There’s a certain appeal to a team environment for Emily Beach.
It’s drawn her involvement in sports like softball, tennis, track and cross country at Missoula Sentinel, to most notably the starting lineup of the recently crowned State AA champion girls’ basketball team.
Perhaps it’s that unity and support system that put Beach on her current track in her true athletic passion of figure skating – ice dancing to be more exact.
“I really do enjoy basketball as a team sport, but my love is figure skating,” said Beach, a Sentinel senior and soon-to-be graduate.
The pair of traditionally winter-based activities battle for Beach’s already hard to come by time during the cold months. That makes for a lot of “figuring it out” while ice and snow rule the show during winters.
“Figure skating takes a bit of a backseat during basketball season,” Beach said, and the Sentinel Lady Spartans were awfully glad for that this past season.
The 5-foot-10 post player, who stands an awful lot closer to 6 feet with her skates laced, appeared in all 23 basketball games for Sentinel as a senior starter. She chipped in a modest three points and four rebounds per game, but held a much bigger defensive presence.
Beach came through in Sentinel’s biggest game of the year with a season-high 10 points to go with eight boards in the a dominant State AA championship win over Billings West on March 15.
But this Spartan knew her hoops days were over when the final whistle sounded that day in Billings’ Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark. Figure skating is her future.