HEM sets goals on the court

On January 13 the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School Miners team faced one of the toughest basketball teams in the state when they went against the Saratoga Panther basketball team.

“The Southwest Conference is the toughest in the state and we have just run the gauntlet facing Encampment, Saratoga and Farson in a matter of a week,” Head Coach Cliff Jones said. “We knew going in, our goals weren’t going to be tied to win or loss.”

Jones said he saw some good things with the team, but acknowledges work needs to be done.

“Saratoga held out two of their starters and we were able to play them in small spurts,” Jones said. “A few minutes here and a few minutes there. I will say, Coach Williams played with a lot of kids available. He didn’t play his top seven or eight kids until the score was way out of hand and they subbed in and out avoiding the running clock. It was good for all because nobody really learns anything from that situation.”

The Panthers won 70-38.

Two days later, the Farson-Eden Pronghorns won 55-29.

Jones said it is no secret the Miners are a team that is undermanned compared to the teams he has been playing, but the team’s goal is to improve with each game. Tough opponents make these goals attained that much sweeter.

“The next time we face Farson, have we improved and become more competitive?” Jones questions. “One of the big advantages that basketball has over football is that after you have a game in football you play one game and you walk away. In basketball you play teams again. We will see Encampment, Saratoga and Farson again. We are going to get a first hand look at what  we have improved on and what we didn’t. Were we able to move the ball better? There are small victories we can take from every time we go on court. If you play for a time you can gauge if you are improving. In football you can’t do this.”

The Miners will be taking on more adversity as Rayce Ward will be leaving the team for the season due to an upcoming surgery. The team will be down to five.

“We started short handed, so although we will miss him, it will be okay,” Jones said. “We just need to strive to hit our goals.”

Jones said the team needs to be better at rebounding.

“We were not rebounding as well as we can as a team,” Jones said. “Both Saratoga and Farson out rebounded us by a substantial margin.”

He said Dylan Romero and Hayden Atencio are shooting with more confidence. Jones was pleased with Kyler Proffitt’s attacking the basket more. He said Ward and Cody Priest were getting more back buckets and that Jesse Deegan, who played with a tweaked ankle, gave it his best although he was hurt.

“Dylan is by the far the most experienced of the kids on the team. Last year we started four seniors and Dylan. Now he is facing the pressure of being the leader and he is getting that attention from all the teams,” Jones said. “Dylan has gone from that role player to being the floor leader. I think he is making that transition. If he has a positive attitude then the team will by example.”

Jones said he understands if the team gets frustrated when they lose.

“Losing a game is way less fun than winning,” Jones said. “But if our only goal is to win the game when we step on the court, we are going to be disappointed a lot and look at ourselves as failures. So we set goals of getting this many points, or holding the other team to this many points or we try executing different plays and pull it off. If we do this, we can take our small victories. We just can’t look at it as if we lost or we won.”

The next game for the HEM Miners will be on January 21 against the MIdwest Oilers in Midwest.