With the loss of four seniors, sophomore Ashton Bierce is the only returning starter for the Longhorns which is putting some added pressure on him this season according to his coach Wes Moreland.
“We’re a young and inexperienced group this year so Ashton, who averaged about 15 points a game last season, is drawing a lot of double-teams but he’s learning how to play through them. He’s a great kid, a straight-A student and one of those kids that you just love to coach,” said Moreland.
Although he started playing basketball when he was in the third grade, Bierce says he wasn’t serious about the game until later.
“It was probably middle school when I decided to take the game seriously. I don’t know, something just kind of clicked inside and I started enjoying it more.”
Also about that time, he started playing on a summer travel team called CB Oklahoma which was made up of players from local schools.
Ashton comes by his desire naturally as his parents were both good players in their day at McLish. With a 4.0 grade point average, it’s clear that Ashton takes academics as seriously as his basketball endeavors and draws a correlation between the two and achieving success in both.
“Athletics and academics are a lot alike in that you have control over how you do in each by the amount of effort you put into them. I wasn’t always the smartest in the classroom or on the basketball court, but I worked hard on getting smarter and getting better in everything I do.”
Though he is only a sophomore, as the only returning starter, Ashton also takes on some leadership duties this year. Woolsey says the other kids notice Bierce’s work ethic on the court and he leads by example in that regard. Ashton also recognizes the need to lead this year.
“We’re playing a lot of freshmen this year and I feel the need to help them out because I was in their shoes last year with the pressure on them and the fans watching them, and I feel I can help with that.
In his spare time, you can find Ashton enjoying riding dirt bikes and four-wheelers.
