Local sports teams begin busy New Year schedule

A slate of freshman basketball games kicked off the 2026 sports year at local schools Tuesday evening, and varsity action for basketball and wrestling resumes tonight (Thursday) as teams work to implement work done in practice during the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.

Thursday, the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies (5-3) travel to Powell for a non-conference battle. Tip-off times are the traditional 4 (JV), 5:30 (varsity girls) and 7 p.m. Friday, the Grizzlies will host Lovell at the same times. For the Grizz, head coach Pat Winland said practice over the break has gone well.

“We had a great week of practice over the holiday break and were able to bring several alumni back to scrimmage, which really raised the competitive level,” Winland said. “Our health is in a good place, and the guys responded well to the work.

“We spent time preparing for different zone presses we expect to see and added a few new wrinkles to our zone defense based on what we learned from our December games. We know we have a very challenging stretch ahead with two of the top 3A programs this week, followed immediately by another tough test at the Big Horn Basin Classic, but our expectations remain high as we continue to grow and compete together as the season moves forward.”

Rocky Mountain girls basketball coach Justin Moss is also hopeful as the Lady Grizz (3-5) begin the post-holiday schedule.

“Over the break, we focused heavily on defense and rebounding while also installing and fine-tuning additional pieces on the offensive end,” Moss said. “We sharpened both our offensive and defensive systems, put a strong emphasis on conditioning and were fortunate to bring in alumni and friends of the program to compete against. We had a couple of lighter shoot-arounds early in the break but really ramped things up the week after Christmas.

“It has been great to get Lauren (Bassett) back healthy. I anticipated we might need to ease her back in, but she jumped right in and has gone to work. She’s come in every day ready to lead. It was tough having her out, but in the long run, I believe we’ll be better because of it.”

Moss relishes the challenge of a difficult schedule.

“I truly believe we have the toughest schedule in 2A this season, and it doesn’t get any easier this week with Powell and Lovell, followed by Cody and Worland at the Big Horn Basin Classic,” he said. “That said, these challenges will prepare us well as we head into conference play the following week.

“I love our energy. This is a group I never have to ask for more heart or hustle. We challenge the girls to get 1% better every day — and this week, I think we had a few 2% days.”

For Lovell, Friday’s rivalry games at Rocky Mountain will be followed by 3A West Conference openers at Cody Tuesday at 4, 5:30 and 7.

“Practices went pretty well over break, and we were able to get healthier overall,” head boys coach Shane Durtsche said of the 5-1 Bulldogs. “We still have some lingering/nagging injuries, but for the most part, we’re healthy. 

“We worked on defense and made a few adjustments over the break, but nothing major, and we’ll continue to install and tweak things as the season progresses. The expectation for the weekend is to try to continue to get better, and it will be nice to be able to play a game again. The kids are excited to compete with someone other than themselves. We just want to try to improve upon each game as we get closer to the conference season.”

Girls head coach Brian May said his squad worked hard to refine aspects of their game.

“Over the holiday break, the Lovell Lady Bulldogs focused on improving press execution by working on better trapping angles and sprinting to designated spots on the floor with urgency and precision,” May said of his 5-1 team. “We emphasized high hands on traps and closeouts, combined with interlocking the feet to maintain balance and prevent splits. Defensively, we worked on being more physical by fighting through screens, disrupting cutters and dominating the boards with solid boxing out, while continuing to build transition defense by sprinting back, stopping the ball, and matching up quickly.

“On offense, we refined our press breaks with proper spacing, quick decisions and strong passing, and we developed our zone offense to attack gaps, move the ball effectively and play inside-out. We also reviewed our man-to-man offensive layers and integrated new formations to maintain flow, along with strengthening our transition offense by pushing the pace, finishing strong and making smart reads. For skill development, we worked on shooting fundamentals, attacking the basket aggressively and finishing with a variety of moves such as euro steps, reverses, floaters and power layups. Additionally, we focused on post-up techniques, including positioning, sealing defenders and executing finishing moves in the paint. Team health is good overall, with only a few minor injuries being managed.”’

Grapplers

Wrestlers for both Lovell and Rocky Mountain will resume competition Friday, at the Bobcat Invitational in Thermopolis, a tournament that has been reduced from two days to one. Wrestling begins at noon in Thermop.

“We practiced early mornings throughout the holiday break, focusing on staying in shape and not letting our weight get out of control,” Lovell head coach Ty Hecker said. “As we come back from break, we will dive headfirst into our regular regime with focus on hand fighting and being good in the neutral position by winning in each position and scoring points.

“As we make our push back into competition we will focus on aggressive wrestling and not giving up cheap points.”

Rocky practices featured a mix of old and new techniques, head coach Eddie Whiting said.

“I feel our practice schedule over the break went well, revamping old techniques to improving our performance as well as optimizing newer techniques but keeping up on our strength and endurance training. I feel we are healthy as a team, but injuries arise from random places. Our main goal is to listen to our body, and if we are sick, stay home, rest up or, if we got sore or things got banged up, let’s step back and heal up. It’s a long season.

“The Bobcat Invite will be a great test to start the year out in 2026 as we will get to see competitive wrestlers. How we normally deal with challenges is that we face them head on. I love this quote from Coach (Hal) Moore: ‘Day by day we get better and better until we can’t get beat and won’t get beat.’ Next week we have annual tri-dual with Lovell and Greybull/ Riverside (Thursday, Jan. 15), and it will be our senior night under the lights, and then we travel to Clash at the Crossroads at Shoshoni.”

The boys middle school schedule kicks off this weekend, as well, with Rocky traveling to Thermopolis Friday at 2 p.m. and Lovell hosting Thermop Saturday at 10 a.m., with the eighth grade at the high school and the seventh grade at the middle school.

The LHS freshman girls host Cody tonight (Thursday) at 6:15 p.m. in a makeup game, and the boys are scheduled to compete at the Buffalo freshman tournament on Saturday.

The Lovell freshmen play at Powell Monday at 6:30 p.m., and the Rocky freshman girls take on Greybull Monday and Burlington Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. with the girls hosting both nights while the boys hit the road.