Next Year is Now

“I want to turn the clock back to when people lived in small villages and took care of each other.”  Pete Seeger

Small towns teach the importance of community and belonging. Once you get over the sameness, a sense of place and self-awareness bounds a compelling unspoken unity. Calmness. In small towns, news travels at the speed of boredom. But, there’s a certain peaceful rhythm in small town living that speaks directly to the soul. As an outsider I find the simplicity and contentment of the locals envious. My wife Shawna and I spent five 2024 November days in Westhope, ND.

A town of maybe 350 people, Westhope sits on the northern end of US Highway 83, a north/south route that snakes its way through the center of the nation, tracing the spine of the High Plains region as a mostly two-lane highway, stretching south to the Mexican border town of Laredo, Texas.   To through drive Highway 83 will require about five to six tanks of gas. I have done it four times and am ready for a fifth.

Drive six miles south on Highway 83 from the Canadian port of entry and you will find Westhorpe. One school building. Two churches. A post office. A volunteer fire department. Two bars. One restaurant. A beauty shop. One food market (but it is in a perpetual state of teetering). One water tower. No stoplight. An hour-and-a-half drive to shop for clothes. Canada is so close you can walk there in two hours. That's Westhope.

 In 1928 the United States Geological Survey (USGS) designated a point 15 miles southwest of Rugby, North Dakota as North America’s geographical center.  Westhope is a one hour drive to the northwest - in the center of the continent but the middle of nowhere. 

 Today, big city intellectual urban America exhibits a perceived dismissive shoulder shrug for its smaller rural cousins. This divisive and resented vibe has, if anything, intensified with the second election of President Donald Trump. Both improbable victories by the bombastic Trump were made possible in a small part by strong support of Trump and his MAGA movement in tiny High Plains hamlets like Westhope, many in economic despair. But in defiance of national trends, Westhope is a thriving community, rock solid middle America.

Westhope has witnessed since the turn of the millennium an infusion of progressive young civic leaders. This is unusual for rural North Dakota, a state with a problematic aging population. These economic leaders’ talents have been the catalyst in a renaissance like civic rebirth. Westhope is surrounded by even smaller towns with names like Souris, Landa, Antler and Carbury - all in demographic and economic decline, invisible but for a rusting water tower, maybe an abandoned church spire. They're just names on turnoff signs. All once had vibrant schools, now all shuttered, robbing them of an important part of their identity. Rural towns are inseparable from their school. In these fore mentioned towns, there are no jobs to speak of, and many of the empty, weather-beaten frame houses appear to be standing mostly from force of habit. Lose the school, lose the town.

Westhope Public Schools defy the gloomy national trend of the downward spiral of rural public education. Enrollment is growing, civic pride is high and the Sioux sprots teams are the envy of their neighbors. Never affluent, Westhope was nevertheless always a solid choice to raise a family--a study, salt-of-the-earth community where the men worked their farms and hunted and fished on their days off. Proud people struggling to get by, hanging on to a way of life no one wants to make a reality TV show about.  In Westhope the next generation has stayed home and carved out their own economic niche, burning with civic energy.

So, why this Renaissance? Let’s start at the school and let’s start at the top.

Marty Bratrud is the Superintendent of the Westhope Public Schools. He sent me an email in October, 2024. He made me an offer I took him up on. In the email, his pride in his adopted school and small town spewed forth. “Recently I found some time and was reading your book Take The High Road,” he wrote. “I was reading your observations of small-town life.  I loved it and found it fascinating, especially the statement ‘Next Year Towns.’  It resonated with me, because I moved to Westhope in 2017 and Westhope was very much a town on the brink, agriculture and oil were trying to rebound from the oil bust in 2014.  Today, Westhope is a vibrant little hamlet with a lot going on.  It won’t seem like much to the untrained eye or those traveling through to go into Canda, but I am sure you would see the many changes that have occurred since your last visit (thirteen years prior).  Our main street is busy again, new small businesses have come in including a locally owned Starbuck’s style coffee shop, a new restaurant and watering hole called Shauna’s with live music, authentic Texas style meals crossed with our high plains fare, and a wonderful feel-good story about a community partnership that saved our grocery from closing a couple years ago.”

