Helena Senators reload for American Legion baseball season, expect another title run

A dozen graduates left the Helena Senators with holes to fill, but the standard in Helena has not changed. The program won the 2023 Montana/Alberta Class AA championship, beat the Billings Scarlets 2-1 for the title and has reached the state championship game in two of the past three seasons, so this summer is being framed less as a rebuild than a test of whether the next group can meet the same bar.

Head coach Jon Burnett has built that expectation around depth and urgency. Helena finished the regular season atop the Class AA standings last summer, and Burnett’s message is that the roster will keep moving forward because players have spent time waiting for larger roles. That matters in Montana/Alberta American Legion Baseball, where Class AA is a senior 19-and-under league for schools with combined enrollment above 1,000 and turnover comes fast.

The new look still has familiar leadership. Third-year shortstop Keaton Troyer said his role is bigger now that last year’s seniors are gone, because he has to help show younger players what it means to be a Senator. Second-year first baseman James Demers said he learned from the older players and intends to pass that along. That transition is the difference between a team that simply replaces bodies and one that keeps its identity intact. Helena’s returning mix also includes Aaron Fuzesy, Will Lyng, Bohden Bahnmiller, Sam Ark, Jonny Walker and David Swecker, names that will help determine how quickly the Senators settle in.

The program’s recent track record gives that confidence real weight. Helena opened the 2024 state tournament at Kindrick Legion Field as the defending champion, and the home-field atmosphere featured packed-house, walk-off baseball that showed how much the team still means in Lewis and Clark County. The Senators then kept contending in 2025, sweeping the Billings Scarlets on July 1-2 to move to 10-3 and take over first place, then beating the Billings Royals 5-4 in the state tournament opener in Medicine Hat, Alberta, before falling 3-1 to the Billings Scarlets on Aug. 2.

Kindrick Legion Field is getting a major upgrade with artificial turf at home plate, the baselines and all foul territory to the home-run fence, a sign that the organization expects the program’s profile to keep growing. Helena American Legion Baseball Post 2 also keeps feeding the pipeline through youth camps, including an Under the Lights camp for ages 9-14 and another for players 8 and under. The early results will show whether Helena’s next wave is ready to keep a championship standard alive.