Bingham girls basketball season recap

In mid-March, I interviewed Bingham (Utah) girls basketball coach Rand Rasmussen and four of his players. I wrote this article for the team's yearbook, recapping the season.

Great memories for Miners, but …

Team recovers
from various issues
and keeps high hopes

By Bruce Smith
Matchup

Bingham coach Rand Rasmussen has had a lot of memorable moments in his 23 years coaching the girls basketball team.

He had a lot more this season:

* - Nine straight wins to start the year.
* - Victories over powerhouse teams like Alta and Cyprus.
* - A difficult schedule, playing in a new region.

In the end, the Miners finished with a 15-8 record, and earned a berth into the 5A state tournament. Then they surprised a No. 1 seed – Taylorsville – in the opener. They did all this despite off-court issues at midseason and then they lost Summer Yack, their only senior and leading scorer, to a torn ACL.

Rasmussen didn’t win the coach of the year award, but anyone associated with Bingham probably felt he deserved it.

“I just enjoyed hanging out with the kids,” he said. “They goofed off at the right time, but they knew how to turn it on. I liked the journey.”

Yack could say the same. She played a role on four different Bingham teams that combined to win 71 games. When she graduated, she was among the school’s most-significant players. She ranked in the top 20 in several different offensive categories. She was second in three-point goals (89) and 11th in scoring with 658 points.

Her fate, as well as the team, might have been much
different this year except for the season-ending injury she suffered in a game at American Fork. At the time, Bingham had a narrow lead over the Cavemen but ended up losing by 15.

“She went for a steal and missed it,” recalled Rasmussen. “She looked all wrong and couldn’t get up. I knew immediately.”

Yack played part of her junior year with a broken foot, but didn’t tell anybody. She had it repaired after the season was over. This time, she hobbled back to the bench and was on crutches until having surgery two weeks later. Still, she attended team-building events, practices, games and helped wherever possible.

Opposing coaches and the media recognized her importance. Despite missing six games, she was named first team all-state by the Deseret News and second team by the Salt Lake Tribune.

“She scored 234 points, was a captain, our most mature kid and a calming influence,” Rasmussen said. “The real story of our season, though, was how our team rallied afterward.”

Yack said the following week was “brutal” for her. However, this Bingham team had a lot of depth. The depth was so extensive that Rasmussen substituted five players at a time. The Miners used a week off before their next game to heal emotionally. They rallied behind fellow captains Madison Aulai-Roe, Jilian Powell and Ashton Henderson and won its next two games.

A loss to Lone Peak prevented Bingham from finishing in second place. Instead, the Miners went into state as a No. 4 seed and a lot of questions.

“But we beat a No. 1 and we handled them just fine,” recalled Rasmussen. “We were playing a No. 1 seed every bloody day. That had a lot to do with how we beat Taylorsville. We were up 10-0 from the start.”

The Miners got a big lift from sophomore Shelby Richards, who scored 23 points in that game and showed huge potential. Bingham lost its quarterfinal contest to Weber, but that didn’t dampen the future.

Richards was a great example of Bingham’s potential. Rasmussen expects to return another young squad next year that could include Aulai-Roe, Powell, Henderson, Richards, Lateesha Richards, Mackenzie Bruggeman, . The Miners will only lose one senior (Yack). If they can get through another tough region season, they could once again challenge for the state title.

Many of those players were part of the junior varsity team, which finished 19-1. The sophomores were 10-10. Overall, Rasmussen said he was once again proud of the entire squad.

“I liked the commitment they all put into it, even though each game is just 32 minutes,” he said. “They take it serious and they hurt when we lose.”