Mat Seidensticker Interview, November 22, 2024

Mat Seidensticker, University of Missoula Basketball Alumni and Lolo Middle School basketball coach describes his life growing up in Twin Bridges and on the highline on Montana. He talks about how he got into basketball by playing with his brothers and dad. He explains what life was like in the rural towns of Montana and shares his experience of going to the K-12 school system and Shelby school system and the differences between the two. He shares how he ended up playing basketball at the University of Montana from 1995 to 1999. Seidensticker shares many stories regarding his important sports and career connections, the community, and the social scene around sports in Missoula at the turn of the 21st century. He explains his career in Wildlife Biology and his journey to starting his own nonprofit. Seidensticker explains what it is like to coach the younger generation of athletes in Missoula County. He discusses tensions within the sports teams and Missoula community during large changes and scandals since the 1990s. Interviewer Danielle Brown was a graduate student working on the Griz Nation Oral History Project as part of the Griz130 History Initiative.