Lady Bronc seniors spend quality time with younger teammates
Courtesy Photo Stephen Mullins
Robbi Ryan, a senior this year, dodges an opponent during the game against Cheyenne Central, setting up to make a basket. Later, the Varsity girls won in overtime.
This year’s girls’ basketball team only has three seniors: Robbi Ryan, Kaycen Townsend, and Jamy Shassetz. Their main goal this year is to help the rest of the team get as much experience as possible, and that includes going to state. Some other experiences the team hopes to gain are better techniques and more varsity play time. Right now the team is mainly focused on winning more games so they can compete at state.
The seniors have been spending their time with the other girls on the team trying to teach them about all of the trades, tips, and tricks they know about of the game. The seniors are used to being the student, and they know that they are the ones imparting varsity experience for the young team. “Our goal is to just be patient and realize that it doesn’t matter right now,” said Townsend. She is referring to is the frustrations of having a young team that needs to learn to work together and play varsity for the first time as a team.
She went on to say that the reason the frustrations don’t matter is because the younger people on the team learn new tricks of the game from every mistake and from every good example. Even though the seniors are the mentors of the team and would not need to form lasting connections with the younger girls, the seniors have bonded with the underclassmen. Townsend said her favorite part about basketball was, “Getting really close with the team. I wouldn’t have known these younger girls, but basketball has let us become good friends.”
The seniors not only want to be inspiring leaders they also want to get the team to work together and become a true team. Ryan said, “One of my personal goals is to help the girls develop themselves and develop the team.”
Basketball has helped the seniors not only make friends but learn to deal with people who they may not ordinarily hang out with but need to be able to communicate with. Basketball has also taught them how to work hard, fine-tune their skills, and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Ryan said that learning how to work hard plays into her favorite part of basketball. “I like that you can never stop improving.,” said Ryan. “No matter how long you play you can always get better and there are all kinds of different leagues. Even after high school I can play.”
The varsity girls basketball season has won five games and lost five. The next home game is Feb. 5 at 6:00 and is against Gillette at Sheridan High School.
