Boys' basketball ends season with gritty performances

Moorcroft’s boys’ basketball team, the smallest 3A school in the state, fought in the Regionals last week with determination and grit.

Coach Nick Redden had two goals for this year’s Regionals: “To have people gain respect for Moorcroft Basketball and to leave a mark; everything past that was going to be above and beyond”.

The Wolves took on Torrington on Thursday and while they lost this first game, Redden spoke of the team’s fortitude, saying, “Going up against a difficult team like that we definitely held our own.”

The coach speaks to the resolve of the team after losing to Torrington: “They all said ‘No, we’re going to move forward’ and going into the Rawlins game, you could walk through the locker room and all 13 guys were determined. There was no messing around, they knew what they had to do.”

When the Wolves faced off with Rawlins, “It was 32 minutes of nothing but Moorcroft Basketball gaining respect and showing exactly what the boys were capable of!”

Redden was impressed with this team, saying, “It was a fantastic game and came away with a huge win; they flat played great basketball.”

The Wolves had played against Wheatland before during the season and were familiar with the other team’s ability: “A tough team…and they end up getting us, but walking away from that, I had numerous coaches whom I’ve never met, coming over and saying how great our boys played. That didn’t happen anywhere else in the year.”

So after all the battles this season, Redden commends his athletes, “We achieved that goal, they gained respect and they left a mark, [the other teams] knew that Moorcroft was not going to lay down, that it was going to be a fight. Every one of those teams had to work to beat us. I couldn’t be more pleased with all my boys.”

Redden also commends his assistant coach, Sonny Merchen as well as the seniors who never gave up and were leaders of the pack.