Rocky girls basketball program builds character

Being a good basketball player goes beyond shining on the court, said Justin Moss, head girls basketball coach at Rocky Mountain High School, who is newly minted in the head coaching role. “To be good humans. People that look out for each other and care about people and, really, just be pillars in this society is what we look for,” Moss said. “We’ve kind of had some great people come through our program that are just doing wonderful things in their world after they’ve gone through our Rocky Mountain Grizzly program.”
He said he suspects his and other coaches’ impact on the girls of the basketball team is immense. Graduated players will text him “Good luck” or “I’m excited to see what you do.”
It is rewarding to know the alumni still care about the program, he said.
Although this is Moss’s first year as head coach, he isn’t unfamiliar with coaching. He has coached many sports in the past. This is his 19th year coaching basketball, and he has coached the Rocky girls as an assistant five of the past six years. Before then, he coached boys basketball at Rocky for multiple years.
The girls have had success in the past couple years. Last year, they were consolation champions at State. Two years ago, they won the championship. Three years past: state qualifiers. Four years: Second place at state. Five years: consolation champions.
Four starters graduated the last academic year, but Moss said he isn’t worried about their talent left. He said he is confident
 in his current starting lineup of junior Brittly Boettcher, his daughter, senior MacKelle Moss, junior Tarynn Shoening, junior Shelby Wambeke and senior Rylee Winland.
MacKelle Moss is the only returning all-state player, but she isn’t the only talent on the team. All the players have been working very hard, he said. Shoening transferred from Cody and is already “fitting really well” with the team, Coach Moss said.
Moss said he has seen a lot of improvement, dedication and hours dedicated to the sport from many players including sophomore Lauren Bassett, junior Keylee Christiansen, freshman Kaysie Cooley, and freshman Halle Grandalen.
That is the key to the success of Rocky girls’ basketball. They don’t rely on any single graduating class or once in a blue moon star. Instead, Moss said, they succeed by coming together. “One of my favorite quotes by our seniors the year we won it is, ‘We didn’t care who scored, we just wanted to win,’” he said. “But it’s a lot of hard work and things. We have a good summer program that our kids show up to, and they’ve been really consistent with that, with the summer work.  With our workouts in the morning, lifting, and then also just our summer league going on. And we had great turnout this year, too.”
During other times in the offseason, the girls keep fit doing various other sports, he said, as well as going to individual basketball camps and Rocky’s camp. This year, Moss expects that they will have the “opportunity to be really good.” But being great doesn’t come easy. Moss said it will take a lot of effort and growth for the team to improve.
Although long reigning coach Eric Honeyman has stepped down to become Rocky elementary principal, he said the continuity of the rest of the returning assistant coaches, Ryan Boettcher and Jamie Cooley, will help the season go smoothly. Additionally, volunteer assistant coach Stacey Haslem has joined the team. The first upcoming tournament for the team is this Friday and Saturday. The girls will play at
Wright High School on Friday and Glenrock High School on Saturday.