In Bratrud’s Westhope, there’s always room for one more at the dinner table. “Our school has also gone through a transition like our community.” he continued. “When I got here our enrollment was 115 students and falling, today it is 161 and growing.  Oil and agriculture are thriving again without the hustle and bustle of a boom.  And most significant to you is we have a football team that is undefeated and making a run towards Fargo for the 9-man state championship.  The team is almost a perfect metaphor for our community.  Rising from the ashes like a Phoenix.  I thought it might make for an interesting article for you to compare 2011 to 2024.   This groups of kids also won the ND small school Class B State Boys Basketball Championship last year featuring a mix of characters, personalities and skill sets that made them the darling of the ball across our region and state (Almost a Hoosiers type moment) as 90% of the Minot Dome was cheering for the little guys from the smallest sports coop in the state to win.   Our quarterback, Walker Braaten is also a high rated college football and basketball recruit who committed to North Dakota State University’s football program this past summer.”  

“We would love to invite you back if you had the time to feature the changes in our community, school, sport programs and rejuvenation of small-town community pride.  Westhope isn’t a “next year town” anymore, we have arrived. And even if the story ended with us enduring a loss in the FB playoffs, the story would still be a great parable of how and why we battle through our winters, the ups and downs of farming and oil production, live in the remoteness of the prairie, live for today and tomorrow and thrive on the Northern Plains.”

 Our schedule did  not allow us  to make it to the North Dakota state high school nine man football playoffs, but the week before Thanksgiving my wife Shawna and I checked into the Gateway Motel, Westhope’s finest (and only) short term domicile, just in time for the winter’s first blizzard.  We landed smack in the middle of a MAGA stronghold soaring on an election high, but reeling from the previous weekend’s crushing state semifinal loss.

 I find knocking on small town doors as a stranger inexplicably empowering. When you exit, you take parts with you. And you leave a part of you in its place.

 I doubt, short of necessitated by privacy concerns, the door to Marty Bratrud’s office ever closes. He shared his passion for educating “his kids” with my wife Shawna and for two solid hours. Monday morning phone calls, text buzzes, student waves when passing the open door and inquiries from teachers and staff were non-stop, but did not slow his sales pitch of the Westhope Sioux. The Superintendent of Schools didn’t try to hide his passion. He gushed nonstop for 120 minutes.  He sells, and sells well, the rebirth story of his school. It is a good one - part redemption, part epic trials and tribulations of thriving where few today do in what is too often an educational High Plains wasteland. He dissuades, pleads, preaches, and pontificates, quite often in the same sentence. I tried later that evening to put into words a concise summation of what I heard – the philosophy of a soon to retire lifetime educator.  I couldn’t. My head, 8 hours later, was still spinning. By morning, and after a good night’s sleep, I came up with this, in paraphrase: “Every kid in this building is someone's pride and joy, or should be someone's pride and joy, and it's my honor and obligation to be that someone for them. I ask myself, ‘how would I want my own child to be treated?’—and then that is how I treat them – all of them.”

So, how did you get here, I ask? “I grew up in Cookson Minnesota,” Bratrud begins. “My wife and I were newly married and living in Grand Forks. My wife got a job in Houston, TX. I followed. We were there for 14 years. I taught social studies and coached football. My wife was from Minot, ND and we decided in 2011 to move back to Flasher, North Dakota.” He made the decision to hang up his coaching whistle and move into school administration.

“I spent two years as a superintendent in Flasher. During this time my wife’s dad passed away and her mom was sick so we moved to Bismarck to help out.”  The job at Westhope opened and Bratrud thought it was a good fit.

“I have  been commuting for eight years to West Hope from Valley City, North Dakota. My wife teaches there at Valley City State University. Depending what is happening at the school on Saturday, I get back to Valley City at least one day each weekend. On Monday morning I get up early and drive back up here. It is a four hour drive. I have gotten use to it.”  His wife Sharon is an Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Human Performance. She is also a certified Athletic Trainer. “We have a common interest in sports, and I as I look back, that common interest brought us together.”

