BOX ELDER — After defeating Big Sandy by a score of 61-32 on Oct. 17, the Box Elder Bears capped off an undefeated 7-0 regular season — the first for the program since 1977.
The team also won the 6-Man North division and earned itself a No. 1 seed in the playoffs. But the Bears have not met their ultimate goal just yet.
"It's a pretty special moment for us," sophomore Santana Wells Jr. told MTN Sports on Tuesday. "But I'm not satisfied yet. I want to keep going, you know, I want to take it all the way hopefully."
"We just worked hard all season," junior Timmy Stiffarm-Rosette said. "Almost 80% of the guys are in the weight room, about 5:30 in the morning."
"We're proud of it, obviously it's an accomplishment," head coach Thomas Dilworth said. "We've got one goal on the board, and that's a state title, and . . . they've worked hard and I think, you know, we have as good a shot as anybody that's in the race right now."
Back in 1977, the grandfathers of both Wells and Stiffarm-Rosette were donning the Bears' uniform. It means a lot to each of them to share an accolade with a family member.
"I love my grandpa with all my heart," Wells said. "It feels good to take after him."
"He told me a lot of stories about it," Stiffarm-Rosette said. "He just told me how hard they worked, and that's what pushed me to work as hard."
Saturday's home playoff game against Absarokee will be the first postseason contest for Box Elder in nine years, and hosting the game will bring the community together, as Wells and Stiffarm-Rosette say.
"It just brings us together as a whole," Wells said. "Get everybody, you know, supporting one thing, and that's what we really need around here."
"It means the world," Stiffarm-Rosette said. "After we had our homecoming and senior night, we had so many people (in attendance). I've never seen that many people here, and I hope they all come out."
Now that the postseason is here, the team's record has reset.
"We'd be lying to say if we weren't disappointed if we didn't accomplish our goal" of winning a state title, Dilworth said. "That's what we're going to stay focused on. But right now, we've got one game ahead of us, and we're focused on Absarokee."
Box Elder's hunt at a first-ever state title begins Saturday at 1 p.m. against Absarokee.
