Former high school basketball team set to be honored after 33 years

SHELLEY — A former high school basketball team will reunite after being apart for over three decades.

The former Shelley Russets won the A-2 state title in 1991 after a season in which they dominated the competition. On Feb. 17, during halftime of the girls state championship game, the team will walk on the gym floor together again and be presented with a banner that recognizes them as legends of the game.

“It’s been 33 years since we’ve walked on the gym floor as a team and we get to do that again,” said Tabatha Swenson, a former player.

The Legends of the Game award, sponsored by the Idaho High School Activities Association, honors the past accomplishments of previous basketball teams. The former team member who nominated them is Teresa Smith.

The Shelley Russets, led by head coach Newell Sargent, had gone undefeated in the 1990-1991 basketball season proceeding the championship game in Pocatello.

Thanks to the close proximity of the game, the girls had more family and friends there to support them.

“It was loud and (there was) cheering and screaming and I just remember as soon as that final buzzer went off, we just immediately fled to each other and we hugged,” Swenson said.

Once they arrived home in the middle of the night, the cheers of the team rang through the normally quiet streets of their small town.

“We were hanging out the windows and screaming,” Swenson said. “It was the most incredible feeling.”

Swenson said that the team was a “tight-knit group of girls.”

“We had just an extraordinary friendship and bond,” Swenson said. “I was on varsity three years and we were dynamic. We all had matching headbands that we wore and we had heart socks. We did everything and we were extraordinary.”

Swenson said in the run up to their reunion in Nampa, the team has reconnected through a Facebook Messenger group chat.

“We’ve been sharing pictures and memories and it’s kind of brought us all back together,” Swenson said.

When the team arrives in Nampa, they’ll be put up in a hotel for the weekend. They’ll also get the opportunity to sit down for a banquet dinner together.

Every single former player will be there to reunite for this event. The only person missing is their former head coach. Ten years after the championship game, Sargent passed away from cancer. His daughters will attend on his behalf.

“Talk about a legend. He is a legend. I can still see his goofy smile right now and he was just a wonderful man,” Swenson said. “He would have just loved being able to be recognized and to see all of us girls together again.”