BOX ELDER — During the previous school year, Box Elder won the Class C state boys basketball championship. This past Saturday, that same group led the football team to the school's second state title appearance — this time winning the 6-Man crown for the first time.
The Bears went on the road to take on Bridger and won in convincing fashion, 84-56 to cap an undefeated season and claim the Class C 6-Man state championship.
"It was the greatest feeling of my life," senior Tuarie Stiffarm-Rosette told MTN Sports. "Honestly, it was better than the basketball one in my opinion. Just all the hard work, and just felt amazing."
"I was crying, I was crying my eyes out," sophomore Santana Wells Jr. said. "So happy not just for myself, but for my team, my community. It was all happy, you know, just one of the best moments."
This is a goal that has been written on the board in the team's locker room going back to over the summer, as head coach Thomas Dilworth said.
Dilworth also said he had an intuition that Box Elder would win it all for some time.
"Before the Hot Springs game, I was just standing on the field and felt it, I felt it in my soul," Dilworth said. "I stopped practice, I went to my assistant coach and I told him, I said, 'We're winning a state title.' I feel it, I know it."
Stiffarm-Rosette — who was an all-conference honoree — threw for 11 touchdown passes in the win. He said it'll always make him feel good to forever be a state champion in football.
"Just to look back, knowing that we accomplished that, it's always going to be there. Make me feel good," Stiffarm-Rosette said.
The Bears will have to reset though, as starting next year the team will face a new challenge.
"We're going to be really, more prepared for that next year even with moving up to 8-Man," Wells said. "There's just more work to be done."
"We're moving up to 8-Man next year," Dilworth said. "Some of them are a little bit nervous, I think it's a great opportunity. We're going to do the best that we can. I think we're going to be ready to compete, I think we've kind of set a standard (and) the kids know what the expectation is, the work that goes in to it."
