Statement from Johnny Clark: Electric Basketball Coach

December 27, 2023

I am honored and grateful to be selected as the first Head Coach of the Great Falls Electric for it’s inaugural season in The Basketball League (TBL).

I fondly recall my time in Great Falls in 2006-07 as an assistant coach with the Great Falls Explorers, in the (now defunct) Continental Basketball Association (CBA). I truly enjoyed that season, as the community and fan base was enthusiastic and supportive to us, and was clearly knowledgeable in it’s basketball. It’s no surprise that such a community would again welcome professional basketball to it’s city.

Amongst the top of the memories I have from that season include a home game we played against the league-leading Yakima Sun Kings, led by CBA coaching legend Paul Woolpert, who I played for in Yakima years before.

Our Explorers head coach picked up two technical foul calls late in the 3rd quarter, and I took over as acting head coach for the remainder of the game. After the break in play, and down 21 after the two technical free throws, we knew we had our work cut out for us, but we banded together and plugged in.

As we got buckets and defensive stops, I’ll never forget how loud it got in Four Seasons Arena as our fans cheered us on and pushed us in getting that 21 point deficit down to 1…but time ran out on us.

Through the years, through my basketball journey, I’d sometimes think back to THIS game and wish we’d had one… more… minute.

Well, instead of another minute, now we get a whole new season to get Great Falls rocking again!

The 2024 Great Falls Electric will be a fast paced, up-tempo basketball team that will get after it defensively and “play with force” on both sides of halfcourt!

Though the TBL is “billed” as minor league basketball, I look forward to working in partnership with Jim Keough and J.C. Isackson in bringing in this new era of Great Falls professional basketball and delivering a major league experience to the city, our fans, staff, sponsors, and partners.

You “Plugged In”?

About the Great Falls Electric Basketball and the Basketball League

The Great Falls Electric will play and be affiliated with The Basketball League (TBL) starting in March 2024 as Great Falls businessman and former Great Falls Americans Junior A Hockey Owner, Jim Keough will now serve as the Team Owner and General Manager. The Electric will compete in the The Basketball League’s (TBL’s) West Conference with other teams in Oregon and Washington. The first home games will be played in March at Swarthout Fieldhouse on the campus of Great Falls High School (see schedule).

About The Basketball League

The Basketball League is dedicated to delivering a World Class Professional Basketball experience to our community, our fans, and business partners. The Basketball League, Where the Spirit of the Game Lives.

The TBL, which began in 2018, currently features 39 teams across four conferences (East, Midwest, Central and West) with the West Conference consisting of teams from Washington, California, and Oregon. Great Falls is the only team from Montana set to begin play in early 2024 and will be the tenth team in the Western Conference.

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