As with most school districts, large and small; rural and urban, the Covid epidemic of 2020 was a game changer.  “Covid really impacted us,” Bratrud states. “We were shut down for 2 1/2 months but it also brought people in from Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho and Montana for the oil field opportunities. We now have 161 student’s pre-K through 12 grade, that’s about a 40 (student) increase since I’ve been here. That may not sound like much, but for a small enrollment school, it’s a big jump. So many schools up here struggle for students, so we feel fortunate that our enrollment is growing. Most of the farms up here are third generation. Farm families are not as big as they use to be, not as many students coming from a single family. And we have the same issues with divorce and poverty, often times addiction as an underlying problems, like you see aound the nation. We are not immune up here from social problems.”

Will Rogers said a  farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer. Bratrud says that optimism makes the community resilient. Farming and ranching in Westhope is not a battle against nature, but a partnership with it. “North Dakota does not allow corporation farms to be bought and owned by foreigners,” he states. “So, the land here is still a legacy, passed down from generation to the next.”  Braturd says many young families in his district no longer earn their primary income from agriculture, but have kept the farm alive, working the land as a second job. “Ranching and farming are not easy, up here. The weather is a challenge, but that legacy is what gives this area character.  Roots up here run deep.”

In a small town, everyone’s success is celebrated as a community accomplishment. “Our high school boys basketball team last winter was amazing,” Bratrud gushes. “It had been 70 years since the last state championship, back in 1954. We’re one of the smaller co-ops in the state and our kids played with a lot of heart. We weren’t very big, but we were gritty and we were scrappy.”

Westhope Sioux athletics are the lifeblood of the locals, who bask in the success of their youth. "The community lives and dies with the success of our teams, but they are also realistic. We know there are going to be cycles and right now we are in an up cycle. And we are going to ride with it,” Bratrud says with a chuckle. “But, we have to work hard, not only in athletics but in every aspect to keep our schools at a level that serves our kids in a way we can be proud of.”

 Superintendent Braturd says the roundball fans of North Dakota  fell in love with the Sioux as they stormed to last winter’s state small school state basketball title. Their frenetic style of play captured the hearts of the entire state. “When a team got beat in Minot (site of the state tournament), their fans would latch on to us. By the championship game,  it was except for the North Star crowd, a packed arena that was behind us.”

 On the hoof, the 2024 edition of the Sioux were not physically impressive, just a bunch of ranch kids in from the prairie. But Bratrud pointed out, size don’t always matter; it is intangibles that count, and teamwork tied to a selfless attitude molded this group into champions.  Bratrud described the team’s relentless attacking style as a 32-minute exercise in manic effort. Rebounds morphed into outlet passes, cutters materialize out of the choas, and the ball fluidly found the open man. Visualize the precision passing of a Pete Carril Princeton team and the full open throttle of those 120 point a game Loyola Marymount juggernaut teams of the 90’s. That the players blended so seamlessly – anticipating each other’s every move so well, is not surprising—they had been together since elementary school.

 The 2024 Westhope/Newburg Sioux made it a badge of honor to face and overcome aversity. Going into the fourth quarter of their semifinal matchup against Bowman County, Westhope trailed by 15 points. But a big fourth quarter rally propelled the now confident Sioux into the championship game. “You could just feel it the whole time we were in Minot,” Bratrud recalls, “we were not going to lose.”

 Waiting for the Sioux on the championship game court were the state’s top ranked team, the North Star Bobcats. North Star took the floor undefeated and untested. They never had a chance. The Sioux dominated from the opening tip the game played before a backed gym and a rowdy and festive crowd, leading by 20 points most of the second half before settling for a 65-52 state title game win. Westhope finished with a 26-2 record.   

 “It’s hard to describe it really hasn’t hit me yet,” junior Walker Braaten told the media, after the game. “I mean it’s been 70 years since Westhope won the state championship. Newburg won it probably 30 years ago, you know, it’s unreal.”

