Protect the pass!

Editors Note: This was playfully written in the style of the graphic novel "300." I hope you enjoy it.

The Encampment Tigers boys and girls' basketball team stood tall during homecoming after dominating any team so unfortunate as to tread on the Tigers' timber that celebratory week.

The boys and girls' varsity teams came out of winter break as ready as the defenders of a coastal pass well memorialized by Herodotus and Frank Miller. Both the boys' and the girls' teams surged though the competition, staining the freshly fallen shroud of Encampment snow crimson with the blood of their vanquished foes.

On Tuesday, the Tigers first showing since the coming of winter break in the middle of December, the boys and girls of Encampment came out of the hot gates and handed solid defeats to the sophomores of Laramie. The Encampment boys dispatched their foe with a score of 67-55, besting the "invaders" from the Gem City of the Plains with aplomb. If the boys team dulled that shining gem of the windy expanse, the girls team indelibly marred it however, with the girls defeating the sophomores by a score of 63-14.

Friday, the teams traveled to Hanna to engage the Miners in a tete-a-tete on the Miners' own territory. The boys' team again brought the fight to the Miners, eventually collapsing the miners' hope of a win by scoring 63 to the Miners' 52. Then the ladies of Encampment upped the ante over their win three days earlier by beating the Lady Miners by a score of 64-11.

Saturday saw the battle of the orange orb back in the town of Encampment. The girls were up first in their match against the Rock River Longhorns. The girls handily defeated the Lady Longhorns with a conquering, yet more modest score of 61-32. The Lady Longhorns were permitted to retire the court knowing they had been bested, but with some shreds of dignity still intact unlike those who came before them.

The boys' game against the dreaded moo cows of Rock River got off to an uproarious start with the boys off to a solid lead through the first quarter. In the second quarter, however, the Longhorns rallied and brought the score to within just a few points of the Tigers. The Horns kept up the pressure through much of the third quarter, eventually closing to within one point of Encampment about halfway through the third.

Resistance though, was futile. Thanks to a strong defense and a number of three-point shots, combined with a defensive phalanx that effectively shut down the Longhorns despite their height advantage, the Tigers began to break away once again from the Rock River team by the end of the third period.

As the game entered its final quarter, the Tigers were up 41-27. The last eight minutes of the game would not be kind to the Longhorns either and that team would fail to rally as they had earlier in the third.

With a little less than six minutes until the merciful end, the Longhorns found themselves down by a score of 43-30, and in those last five-plus minutes, they would succeed in only adding eight more points to their score while the boys from Encampment added 17, ending the game with a score of 60-38.

The Tigers and their town celebrated homecoming while the Longhorns boarded a yellow bus in the blowing snow, dejected and defeated.