BILLINGS — Ashlynn McKern was excited about the day’s upcoming basketball practice. It was an off day from school, and Hamilton girls basketball coach Vanessa Stavish granted McKern, her lone senior, the responsibility of planning the Broncs’ workout.
McKern, who has been a starter since midway through her freshman season and stuck with the program as her friends and classmates began to filter out, polled her younger teammates and decided the practice would largely be a scrimmage.
“I love scrimmaging,” McKern said. “It’s just like playing basketball, and that’s my favorite part.”
As the only senior on Hamilton’s youthful roster, McKern has become a de facto coach for longer than just this one practice, both in the eyes of Stavish and herself. Even while playing through a broken fifth metatarsal in her foot suffered last April that still might require surgery, McKern models resilience, lifts up her younger teammates and helps establish the culture that Stavish is trying to develop in her second year as head coach. Two of those teammates are eighth graders on varsity.
It’s a responsibility not lost on McKern. That leadership shows up most clearly in small, in-game moments that few outside the program would notice.
In a game against rival Corvallis earlier this season, a teammate turned the ball over and then committed a foul on the other end, sending the Blue Devils to the free throw line. While everyone was lined up, McKern could sense her teammate’s frustration.
McKern’s response was simple: “You’re fine. You’re fine.”
“You could just see her face get so relieved,” she said. “That’s the first time I ever realized that what I said actually really affected them.”
Stavish has seen those types of interactions and responses many times. In her fifth season at Hamilton and second as head coach after stints as a varsity assistant and JV coach, she’s watched McKern’s arc go from underclass worker bee to a two-time captain voted in by her teammates, a group that includes McKern’s sister and best friend, Kassidee.
“The joke is if Ashlynn tells you it’s OK, then it’s OK,” Stavish said. “They really love and cherish every feedback they get from her.”
That calm assurance isn’t new. It traces back to another arena where McKern learned to stay steady when things got bumpy.
McKern has a rodeo background, competing in barrel racing, pole bending and goat tying with her horse, Joe. Though Joe wasn’t always the best athlete, sometimes stumbling on turns, she stuck with him, and he helped her win several events.
“I love him so much I couldn’t imagine myself not riding him,” said McKern, who no longer competes but still rides Joe for fun. “He was super-fast. He was just kind of clumsy sometimes.”
That streak of loyalty shows up in Hamilton’s gym, too. McKern’s averaged 12.5, 13.3 and now 10.0 points per game in the last three seasons, but as the overall age and experience of the team has decreased, so have the wins. The Broncs are headed to a Southwest A play-in game that they’ll need to win to keep their postseason hopes alive.
The drive and desire, though, haven’t dipped. For McKern, staying means showing the younger girls how to respond when results don’t match the work they’ve put in.
“I kind of try and help my teammates the best I can with confidence issues and stuff,” she said. “I try and help them see the bigger picture, especially against bad losses. Because I think dwelling on the past doesn’t really help much. You can learn from it, but you can’t just sit in the past forever and hope that it changes.”
That perspective has Stavish, a former player at Montana State Billings and Frenchtown, leaning on her senior to help build something that will last beyond this season.
“We are trying to start some traditions in my program,” Stavish said. “I do put a lot of stuff on them to try to build the culture, and Ashlynn has definitely been the forefront of the leader of this program since I’ve taken it over. She does a good job of preparing those other girls for when she does leave, just by delegating tasks and giving them some responsibility and making sure everybody’s involved.”
Such as allowing others to have a voice in how they wanted McKern’s designated practice to run. McKern feels that weight, and she embraces it.
“I feel very blessed to be in that position and be the leader, kind of, on the court,” she said. “Some people have said that I’m like the on-court coach, and I honestly love it a lot.”