“We faced adversity,” junior Will Artz adds, noting the strong competition the team faced throughout the year. “We are battle tested. I think that was good for us in the long run.” Senior and tournament MVP Braden Bailey had 26 points, five assists, two rebounds and a pair of steals in the championship battle. Battered junior, Walker Braaten finished with 14 points and four rebounds while junior Dayton Hawkins added 12 points and two rebounds. The Sioux were 21-45 from the field, 14-32 from behind the three point line and 9-15 from the free throw stripe. “My back hurts and my calf is sore,” Braaten told the media of his tournament injuries. “But it was never a question of if I would play.”

State championship not-withstanding, the players, as all championship high school heroes must, moved on, their spots taken by the next generation of Westhope boys. A few will play a sport In college - Braaten football at a very high level - but most will likely land in smaller NAIA and NCAA Division III schools.  But no matter where their careers take them, these young men will never again experience anything quite like this special run. They won the state championship. The greatest thing about this story is for the rest of their lives, every time any of them tell this simple triumphant tale, it never changes. They will never have to spin it.

Bratrud says he figured out early in his tenure at Westhope, that he needed to extend a helping hand to his neighboring districts. If it would be grasped in return, he was not sure. A sign of the times in most North Dakota finds towns like Westhope co-oping with a Newburgh in  basketball. The two were a long-time bitter neighboring rivals.  But the cooperation between the two has been paramount to the  level of excellence the Sioux now enjoy, both in boys basketball and football. Bretrud explains, “the keyword is cooperation. We are stronger together, but it’s important that we remain as separate districts. The key is that we respect each other and check our egos. Some of the old timers still have a hard time cheering for ‘their kids,’ but that attitude gets less and less with each passing years. Many of our patrons today don’t remember the rivalry before the coop. And with each passing year, there are fewer and fewer.”

 “Hadlee Brandt is the new superintendent at Newburgh,” Bratrud continues. “She’s a Westhope graduate. As a matter of fact, her dad was the president of the Westhope school board when I was hired here. She’s young. She’s enthusiastic and she has a bright future. We cooperate and we respect each other. That’s why it works. Our boards collaborate very well. For example, we now pay the coach based on the percentage of students from each school. Even though it means we pay more than Newburgh, it is the fair way to do it. We are bigger, but we don’t throw our weight around.”

 Small towns teach us the value of loyalty and commitment to community. “We’re proud of our district,” Bratrud states.” We’re not affluent, as you can see from looking around by any means. 42% of our kids qualify for free and reduced lunch. That’s a pretty high poverty level. But we feel like kids here have the best of both worlds. We’re working hard and the community is investing well in our education system. Our board is very progressive. We have a lot of young professionals now on our board. Most of them are hometown, or married into relationships that have strong Westhope ties. That’s extremely important.”

“A superintendent has to wear three hats,” Bratrud states, when asked for a template for successfully leading a small high plains rural school district. “Foremost I am responsible for finances. Then I need to make sure the academics are aligned in such a way to prepare our graduates to be fully functioning adults. One size does not fit all and the world is changing, even here in rural North Dakota.  And finally, I am responsible for the facilities and the physical plants. They all three fit together, but almost every superintendent is going to have one area that is their strength. Mine is finances. That was the task I was given when I came here, to get the school on solid financial grounds. We’ve done that, and I’m proud of that. But we’ve branched out in so many different areas. We’re student oriented. We never want to forget that. It’s always about the kids.”

Bratrud plans to retire at the conclusion of the current school year. “I plan to be wrapping things up this spring and will retire on July 1. We have a lot of goals I want to see us accomplish over the next eight months. After that I want to travel and maybe do some consulting work. I am excited about what the future holds for my family and I, but also for this school and town. Part of me, for the rest of my life will be right here in Westhope. This job is so much in need of laser focus, that it becomes your life. I am going to enjoy new challenges, but I am going to miss leading this school district.”

Marty Bratrud has been a gentle presence in Westhope, ND. "I just loved it all,” he says. “I have enjoyed this job and this town. After Covid and folks had been penned up so long, they just had to let go, get back to normal Here, the school became the normal everyone was seeking. As I said, we are no longer a next year town, our time is now.”