What the Wheatland community sees is a group of boys making school history in baseball and basketball.
“It’s a memory that I will keep forever,” said Wheatland senior Braden Sawyer.
With even the youngest fans showing support.
“They line up and down the hall And we will walk down the [school] hallway and they’ll give high fives and a lot of them make posters,” said Wheatland senior Tucker Shaddox. “It’s pretty cool.”
“Going back to when I was their age I remember being like I wanna be like him or I wanna shoot as good as him,” Braden said.
From the eyes of the players, it’s the days helping younger kids in the classroom that remind them how much their athletic success means to a town of less than 300.
“All of us boys on the baseball and basketball team, we all have little ones looking up at us and it’s motivating to us at least,” Braden said. “So we want to set the best example to them.”
For one class hour every school day Tucker walks down the hall and aids his mom’s fourth grade math class.
“The unexpected things they say it’s just awesome,” Tucker said.
“To see them grow up from something so small and a person that you had to help with every little thing and now they’re doing that for other people, it’s just it’s pretty special,” said teacher and tucker’s mom, Misty Shaddox.
While he helps, there’s a picture hanging in the classroom. It is a constant reminder of when he used to be the one looking up to the senior aid. In the photo is also Braden, who spends a class hour with the preschoolers every school day.
“My favorite thing it has to probably be playing outside on the playground,” Braden said. “You know it’s it’s a little difficult at times. There’s sixteen of them and when they all want to do a different thing, you’re all over the place.”
Sometimes the preschoolers get just as excited as him to show off their best basketball skills on the playground.
“I never have a bad moment in that class and I’m always looking forward to being there,” Braden said. “Even when some days I’m not really feeling like it, I always get cheered up and they always just make it so much better and they always brighten my day just being there.”
Tucker and Braden’s presence has helped give the future of wheatland sports a new perspective.
“Our basketball team and our baseball team this year has been bigger than the last one because the kids have seen how successful they are and they want to be apart of it,” Braden said. “I think that will continue to be the case.”
