Podcast No. 264: Carter Barsness
For the better part of a decade, I have called him “The Professor.”
Unfortunately, nobody else refers to Carter Barsness by that moniker. It is only me.
That is too bad because Carter earned that nickname. I coached him in Little League Baseball, and talking to him back there was like talking to a professor. And he was only 8 years old.
He was always offering a theory as to why something was happening with the game or just in life in general. I could see that he was analytical, and he was a very deep thinker.
Carter was also always super nice. Even at that young age, he was always thinking of others.
When he wasn’t offering some kind of theory, he was talking about playing football. He talked about football a lot, and I knew he would be good at it.
His father, Kyle, played football for Coach Bob Green at Montana Tech. Since his mother, the former Brianna Burgman, was a standout-out athlete at Butte High, I figured Carter had the genetic makeup to be a good one.
I was right. He was good.
Proudly, I watched as he became a standout on the offensive line for the Butte High Bulldogs. Even though I never coached Carter in football, I still beamed every time I watched him play. There is nothing better than seeing someone you used to coach go on to success in any sport — or any aspect in life.
So, you can imagine how proud I was to see Carter’s name on the list of Mariah’s Challenge Scholarship winners for 2025.
To receive the Mariah Daye McCarthy Scholarship, a student must live up to the ideals of Mariah’s Challenge. That means no underage drinking and no riding in a car with anyone who had been drinking.
That is way easier said than done.
To me, that is the best scholarship around. It might not be a full-ride scholarship, but it might be the most important because Mariah’s Messengers, as Maria’s Challenge founder Leo McCarthy calls them, are helping change the dangerous drunk driving culture in Butte.
This is the 17th class, and this year’s scholarship will mark $500,000 in scholarship money handed out to 500 Messengers.
Mariah’s Challenge has moved the needle, too. The McCarthy family, along with all the Messengers have saved lives. It is impossible to know exactly how many lives because that is impossible to measure.
Carter, now in his final days of his senior year at Butte High, unfortunately knows what it is like to have his family hit by a tragedy. His uncle, Kyle Burgman, was killed in a crash with his pal Casey Boyle on Aug. 10, 2015. So, Carter knew from a young age that he was not going to put his family through anything that again.
He also knows what it is like to be a part of a family that relives the tragedy year after year in an effort to help make a difference.
Listen in to this podcast as Carter talks about how my nickname for him never caught on. Listen as he talks about playing football and competing in track for Butte High.
Listen to how he describes how holding really can be called on every single play in a football game. Listen as he talks about Mariah’s Challenge. Listen as he talks excitingly about his plans to become an electrician after high school.
Today’s podcast is presented by the Kvichak Fish Co. Think of it as salmon and halibut gone Girl Scout cookie.