Glenns Ferry basketball: Ellee Bryant profile

In early April, I traveled to Glenns Ferry and interviewed the Pilots' post player, Ellee Bryant. Here is the article that will appear in the team's 2011-12 basketball yearbook.

Ellee Bryant:

As the anchor player on a small team,

she had her best games at key times

By Bruce Smith

Matchup
 
            First and foremost, Ellee Bryant was an athlete at Glenns Ferry High School.
            As the oldest of six children, she was the first athlete in the Bryant family to make his mark at the school.
            She was busy year-around. Volleyball, basketball, softball … it didn’t matter. Her senior year, she was an instrumental member at a special time. At 5-foot-9, she was the biggest player on the basketball team. The Pilots lacked size, and that fact was often seen as their biggest weakness.
            Without her, it’s difficult to know exactly how the team would have done. With her, they made it to the 1A Division 1 state tournament for the first time in 16 years. That experience, she said, was her best memory of the season.
            “We had been striving to do that for quite a while,” she said.
            The 2011-12 basketball season was a special time. Bryant said it was the team’s goal from the start to make state, and they did it. Bryant averaged 2.7 points per game, and was the team’s third-leading rebounder at 3.9/game. However, it was often the little things that made her stand out.
            Bryant focused mostly on defense. Most of Glenns Ferry’s opponents, especially Hagerman and Challis, had bigger players and that affected her game.
            “One thing I remember most about Ellee is that she always played well against Hagerman and Challis,” said coach Kelli McHone. “She rose to the occasion in some of our biggest games.”
            Bryant’s top-scoring contests was a 10-point effort against Nampa Christian and nine in the district tournament against Raft River.
            Still, scoring was not how she remembered herself.
            “My best memory was playing Cascade,” she said. “I made a steal and got a layin. I felt really good about it.”
            Bryant had six points and six rebounds in that game. She said she felt good about making an extra effort in that game so the Pilots could reach their goal. The celebration afterward was an amazing feeling and it led to more.
            “State was fun and exciting,” she said. “You got special treatment and I felt like a celebrity. We had played in that gym (at Columbia High School in Nampa), but it never felt like this.”
            The most noteworthy games came after the Pilots had dropped their opener to eventual state champion Prairie. Knowing they had to beat Hagerman to stay alive, Glenns Ferry avenged a loss just a week before with a convincing 46-25 victory.
            Bryant was scoreless but grabbed five rebounds. More importantly, Hagerman’s duo of Jessica Regnier and Aly Sauer combined for just nine points. The Pilots grabbed a 27-10 lead at halftime and, for the most part, the outcome was decided.
            “Hagerman was my biggest rival,” Bryant said. “She (Regnier) was two years younger than me and we shut them down pretty easily the first time we played.
            “At district, she was hitting her peak and I think she had talked to her coaches about how to play me. At state, I knew I had to step it up and I played my game. We really wanted to beat them.”
            That victory was the highlight of the postseason and, even though the Pilots lost to Liberty Charter in overtime the next day, it didn’t change how they felt. They had made state, and they felt good about how they did it.
            In the Bryant house, it was also just the start. A couple of weeks later, Bryant’s younger brother, Egan, was part of the Glenns Ferry boys team, which not only made the state tournament but won it.
            Bryant said that high school would probably be the end of her athletic career.
            She said she planned to enroll at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg in the fall, but get involved in intramural sports. Basketball may not be as exciting as what she felt this year, but she appreciated the experience and hoped the Pilots had continued success in the future.