Success means sinking a season-long goal

By Chase Vialpando

chase@glenrockind.com

The locker room air was thick with the odor of sweat and a lingering uneasy feeling.

Glenrock had just lost their first state tournament game against Rocky Mountain 72-50 Friday, and the players couldn’t help letting the crushing loss reflect on their faces.

It didn’t seem to matter that they were here, in Casper at the Events Center, at the state tournament. That they had made it to the finals – the joy of simply being at the big dance – was missing at that moment in the locker room.

Just as heads hung low, and morale was teetering on empty, head coach Shawn Huxtable intervened.

“You earned the right to be here,” he preached loudly and authoritatively. “I don’t want to see any of your heads hanging, I’m proud of each and every one of you.”

The Herders ended their basketball season with two losses at state, falling to Wind River 76-57 Saturday after coming up short against Rocky Mountain Friday.

But, the Herd reached their goal, the same central goal they’ve had since the season started.

They made it to state for the first time in two years.

“We never gave up, we kept playing even when the times were tough,” Adam Bearfield, the team’s lone senior, said.

His words defined the season. And the team.

The young Glenrock team may have had a 4-19 record this season, but you wouldn’t guess it talking to the players.

“We performed better than we were supposed to,” junior starting post Terrin Fauber said. “It was a team effort, it was always all the way in.”

Despite their record, Glenrock came together and won the important games when it mattered the most, specifically when they narrowly beat Lusk (which has a 7-12 record) a couple short weeks ago to qualify for the state tourney.

Bearfield said, after the regional tournament, that the Lusk game held his favorite moments of the season.

“We stayed as a team the entire game,” he recounted. 

Bearfield continued that he and the team were emotional after the Wind River loss to end their run at state, but there was a silver lining.

“We became very close friends,” he said. “Even outside of practice we’d hang out and even in school, we’d help each other out when we needed it. We had lots of fun together.”

And, as several of Bearfield’s teammates echoed, the season was chalked full of fun. 

The lower class men praised their senior leader.

“He was the only one who would get on my butt,” Fauber said, “and I loved that. He was always pushing me, pushing all of us.”

Against Wind River, Huxtable said his team hadn’t focused on one specific strategy, they just came out and played.

“They (Wind River) were a scrappy team,” he said. “There were a lot of fouls called in that game on both sides.”

He offered up the simple reality that the game was ultimately lost because Wind River was able to make more shots than the Herders did.

Huxtable highlighted Fauber’s and Kyle Hiser’s play during the game, pointing out that they both made 20 points. Fauber got 17 rebounds.

With such a young team, all of whom gained valuable experience this year, Huxtable is optimistic about the future.

“I’m super excited for our summer program and development,” he said.

Sophomore starting point guard Logan Jones summarized the season another way: “It’s been a ride. It was crazy. I just don’t think anybody believed in us. They had us written off before the season started.”