official in May, signing with Montana Tech to continue her hoops career at the college level in her hometown of Butte. But it’s easy to forget that she wasn’t always a Buttian.
Graham is initially from Belt, where her father Jeff coached the Lady Huskies to six Class C state titles, before moving to Butte to pioneer a historic turnaround at Montana Tech.
Now, the father-daughter tandem will be together on the same sideline, as Cadence has fully embraced her new home in the Mining City.
“At first, I hated it,” Cadence Graham said. “I was so mad that I had to come here. But, after all, the community here and the culture here, it’s just different than anywhere else. It’s definitely been such a good move for our family, and I’m really glad that it happened.”
“It’ll be awesome,” Jeff Graham said. “My grandpa got to coach my dad, and my dad coached me. It was tough not coaching her in high school and leaving Belt. She was in great hands here [at Butte High]. But, selfishly, we wanted her to come to Tech and be able to play. We’re very thankful for that.”
As a junior, Graham finished third among Class AA girls in scoring, tenth in rebounds and assists, and second in made 3-pointers, powering the Lady Bulldogs to a second straight state tournament appearance.
It’s her hunger for success that ultimately led Graham to choose Montana Tech over her other options, after seeing fellow Buttian Brooke Badovinac clinch Tech’s first Frontier Conference tournament title since 1983.
“I want to be like Brooke,” Graham said. “You know, like that hometown hero. I mean, she hit the game-winning shot to win the conference tournament. That’s a cool thing. Like, you win it for your hometown, in your hometown. That’s something that I want to be and I want to do, too.”
But first, Graham has unfinished business in high school. Having already passed the thousand-point mark, she’s got a chance to break Lexie Nelson’s career scoring record of 1,696 as senior, as well as lead Butte High to its first ever girls’ basketball championship.
“I want our team to make state again and hopefully get further than we did this year,” Graham said. “We’re still building our program, but I think just working toward that goal every day and showing up to practice, just having kids that want to be here and just want the same goal as everyone, I think that’s really cool.”