Rocky awards night notes player and team development

The young but up and coming Rocky Mountain boys basketball team celebrated the 2025-26 season with the annual team awards night Monday at the RMMHS cafeteria.

Head coach Pat Winland started the program by thanking his coaches, calling assistants Jeff Samson and Taylor Winland “without a doubt the best staff in the state.”

“Jeff brings a true love for the game,” Winland said. “He was a tremendous help with scouting, practice preparation and on-court instruction. He’s reliable, knowledgeable and always there for our team. Honestly, he’s saved me more than a few times over the years.

“Taylor is a joy to be around. He brings patience — more patience than I’ve ever had — and our guys benefit from that every day. He also does a great job scouting opponents. On a personal level, it’s been special coaching alongside my son and watching him help guide his younger brother (Cooper) along the way.”

He thanked trainer Cammie Brost for supporting all of the teams behind the scenes, noting she can wrap an ankle perfectly and quickly while his wraps take 10 minutes and look like a 3-year-old did it.

Winland thanked athletic director Tobee Christiansen and former AD Rod Winland for their work and for setting up the second toughest schedule in Class 2A, which challenged the team and made them better. He also thanked principal Betsy Sammons for her “continued support.”

He thanked all of the coaches’ wives and fiancées, and he grew emotional when he thanked his own wife, Julie, for taking on the role of “team mom” and performing an incredible amount of work for the team, from scorekeeping to laundry and decorations.

He thanked photographers Tiffany Minchow and Annette Moss for capturing great moments and the team support staff: manager John Mader, videographer Lukas Miller, and the fifth-grade girls who cheered on the team with great gusto during every home contest.

He also thanked the Lovell Chronicle for “outstanding coverage” of the team.

Freshman summary

Freshman coach Taylor Winland asked his freshman/C team members to come forward and presented a season summary, noting that, while they went 4-5 “on paper,” the record does not define the team.

He said the team “competed all year long and beat the teams we were supposed to beat,” and as for the teams with more experience or that were stronger, “we made them earn every single thing they got,” he added.

“Nobody rolled over. Nobody backed down. Every night these guys showed up ready to compete,” he said. “As a coach, that’s all you can ask for.”

Winland praised his players for their unselfish play in a world where a player who scores the most points usually gets the most recognition, and he noted that due to the young roster throughout the program, the freshmen and sophomores played a full C team schedule and a full junior varsity schedule, calling the experience they gained “huge.”

He thanked Coach Samson for his help, calling him a “basketball sicko” who “loves every little detail about basketball.” And he thanked his father, Pat, calling him one of the greatest motivators he’s been around. He also thanked team parents and his fiancée Haylee.

Winland urged his players to keep building on what they started this season and turn weaknesses into strengths.

JV summary

When Samson took the floor, only two players joined the C team at the front of the room, juniors Jaxson Miller and Travis Crosby, demonstrating how young the roster is. He said the players came into the season with very little junior varsity experience.

He said the team started the season 3-0, then ran a gauntlet of tough opponents. He noted that the JVs played the same tough schedule as the varsity, adding, “We took our lumps but kept fighting through.”

Samson said having only one true point guard in Jaxx May hurt the team, because May could play only three quarters of JV ball in order to help on the varsity squad. And he added, “I will say that, while our season isn’t what we wanted, we competed for three quarters pretty well, and if we could have played with a full team, we would have won more games. We did play well in a lot of situations.”

He thanked his managers, including son Ty, and he thanked the Winland boys – Taylor, for being his righthand man in JV games, noting that he and Taylor were always on the same page, and head coach Pat for always believing in him and trusting him for coaching advice. As with others, he thanked his wife, Tianne, and his family.

Season reflection

“I loved coaching this group of young men,” Pat Winland said. “Coming into the season, we had a lot of questions and a lot of roles to fill. After the first couple weeks of practice, I’ll be honest — I was concerned. But once we got into games, I started to see what this group could become. I pushed these guys hard. We wanted to get to the state tournament, and there were some timeouts — and probably a few halftime talks — where I let them know exactly where we stood. But what made this season special was watching them grow — not just as players, but as young men.

“Our goal was simple: Beat the teams we’re supposed to beat, and make every other team earn everything.”

Winland noted the tough schedule the Grizz played: six games against 3A schools and multiple games against the top two teams in 2A, “and we competed in every one of them,” he added.

“We had a strong regional tournament and came within seconds of playing for the consolation championship,” Winland said.

He presented four individual awards but first praised his other players, noting that freshman Jaxson Sponsel is a strong three-point shooter, sophomore Gary Gardner was known for taking charges and sophomore Cooper Ward played with great energy. He added that May played a lot of minutes as a point guard at all three levels.

He said junior Jaxson Miller suffered an unfortunate foot injury mid-season, Jaxon Hayes was an effective three-point specialist who hit some big shots and Crosby was not only a strong player off the bench but could eat like nobody else.

Individual awards

Winland presented the Most Improved Player Award to sophomore center Evin Clendenen, noting that he is still learning and has unlimited potential. As a lefthanded post, he presents matchup problems for teams, he said, and occasionally flashed some moves that caused Winland to say, “Where did that come from?” Clendenen was selected for the 2A Northwest All-Conference team.

The Spirit of the Grizz Award went to junior Kellan Jackson, who Winland said cares deeply about his teammates, adding, “He never wanted to let his teammates down. He stepped up big at Regionals and State.”

Cooper Winland received the award for having the highest VPS (Value Point System) score on the team at 1.43, a system that measures a player’s efficiency and impact. He said Cooper was very unselfish and had to be talked into shooting more, adding that he “truly wants his teammates to succeed and had a great regional and state tournament.”

Cooper received all-conference and all-region honors.

The Offensive MVP Award was presented to sophomore Mason Moss, an all-state player who may have set a school record with 536 points this season as well as setting the single-game record with 42 points.

“Mason is very humble and likes to see team success more than he wanted to succeed himself,” Coach Winland said. “He got beat up this season and got grabbed and held in every game. In the first five minutes of every game, I’m always on the officials about that.”

Looking ahead, Winland wants his players to become stronger and more physical while improving their ballhandling and shooting.

“Next year brings a new group, new challenges and new opportunities,” he said. “We have a talented group of eighth graders coming in who will want to compete. The weight room is open to everybody, not just football players. We’ll have open gyms.

“The time to get better as individuals is during the summer – ballhandling, shooting, strength. Hope is not a strategy; you have to put in the work. Compete. Stay active. Get better. Show up. There’s been a lot of talk about next year.  Everybody says we have potential, but that’s all it is. Potential means nothing without work.”

Winland closed by noting changes in the conference and division, and he said the shot clock will be fully implemented next season.