Starting out fifth in the state, the Sheridan Lady Broncs have done very well this season with a conference record of 5-5. Although the Lady Broncs did not advance far in regionals by losing both games of three, they definitely fought hard against Thunder Basin and Campbell County.

Their journey to regionals contained many victories. They had the best record during the Border Wars tournament than any of the other Wyoming teams. Border Wars is a tournament between the Montana teams and Wyoming teams that occur every year. Outside of Border Wars, the Lady Broncs achieved another huge victory by defeating Cheyenne East, which they have not done in the last four years. Losing the first two sets in the game was very stressful for the Lady Broncs, but they pulled themselves together and beat them in the next three games. “When you have the fun and success together it hits a home run for me,” said head coach Maureen McEwen. In between every set, the Ladies pulled themselves together and talked through their mistakes.  According to senior outside hitter Emily Hooge, “The team is very good at not getting mad at each other, and they move on fast from their mistakes.”  Encouraging one another before and after games also helps them forget their faults.

“Losing the first two games motivates us to come out stronger, and we are good at bouncing back and shaking things off,” said senior right side hitter Olivia Conrad.

Hooge explained another aspect that motivated the girls to come back from losing two sets in a row is their head coach, McEwen. During timeouts, McEwen is always positive and encouraging her players to push themselves to their full potential.

Overall, the teammates played very well together. “Of the four years I’ve been part of the volleyball team, we had the best chemistry this year,” said Conrad. “All of us generally cared about each other and each other’s well being.”

McEwen challenged the team through team building activities which have increased the team’s solidarity. At the beginning of every year, she has the volleyball players do a talent show in the school’s auditorium. “Having the talent show is just something that puts us out of a volleyball mind really quick and just gets us to know each other better,” said McEwen. Getting to know her players outside of volleyball is something that is important to McEwen. Besides the talent show, they also do the quote and word of the week that helps motivate the ladies each day to improve and work to their highest potential.

Coach McEwen was thrilled with the leadership the seniors showed this year, saying, “Every one of them really stepped up in every role that they had and embraced who they were.” She said that they all cared for each other and helped out the younger classmen, which she and the volleyball program needed. McEwen is sad to see her seniors go and will really miss this last season she had with them. “Did we get to where we wanted to be in the end? No,” she said. “But in spite of everything else we had a fantastic season and it all started with the seniors.”