Lund High School senior basketball player Kasen Hardy will be trading in his blue and gold for green and gold. Monday night, in front of teammates, family and friends, the 6’2” 1st Team All-Conference Shooting Guard signed his National Letter of Intent to play basketball at Rocky Mountain College in Billings Montana in the fall. While this may be a right-of-way for a lot of student athletes in cities around the nation, for the small town of Lund this is a rare opportunity. It has been more than 10 years since a student athlete has gone on to college ball after graduating Lund High School and more than 30 for a male. Lund’s Principal Tim Moser and varsity basketball coach Micha Griffin were both in attendance and spoke at the signing ceremony. “Getting to be able to play ball for a few more years at a more intense level will be enjoyable.” Kasen said. “It feels amazing.”
Kasen has carried a 3.9 GPA through his junior and senior years. He also participated in L-Club/Student Council, National Honor Society, and Academic Olympics.
Kasen is a multi-sport athlete. Up until his junior year he also played baseball, playing for White Pine Highschool as Lund didn’t have enough kids to make a team. His junior year, he was told that Lund had too many students and he would no longer be able to play baseball at White Pine. Kasen didn’t let that slow him down. He turned his focus to basketball and found a traveling team to continue training and keep in shape.
Kasen’s high school team made it to regionals his sophomore year of high school. It was at that tournament that he realized he wanted to take basketball as far as he could. Coach Griffin said Kasen made his goals and then worked to make those goals happen. Looking outside the box, Kasen made social media accounts to post his highlights from games. From there he started sending emails and contacting schools he was interested in. One of the schools he heard back from was RMC. Assistant Coach Owsley invited Kasen and his parents to travel to Billings and check out the school. Kasen was toured around the campus, including getting to go up in an airplane to tour Billings and, at the end of the trip, given a uniform to take pictures in, and offered a spot on the team.
Basketball isn’t the only reason Kasen picked RMC. The big pull is their Aviation Program. The first time Kasen flew in a plane he knew that was where he belonged. Kasen says while Billings is huge compared to Lund, it still has the feeling of a small town. He credits his parents, brothers and extend family for the support they have shown him through all of his endeavors.
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