BILLINGS — Time has certainly flown by for Montana State’s Brooke Fatupaito.
The former Billings Skyview state basketball champion enters her final season with the Bobcats' women's basketball team this year, and in doing so is beginning the next chapter of life as she’ll student-teach at Hawthorne Elementary in the fall.
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“In the beginning, being a freshman and working with kids in these camps, I thought that might be something I would be really interested in," Fatupaito said. "Especially going from a business major to education, it felt a lot more comfortable."
And it's going to make for some long days this upcoming school year.
"This next semester I'll be going from 8 until 3, then practice from 4 til 6. It's quite a commitment, but it's what I want to do with the rest of my life," Fatupaito said. "I'm just glad I can have a scholarship that pays for it."
Speaking of those camps, Fatupaito and several of her MSU teammates were recently in Laurel hosting a day camp where they saw quite a few familiar faces.
“Just being able to come to these communities that give so much to us — these guys come to all of our games and we hear them in the crowd," Fatupaito said. "We know we have a lot of support from this side of the state, so being able to come here and give back to them what they give to us is amazing."
Coming up, Fatupaito will celebrate another milestone: her one-year wedding anniversary, as her and her high school sweetheart will toast on Aug. 2.
“All of my teammates were traveling that day to the wedding, so they missed the ceremony but they were there for the fun part — the reception. It was super fun," Fatupaito said. "Then we went to the Bahamas for our honeymoon and it was amazing."
It seems like yesterday she was hoisting that state championship trophy inside First Interstate Arena at MetraPark, and now Fatupaito will lace them up for one last season.
