It was a new spin on her team’s pre-game rituals, and Mads Holland had a good feeling about it.
As the senior captain of the Jackson Hole High School Lady Broncs basketball team, Holland wanted to do whatever she could to snap a 79-game losing streak.
“Before every game, we all pray in the huddle,” Holland told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “And then we all found this thing on Instagram.”
Mimicking the videos they’d seen Instagram, Holland and her teammates took off their sneakers in their home locker room before a game against Riverton on Feb. 20. They formed a circle around the sneaker pile and then blessed the shoes.
Like the other six seniors on the Lady Broncs, Holland had never won a high school basketball game. Going into the match up with Riverton, Holland and her teammates carried the weight of one winless season after another.
But maybe by blessing every player’s shoes before Thursday night’s game, that could give them an edge.
Jackson Head Coach Alivia Bingham recalled the scene for Cowboy State Daily.
“Holland, as our captain, she said, ‘We're going to give our shoes the instructions on how they're going to play,” said Bingham. “She was literally running down how we're going to get that first tip off. ‘You're going to make your layup.’ I mean a whole scenario. They have tried everything.”
Now fast forward to the last minute of the game. Holland grabbed a rebound after a missed Riverton layup to keep the score tied 32-32.
Jackson had the ball but couldn’t find a good shot. So, Bingham called a timeout with 13 seconds left.
“You’re about to watch history here perhaps,” said Cowboy State Daily’s own Jake Nichols, who is the voice of JHHS basketball on Jackson Hole Radio. Nichols tried to convey the gravity of the moment for the girls’ team. “They have not won since a win over Teton on December 18, 2021.”
“The lid will blow off this joint if Jackson gets a bucket here,” said Nichols.
Out of the huddle, Coach Bingham sent her squad onto the floor with instructions to run a set play designed to create an open outside shot for the only sophomore on the floor.
“We have run this a half dozen times and everybody's like double teaming,” said Bingham, who told her sophomore shooting specialist Ari Fowler, “You're going to get open. You're going to balance your feet and you're going to make that shot.”
With Holland and Jax Stricklin setting a double screen, Fowler slipped to the top of the three-point line, caught the pass, squared up and then lifted her recently blessed shoes off the court. Her jump shot swished in, putting Jackson up 35-32.
“Ari stroked it,” said Nichols, as Riverton called time out with five seconds left. When Riverton inbounded the ball, Nichols shouted more good news into the microphone, “Stolen away by Mads Holland. It’s over. It’s over. It’s a long time coming, long time coming. Holy cow. This was history. Lady Broncs with their first win in four years.
Back in the locker room, Bingham said she was doused with water, and later the team celebrated with pizza.
Not Always The Doormat
For years, the JHHS girls team dominated play in Wyoming. Before stepping down, veteran head coach Sean Shockley won four state championships.
Stepping up to captain the team, the shadow of past success, and recent failure, loomed large for Holland.
“There was a lot more pressure this year. It's like, it's my last year. I still haven't won a game,” said Holland. “My positivity has definitely been tested for sure, especially this season. We had some people quit and some drama the past three years, and I've definitely had some moments where I'm just like, oh my gosh, I am so sick of this and I can't stand any of you. But I love my team.”
Holland and her coach both said it’s harder to field a team these days, as basketball takes a backseat to skiing and other activities in Jackson during the winter.
Through it all, said Bingham, her girls have kept a mostly positive attitude, even while getting bullied and bulldozed by the competition.
“This is a group of girls, I'll never have to worry about them conquering the world because they've already done it every year, coming back and stepping on this floor, knowing that it's going to be an uphill battle,” said Bingham, who also teaches English at Jackson Hole Middle School.
As losses mounted over the years, the pressure compounded because, “nobody wants to get beat by us,” said Bingham.
“They full court press all four quarters and they wear us out, I mean, we look like we've been in battle. The girls are covered in bruises,” said Bingham. “But they are like, nobody's going to give it to us. They've had to work for it.
“We've had games where we've gone on runs that have definitely scared the team like Cheyenne East. We came out super hot,” remembered Holland, who said after half-time, it was clear the Cheyenne East players got an earful from their coaches and came out with their hair on fire in the second half and went on to win.
Meanwhile, in the Lady Broncs locker room, the pre-game rituals continued.
“They've stood in a circle, talked about all the things that they're going to do,” said Bingham. “They've written it on their arms. They've picked words and handed them out and gave each other like lucky charms. I mean, you name it, they have done it. They sing, ‘The Hokey Pokey’ before we go out on the floor.”
As to where the losing streak ranks in Wyoming prep sports history, the next longest streak is 76 games by the Rawlins High School girls from 2007-2010 and the third longest is 63 games by Kemmerer from 1986-1989, according to Wyoming-basketball.com.
At The Next Level
None of the JHHS senior players plan to play college basketball. But when some of them sat down to write their college acceptance essays, they drew inspiration from their team’s epic losing streak.
“Stories and things that they've had to face and go through on this basketball team has brought them to where they are as individuals,” said Bingham, noting how for three of her players, those essays turned into academic scholarship offers at leading institutions like the University of Michigan, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Arizona.
Holland recalled, “My last line in my college essay, ‘No matter what happens this next season, I know that I've already won because I like being on a team, being part of the community. It's just been an incredible past four years.’
The joy of long-denied victory echoed through the Lady Bronco alumni network Wednesday night. Down in Salt Lake City, former player Reina Rhodes caught news of the win on Instagram.
Now a student at the University of Utah, Rhodes told Cowboy State Daily, “We didn't win any games while I was there, but (Coach) Shockely always told us to just enjoy the process and I had tons of fun playing for them. I'm super proud for them, for working hard and being so committed and that they won a game.”
For Rhodes, Wednesday’s win helped her forget some of the low points during her playing career.
“It definitely was hard during games like against Cody that we would lose like 80 to 10 or something,” said Rhodes. “But I just always thought it was fun.”
Next up: A rematch with Star Valley on Friday to close out the regular season. The last time these two teams met, Star Valley ran away with it 56-21.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
