Your future, our focus
Seth Bennett gave his heart to basketball but hopes the sport won’t break it.
He knows it could, but unlike the girl whom you can never win over even by showering her with diamonds, Bennett knows he can influence this outcome.
There are probably 10,000 Seth Bennetts spread across 50 states, dreamers all, wishers and hopers, hungry for a chance to play college basketball.
Bennett, one of the greatest athletes to come out of tiny Meeteetse, Wyoming, population 327, is in the door but still on the bench.
This is his second year at Northwest College. The first season he redshirted. This season his seat on the bench is an entire zip code away from Coach Brian Erickson.
“It’s been harder than I thought,” said Bennett as the 17-13 Trappers prepared for Saturday’s Region IX playoff game.
To get this far was like spotting Clayton Kershaw two strikes, yet reaching base.
Bennett is 5-foot-8. His high school played 1-A ball, the smallest classification in Wyoming. That trifecta of recruiting deficiencies will glaze coaches’ eyes.
Bennett, who turns 20 on Feb. 26, never lettered in cheerleading until last year.
He and fellow redshirt guard Skyler Zabriskie sat together rooting on Northwest’s 31-5 club.
“It’s super tough,” Zabriskie said. “You want to be out there contributing.We’d always talk about next year.”
Bennett led Meeteetse to the state six-man football championship in 2013 by accounting for nine touchdowns in the title game.
Senior year Bennett averaged 21 points per game in basketball. In track he won a state 100-meter championship in 2014 and placed by throwing the shot put 42 feet.
He was the smallest guy by far on the podium.
“It was me and the big dudes,” Bennett said.
That is also true at Northwest. The roster lists Bennett at 5-10, but that’s exaggeration. He has thick brown hair, but that’s not worth two inches.
Bennett’s Trapper career high is 5 points. He is playing just 1.5 minutes a game. It has affected him.
“I’ve gotten a little timid,” Bennett said. “In games, in practices, I’ve lost confidence shooting. You were the main player. You have to become a role player. It’s kind of hard.”
Counting redshirts, Bennett is one of seven Wyoming Northwest players. This is extraordinary even by area junior college standards. Combined, Gillette, Casper, Sheridan, Central Wyoming and Western Wyoming rosters list five Wyoming players.
Even the home-state JCs aren’t on the side of the little guy from the little town.Those schools, Northwest included, have numerous foreign players and players from big cities.
Northwest coach Brian Erickson said he feels a responsibility to give Wyoming players a shot.
“We’ve had a lot of success with Wyoming kids and the most success we’ve had is redshirting them,” Erickson said. “They’re talented enough and by the time they’re sophomores they have played against that level of competition and gained maturity and experience.”
In high school, Bennett attended a Northwest basketball camp and got noticed by Erickson.
“He was a good fit,” Erickson said. “It says a lot about those guys. They don’t get to travel as redshirts. They don’t get the same number of reps in practice. They just have to keep fighting and pushing through it.”
Meeteetse basketball coach Ty Myers believed Bennett could go far.
“He just had an all-around game,” Myers said. “He could see the floor and open teammates. On offense his shot was 3-point extended. He could also get in the lane and score.”
Bennett made a highlight film and posted it with scouting services. The only fan mail came from eastern post-graduate academies where he couldn’t afford the tuition.
“I think he was good enough to play at a higher level, Division II or Division III.” Myers said. “He’s ultracompetitive and would be successful anywhere. There are kids out there at Seth’s height.”
Matt Jensen, Bennett’s football coach,wanted to see him try that sport at the next level.
“He probably could do anything he wants to do,” Jensen said.
Jensen relishes the memory of Bennett’s nine-touchdown performance.
“In the second half we just said, ‘Hey man, we’re going to take our best player and you’ve got to stop him,’” Jensen said.
No one could stop Bennett at anything in high school.
The Bennett family goes back more than a century in Meeteetse as far as Seth can trace the geneological tree.
Dad Kirk said there was homesteading and some ranchers along the way.
Everyone has an opinion on what the recent big man on campus should be doing, but they’re rooting for Seth.
“Everyone over here in Meeteetse, if the kids are athletes, they want to see them do their best,” Kirk Bennett said.
Dace, Seth’s 12-year-old brother, brags, “When he was in high school, I got to be the waterboy.”
It was guilt by association and Dace likes attending Northwest home games.
“Me, as his little brother, I’d like to see him play more,” Dace said.
When Seth and sister Brodie, 23, were little, mom Kandi coached Meeteetse volleyball. The gym was their babysitter and where they discovered basketball.
“I think everybody would like to see him play more,” Kandi Bennett said. “Coming from a small school I don’t remember a game he didn’t start.”
Bennett knows how hometown fans feel and he feels pressure to live up to “big expectations for me. I know I have to make them proud.”
As a kid, Bennett’s role model was Dusty Tuckness, the five-time world-champion bull fighter from Meeteetse.
There is still a picture of Tuckness on the wall of Bennett’s bedroom back home.
“I remember he would rope your legs out from under you,” said Brodie, a team roper.
“He always had a rope in his hand,” she said.
When Seth occasionally competes with Brodie he borrows a cousin’s horse. Cody Nite Rodeo barrel racing star Jennifer Lewis is a cousin. So is Northwest rodeo competitor Tori Lewis. Rodeo may be the family sport, but for Seth maybe later.
Brodie understands. She battled similar challenges to play basketball for Sheridan a few years ago.
“It really wasn’t easy for me at first,” Brodie said. “My coach had me on a shorter leash. You just had to go in there and not screw up. There was such a high level in practice you just had to adapt.”
Brodie became a starter and believes Seth can earn more PT.
“He’s got the passion and drive for it,” she said.
During this off-season Bennett will double-down on gym time, hit the weight room more often and practice jumpers until his hand blisters.
For now, Bennett is on a roster, but rarely in a box score. That puts him one step beyond the other 9,999 college hoops hopefuls.