HEM's season plundered by Vikinings

The last time the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners met Guernsey-Sunrise Vikings, they lost to the Vikings 55-72.

In regionals, where the two teams faced off to see who would continue to State, the Miners lost but the game was much closer according to Head Coach Cliff Jones. The score indicated he is right. The Vikings won 43-51.

“It was a closer game than what the final score was,” Jones said. “It was a two possession game down to the very end. They made a little bit of a run we struggled to answer right at the finish, but it was a back-and-forth game the whole way.”

He said, at one point, Guernsey-Sunrise had two men on Devon Grosstick and three Vikings playing a zone.

“It took us a while to get the confidence to attack that and we actually pulled into a 6 point lead,” Jones said. “Then they went back to their normal way of playing and they caught us. Then it was back-and-forth.”

He said although the Miners had a lot of games canceled the last couple weeks due to winter conditions, he did not blame the team’s lack of playing time.

“We couldn’t finish what we started in that game,” Jones said. “We are disappointed we lost and didn’t make it to State, but there are some exceptionally good teams that didn’t make it, unfortunately, due to the way the season was set up this year.”

Jones said Wyoming High School Athletics Association (WHSAA) told the schools at the beginning of the season it had to be this way.

“The WHSAA commissioner said in a big Zoom meeting in the beginning of the year that, unfortunately, it was not going to be fair for everybody this year,” Jones said. “He said the goal this was to finish the season and to have kids have the opportunity to compete at regionals. You have to give a lot of credit to the WHSAA for giving a system that maybe wasn’t perfect, but it was a system to get teams to a state tournament.”

Grosstick scored 27 points in the game.

“Overall, I thought Devon had a very good basketball game,” Jones said. “He has really improved since the beginning of the season when he thought he had to score all his shots from the outside. Once we convinced Devon he could help the team more by attacking the basket and take mid range shots, his scoring average went up.”

Jones was happy to see his sophomore class step up. He sad last year, when they were freshmen, they didn’t get much playing time due to the way the junior varsity basketball schedule was set up.

“Rayce Ward, Jesse Deegen and Kyler Proffitt got a lot of playing time at first because they were bodies and we had graduated so many of our starters from the year before,” Jones said. “As the season went on, they earned their time on court and will be a strong part of our team next year. I was impressed with their commitment to getting better. They are going to be the future of the team.”

He said the growth of the team was obvious as they became more competitive.

“We still have a long ways to go, especially against top-tier teams like Farson-Eden and Encampment that we played this year,” Jones said. “I am happy with how we did this year realistically.”

Jones had praise for all his seniors.

“Ura (Schmidt) became a leader that was calm under pressure,” Jones said. “He could play any spot out there and I really relied on him a lot out there. Taylor Widdison did some good things because he is extremely hard working. Taylor Kennedy really helped us fill out our team and he was a very unselfish player.”

Jones said the season might be over, but the way this year’s team faced so much adversity with weeks of winter game cancelations and COVID-19 protocols with an unflinching spirit makes him very proud to have coached them.