When she first learned she’d be going to Jefferson High, Brooklyn Miller felt terrified of joining the basketball team.
“I remember I cried to my mom, ‘I can’t go to Jefferson, the Panther girls are going to bully me!” said Miller, now a senior.
Miller and Ryian Eveland had attended Montana City Elementary, which over the years developed a fierce rivalry with Boulder Elementary’s basketball squad led by Hannah Stevens, Meredith Reider, Jaida Jurenka, and Michaela Morris.
“We started the travel team,” those four said in unison, as if all the hours spent together on buses, in class, and on the court have put them in sync.
“We’ve been the Panthers since we were fourth grade,” added Morris, referring to the Boulder Elementary group during a joint interview with all six senior girls before practice last week.
Miller, unsurprisingly, had a different view. “We literally hated each other,” Miller recalled, laughing with her former rivals. “Even in middle school games that didn’t even mean much.”
“It was a real rivalry,” someone else chimed in.
After nearly a decade of playing with and against each other, Jefferson High’s six senior girls have formed friendships that bind them off and on the court – and have apparently harmonized their thinking.
“We’re always on the same page with each other,” said Miller, adding that this means minimal second-guessing.
“The chemistry and the bond that we made over the years has been unreal and it shows on the court,” Morris agreed.
“I never thought we would all be this close. It’s amazing,” said Stevens, prompting a few teary eyes. “You guys are all my best friends now.”
The Panthers have consistently ranked in Montana’s top 40 teams in recent years, according to sports data website MaxPreps. The team reached divisionals in 2023 and the state tournament last year. As of Tuesday, following two losses over the weekend, MaxPreps ranked the Lady Panthers the state’s 5th-best Class B team.
Their 7-2 start to the season is all the more impressive when you consider that the team has been without one of its best players, Eveland, who tore her anterior cruciate ligament during a November practice. The injury marked an abrupt end to her storied Jefferson High career.
Last year Eveland was the team’s top rebounder, second leading scorer and an all-conference player. Her early January reconstruction surgery went well, but she has struggled to accept her new role as the team’s biggest fan on the bench.
“I want to be there to support them as much as possible, but it’s a little difficult,” Eveland explained. “I’m jealous, obviously, because I want to be out there playing too. I feel like that kind of intervenes a little bit, and it makes me a little bitter. But I’m really, really proud of them for the way they’ve been playing, and I think they’re doing so well.”
Her teammates have done their best to turn Eveland’s injury into a positive. “I think we’re all extra grateful that we even can play,” Miller said, “And I think we’re all playing for Ryian too. Our success is her success.”
As Miller spoke, Eveland’s mouth turned down in a slight pout of gratitude. She pressed her lips together and blinked fast to keep from crying.
“Just because she’s hurt doesn’t mean she’s not still one of the biggest parts of our team,” Jurenka said. “Exactly,” the others chime in, coaxing a quiet ‘Awww’ out of Eveland.
Eveland said their hard work on the court inspired her. “It’s helping me a lot with my mentality towards this whole injury,” she said. “To push through the pain and to just do what I need to do to get better because they have it all covered out there.”
The seniors hope their deep, powerful bond is the legacy they leave behind. “I feel like we set a good example for the underclassmen,” said Jurenka, “so they can kind of follow in our footsteps.”
The camaraderie is on full display at practice that day. In each drill, the typical sounds of dribbling balls and shoes squeaking against hardwood were punctuated by the seniors calling players out by name, pushing them with “come on!” and a high five.
“I think [the younger players] see what we have and they just want to be a part of it,” Morris said, “And they are definitely a part of it.”
While all the seniors say that they can’t imagine their Jefferson High years without basketball, Eveland is the only one who hopes to continue playing at the next level.
As they look ahead to life after high school, several mention the lessons basketball has taught them: ideas about perseverance, teamwork, and consistent effort that would make any coach smile. Even so, their shared bond may have shaped them more than anything else.
“I just love them so much,” said Rieder. “The day that we’re done is the day, like, I lose something inside me.”
Miller recalled being sad on volleyball senior night in November, but she dreaded her final high school basketball game much more. “I don’t think any of us really know how we’re gonna react, or how we’re prepared to react,” she said.
For a group of girls who made basketball not only a cornerstone of their high school careers but of the friendships they’ve cherished for years, their last game – hopefully at state in March – will mark the end of a sports season, the end of an era at Jefferson High, and the end of key periods of personal growth, from pigtails to ponytails.
“It’s something we’ve been putting all of our time and energy into for basically our whole lives,” said Jurenka. “So I feel like we’re kind of all, or at least I am, scared for when we don’t have that anymore.”
Stepping into their futures with some trepidation, these six seniors can be sure of one thing: their bond is about much more than basketball.
“We’re going to be each other’s biggest fans,” said Morris, “for probably the rest of our lives.”
