Your future, our focus
Brian Erickson introduced the four Northwest College basketball players who made the road trip from Powell to Meeteetse.
One-by-one he mentioned their hometowns to the 15 players attending a 90-minute clinic at the school’s gymnasium and when he hit the fourth player he said, “Seth Bennett, from where?”c
The kids all shouted, “Meeteetse.”
Bennett, a former Longhorn football and basketball star who graduated last spring, and is now a red-shirt guard for the Trappers, was one of the featured players in a morning-afternoon doubleheader hoops tutorial for elementary school players in the morning and seventh and eighth graders in the afternoon.
All the kids knew Bennett, and he knew most of them, including his fifth-grade brother Dace.
“It feels like a long time ago,” Bennett said of being that age.
Progressing from high school play to college play is a challenge for anyone, so Bennett being back in the house was special.
The kids not only literally looked up to Trapper players who were 6-foot-3 or so, they looked up to them as talents who in their eyes might as well have been of NBA caliber.
“I just wanted to give back to the community,” said Erickson, who regularly books his team for community outreach. “We get so much from the people around us. These kids think it’s the greatest thing ever.”
This season the Trappers, 12-2 entering the holiday break, seem to be the greatest thing ever on the court, but the kids didn’t even know that.
“I don’t think our guys know what kind of role models they can be,” Erickson said.
They definitely picked up a sense of that this day.
E.J. Hubbard, 20, from Converse, Texas, said he always wanted to be a big brother. On this day one little guy asked if he would be his best friend.
Sometimes, Trapper players go to an elementary school in Powell for play days and goof around playing dodgeball or kick ball with the kids. Trapper players also did the heavy lifting of art works during the Buffalo Bill Art Show and Sale in Cody.
“We take great experiences away from it,” Hubbard said. “This is great to me.”
The clinic was less playing around than absorbing fundamentals of defense, passing, dribbling, blocking and shooting form. Erickson was the on-court leader and he assigned Bennett, Hubbard, Tyler Chandler and Taylor Shamo to different groups.
“I enjoy them,” said Chandler, 20. “I remember when I was their age. It’s good for us and it’s good for the kids.”
About 20 kids signed up for the morning clinic and 15 more later, a good turnout for a town of 325 people, said recreation director John Fernandez, who said he was surprised by the numbers.
“You never know,” he said. “This is great.”
Erickson, 31, provided a firm, but gentle, touch guiding the young players. He put in a pitch to turn them into fans of Northwest teams, too, telling them they could watch two games, men’s and women’s, when they come to Powell.
The attention span was good for the drills, but Coach Erickson made sure they had fun picking up the pointers. It was easy to tell the approach worked from the smiles and laughter.
“It would definitely be fun to go to play for them,” seventh-grader Bryce Salzman said.
As someone who not only makes his living from the sport, but who loves it, running clinics like these is a pleasure.
“I just like to see a basketball in every kid’s hands,” Erickson said.
Some of the four players who pitched in at Meeteetse have younger siblings of similar ages. But seeing the glowing eyes of the kids, they also saw themselves in this next generation.
Chandler, who is from Evanston, said he looked up to high school guys when he was a youth basketball player because there were no college players around.
“I wanted to be as good as them,” he added. “Hopefully, these kids will take away some basketball knowledge. Or just have fun.”
At this age, playing for fun is still more important than winning.