The Ten Sleep Lady Pioneers tip-off their basketball season today for the first time in two seasons.

Unable to field a team due to low turnout, the Lady Pioneers have the numbers to roster a team and compete in the 2024 basketball season.

The Lady Pioneers have five players out this season, with a sixth on the way in January. Even with the small numbers, the players and first-year head coach Kayla Sterling are thrilled to be back on the court.

“We haven’t had a team for a couple of years and we’re excited to be back,” said TSHS girls basketball coach Kayla Sterling. “We’ve been working a lot on the fundamentals and building those basic skills back up. Things have been going really well. We only have five girls out this year. We’ve been doing conditioning, not as punishment but just to get prepared. We do have a transfer student coming in January to give us six and a sub, which will be great.”

The Lady Pioneers are made up of seniors Izzy Fox and Cora Norman, sophomore Bree Jackson and freshmen Brooklyn Norman and Belle Starbuck.

The first weeks of practice have covered the fundamentals and Sterling has encouraged her players through the process as there was some rust for players.

“I have a few girls who played when they were freshmen, and they were a little rusty. I kept reminding them that it’s OK and it’s going to come back and don’t get down on yourself. Those fundamentals will come back. Then we have some freshmen who played middle school last year,” said Sterling.

As a first-year coach taking over a program that missed the past two seasons, Sterling’s biggest goal this season is to build a culture of positivity and confidence.

“I don’t work in the school either, so I’ve taken some time during or before practice to talk with them. My focus is to be positive and build confidence. We each picked a word for our mantra for the season and wrote it on our shoes. That’s an activity we’ve done for team building and laying the groundwork of positivity. I’m new to this too and learning like they are, so I just want us to grow and have a positive, fun season,” said Sterling.

Winning games is always the goal, but it’s not the only goal for Sterling. The team will lose games, and players will make mistakes, it’s a part of basketball. You can’t let those mistakes haunt you, is what Sterling is teaching her team.

“We’re not going to win every game, make every shot, and we’ll make mistakes. The biggest thing is having a positive mindset. I don’t want them getting down on each other for missing shots or a bad play. I want them to stay present in each play and not dwell on those mistakes. If you get down on yourself, it’s not going to motivate you anymore. They’ve really responded to that mindset,” said Sterling.

Ten Sleep opens their season with a road game against Arvada-Clearmont today, then on Monday host Fort Washakie at 6:15 p.m.

In those first two games, learning as much as they can is the focus for Ten Sleep.

“We’ll see what we can improve upon from these first games. We’ll see how the offense and defense work and make changes as needed. The main goal is to learn from each game. Of course, if we can get a couple of wins, that will be awesome. Then we’ll also work on the girls reaching their individual goals,” said Sterling.

No matter what the record looks like, the most important thing for Ten Sleep is that the program is back. At the end of the season, building a positive culture, having fun playing basketball, and building excitement around the program will be the biggest win.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Sterling about having a basketball season. “We weren’t sure we would have enough, then we got our fifth. They’ve all been super excited, positive and bought-in. They’re just excited to get to play.”