Coach Durtsche and players embrace a winning culture

The road to Lovell High School’s 10^th state championship was paved with basketball passion, toughness, defense and an unselfish attitude, head coach Shane Durtsche and two team leaders said this week.

The Bulldogs claimed the Class 3A state championship in Casper over the weekend, beating Douglas, Wheatland and Cody for the crown before a raucous crowd of supporters who made the trip from Lovell and elsewhere.

Lovell had won state titles in 1953, 1963, 1979, 1986, 1987, 1992, 2002, 2003 and 2013, and it had been 12 years since the Bulldogs had hoisted the trophy and 46 years since a title at the second highest level.

Then along came coach Shane Durtsche and a talented roster of players. Durtsche was a member of the 1992 Lovell state championship team, and after coaching in Laurel, Montana, in 2001-02, he left coaching and worked in the business world for 19 years before returning to his alma mater as a special education teacher in 2021. He had kept active in the game over the years through coaching his sons in traveling team ball and as a basketball official for 15 years.

Helping his brother Steven at the middle school level in the winter of 2022 rekindled his passion for coaching basketball, and when Brian May resigned as the Lovell head coach that spring, Durtsche accepted the job as head coach.

“You never lose the passion, though when I left Laurel 20 years ago, I never thought I’d be a head coach again,” Durtsche said in a pre-season interview in 2022.

But coaching basketball in Lovell is special, Durtsche said, and he brought nearly 40 years of pride to the job when he was hired, he said in an interview Sunday.

“Being a Lovell guy and growing up here, Lovell has always been a basketball town, and I feel like I grew up kind of in the height of that, (with) those battles between Lovell and Wyoming Indian,” he said. “I remember going to the regional (tournament) in 1984. My dad took work off, and I got to skip school, and I sat and watched the entire regional tournament. Wyoming Indian beat us in the regional championship. That was the Myron Chavez days. I grew up through that rivalry, and basketball is life to me and the kids my age, and we always just wanted to grow up as players and win a state championship. So to come back, it just makes it that much more special.”

Durtsche reiterated that he didn’t plan to become a head coach when he moved back to Lovell but agreed to help his brother and wife Stephany with coaching when the couple had a new baby. The assistant job sparked something in him.

“When I helped with that eighth-grade boys team, I really enjoyed it,” he said. “I kind of had that passion back and just enjoyed coaching those boys and coaching basketball, and it just so happened that Coach May resigned that spring. I thought about it a little bit but still wasn’t sure, and had a few phone calls, had a few people talk to me. But more than anything, it was after being at the high school for a year and getting to know those boys, you just kind of fall in love with the kids, and I’d loved working with those eighth-grade boys who are my juniors now. 

“And so I already had that relationship with them, and I still had that fire burn. … So I thought, well, why not? Let’s try it.”

Durtsche’s 2022-23 team made the state tournament, won a game and finished with a 12-15 record. The following season, the Bulldogs finished 21-8 and won the consolation championship. This season, the Bulldogs played to a 26-2 record and won the title. And for Durtsche, defense was the key.

“From my very first practice, probably my first open gym, I talked to the boys about that,” Durtsche said. “So that first crew, I told them, defense and rebounding travel. You’ve got to go play tough games on the road. You play in tournaments where the toughest team wins these games 100%, and after refereeing all those years, plus just growing up in basketball, you find that defense wins.

“You cannot hang your hat on offense. You’re going to have nights that the ball just doesn’t go in. You’re going to run into a physical, tough-nosed team, and you have got to be tough, and you’ve got to play defense and rebound. That’s what wins. And so as good as we were offensively this year, it was defense that we knew we had to hang our hat on.”

The Bulldogs had scored 60 to 80 points a game in the first seven games of the season, but when they beat Cody in a defensive battle 38-33 on January 14, Durtsche knew he had something.

“Eventually you’re going to run into a team like a Cody or a Powell last year that wants to grind you and slow you down and play defense, and when we beat them at home 38-33 in a grinder of the game, I knew we were pretty legit,” he said. “To prove that you can win a game that way was what I wanted to see, because, especially in 3A and 4A, those state tournament games can get ugly like that and be defensive battles.”

Another key was unselfishness and team balance, Durtsche said.

“I tell the kids, only pass up a good shot for a great shot,” he said. “We want you to shoot good shots, but man, if you’ve got an open teammate, swing the ball one more pass for a great shot. But most of it is just the kids. They really do enjoy playing together, and ultimately, they just wanted to win, and whatever that takes, they were willing to do. That was very special about this team, and as I can tell you, not one kid cared about the glory or the points.

“I know that they just wanted to win. And whether a kid had zero points or 10 points, he was just as happy for his teammates and if we won, and that is what made us who we were. The other thing is, it seemed like I always had five kids on the basketball court at any time that could score, that could get you double figures in any game, and there was not another team out there like that. We didn’t rely on one or two or even really three guys. It was different guys every night.”

Players agree

Senior starters Davin Crosby and Jace Nicholls agree with Durtsche’s assessment.

Crosby, Lovell’s starting quarterback and an all-state football player, totally bought into the message that toughness wins games.

“One thing that Coach Durtsche said is the toughest team will win,” he said. “Teams during the regular season may have a flashy offense, but the teams that win titles have mentally and physically toughness and strength. Our offense may not have been there (Saturday) but being tough and physical and aggressive got us the win.

“You never know what will happen at a tournament, but energy and effort is something you control. You can’t rely on anybody else, but you can do that no matter what is happening.”

Crosby said the Lovell defense fed the offense, and the team took advantage of the players’ speed, length and athleticism to force turnovers for layups, allowing the Bulldogs to pull away. And he gave credit to his senior teammate for perfectly fitting the winning mold after transferring from Casper Kelly Walsh.

“When Jace came in, he fed that culture,” Crosby said. “He’s such a great passer and gave us great looks. Coach Durtsche always says to give up a good look for a great look. We have great scorers, but what matters is the team score, not who scores the most points as an individual.”

Winning the title was something special, Crosby said.

“It was just the best way it could have ended,” he said. “I always wanted to win a state championship and always thought it would be in football. It’s pretty great for my athletic career to end with a championship. It means a lot to me and is a great feeling, the best way I could have imagined it.”

Nicholls moved from Casper to Lovell for his senior year, and his father, Jared, joined the coaching staff. He agreed that defense was the key to the championship, noting, “All of us could guard every position.”

He also spoke of team chemistry and said he fit in well with his new teammates.

“I’ve never really been a big scorer,” he noted, “but I love to pass and have a lot of good shooters on the team in Owen (Walker), Matthew (Newman), Kaeson (Anderson) and Davin.”

Nicholls said the team really wanted the state championship and “battled their hearts out,” adding that winning titles has become a bit of a family custom.

“My brother (Kade) did it his senior year, and a lot of my uncles won state championships,” he said. “It’s a tradition in my family.”