Watch the Video: Hilltop Hoops: The Season

by Jim Young

Welcome to the wilds of Gillette, Wyoming, county seat of Campbell County and home to the Rock Pile Museum, Durham Bull Ranch, the annual Donkey Creek Festival and of course, the New Year's Eve Buck & Ball.
 
Follow I-90 west towards the Big Horn Mountains for 10 miles and take Exit 116, known amongst the locals as Force Road. Just off the interstate on the right side of the road sits the childhood home of the legendary Wicks Brothers, Sundance and Luke, who according to the town folk, pretty much had their way with things in these parts back in the day.
 
Five years apart in age, the brothers were kindred spirits, balls of unbridled energy and enthusiasm, harnessed only by competition found in the local gyms, fields and tracks. Outstanding three-sport athletes at Campbell County High School, they both played collegiate basketball at Northern State in Aberdeen, South Dakota for the legendary Don Meyer, a man they revere to this day for his basketball acumen, mentorship and courage.
 
There was little doubt the Wicks brothers would pursue a career in coaching. After playing one year of professional basketball in Sweden, Sundance returned to Northern State where he served under Meyer for two seasons. He also worked on staffs at Colorado and Northern Illinois before building the Arizona Power Basketball Academy in Gilbert, where he trained Kawhi Leonard and Isaiah Thomas, to name a few.
 
After earning his degree from Northern State, Luke served as a top assistant coach at Sheridan (Wyo.) Junior College from two years before joining Rex Walters' staff at USF as the program's video coordinator and strength and conditioning coordinator in 2010. He was promoted to assistant coach prior to the 2012-13 season and is now in his third year as the Dons' associate head coach.
 
While five years age difference might have kept the brothers on somewhat of a parallel path during their formative years, they are more than making up for lost time now. The brothers were reunited when Sundance joined the program as an assistant coach in July, giving USF the only set of brothers believed to be serving on the same coaching staff in college basketball.
 
"I would have quit any job in the world to have a chance to come to work alongside my brother," said Sundance.
 
It was difficult at times for Luke for fully step out of the large shadow cast by his older brother, who he followed at Campbell County High School and then later at Northern State, but the respect and admiration never waned.
 
"I remember playing in the state high school championship game as a senior and someone said to me I'd never be half as good as my brother," said Luke. "I thought to myself, 'Well if I'm half as good as Sundance, I'm pretty good.' We always talked about serving on the same staff someday. I feel rejuvenated and have pushed myself to be a better coach because of him."
 
As Sundance's career took him away from the collegiate ranks for a few years, he now finds himself turning to his younger brother for mentorship and guidance.
 
"The tables have turned," said Sundance. "The kid I used to pick on is now teaching me a lot of things as a coach. It's really a pleasure to watch him every day and gain such an appreciation of just how good of a coach he has become. He worked his way up from a video coordinator to an associate head coach in five years. I'm very proud of him."
 
The unique bond between Luke and Sundance has been felt by every member of USF's basketball staff.
 
"Sometimes when a team brings on a new staff guys might look out for their own territory a little too much," said head coach Rex Walters. "With Luke and Sundance, you can tell there is genuine love and respect between them. There is a unique synthesis and bond between the two that has made our staff that much tighter."
 
Luke and Sundance credit their parents, Mark and Barb, both great athletes in their own right, for fueling their love of sport and competitive nature growing up.
 
One of 11 children raised in Watertown, South Dakota, Mark Wicks, who Sundance and Luke describe as a "free spirit," played football at Washington State from 1961-64 and is a member of the Cougars' Hall of Fame. He also played one season with the New Orleans Saints. Barb played volleyball at Black Hills State in Spearfish, South Dakota and still takes part in an occasional cattle drives and rodeo as an expert calf tier and barrel racer.
 
"My dad was too small to be a linebacker and too slow to be a defensive back so he went to work," said Luke. "In the summer, we had a choice of going to work with my dad, who was a painting contractor. He would work from 6 in the morning until 8 o'clock at night and ate one can of tuna fish for the day. Or we could go to the Rec Center and play basketball and swim all day. It was an easy choice. No one wanted to go to work with dad."
 
"My mom is the rock who holds the family together," said Sundance. "She is an angel for putting up with my father and three kids."
 
Truth be told, the best athlete in the Wicks family is not Sundance or Luke, but middle sister, Kelsey, who was a multiple state high school champion in track, golf and smashed all of Campbell High's basketball records before earning a full scholarship to Notre Dame, where she played for two seasons of basketball under Muffet McGraw.
 
"Kelsey was like the chosen one in the family," said Sundance. "She was 6-2, blond hair, blue eyes, beautiful, very smart and was a great three-sport athlete. Everything she did turn to gold so we felt it was our duty to pick on her. Luke and I attribute a lot of her athletic success to us because we toughened her up."
 
After leaving Notre Dame, Kelsey went on a mission trip to Africa, where her eyes and heart were opened wide to the world's poverty. Upon her return to the United States, she turned down a scholarship to Notre Dame's Law School and answered a calling to join another organization: The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecelia in Nashville, Tenn. She now wears a traditional habit and adheres to a strict life of prayer, teaching and silence as Sister Joan of Arc.
 
"Sundance and I would always gang up on Kelsey," said Luke. "I think one of the reasons she is in the convent is because we tormented her so much. I'm glad she made it out alive. We made her the best athlete she could be and then turned her into a women of God."
 
Or as Sundance sizes it up, "I think she looked at Luke and I and our wretched souls and thought someone needed to pray for us for the rest of our lives so she joined the Dominican Sisters."
 
When Sundance and Luke visit their sister the Sister in Nashville, they will occasionally head to the black top courts behind the convent and relive some childhood memories.
 
"We play Nun-on-One," said Luke. "She is a wonderful person who brightens up every room she walks into."
 
To know Luke and Sundance, it's obvious the apples didn't fall too far from the trees. The only question is which apples and what tree?
 
"I'm more calm, cool and collected like my mom," said Luke. "Sundance has a huge personality and is more outgoing, like my dad. My mom always said Sundance is funny but I'm fun. I interpret that as I'm a little more long-lasting. Sundance is here and now.
 
"Honestly, I couldn't have asked for better role models than my parents, my brother and sister."
 
The beautiful dichotomy of their sister choosing to devote her life to quiet prayer perhaps provides some cosmic balance for Sundance and Luke, whose combined wattage is nearly enough to power up their hometown of Gillette, which calls itself, appropriately enough, the "Energy Capital of the Nation" for effectively harnessing the area's rich supply of natural resources.
 
 "Get us into the same room and it can be trouble," said Luke. "One is a lot and two is way too much."
 
"I'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who brings more positive energy to the court and film room than Luke and Sundance," said Walters. "What they bring everyday gets me going. There's no substitute for smiles, joy, happiness, hugs, high fives and fist bumps. That's who the Wicks brothers are and what they do."
 
The life paths of two brothers have intersected for the time being at the corner of Parker Avenue and Fulton Street in a city far removed from the simple, quiet life of their hometown. Genuine enthusiasm, high basketball acumen, relentless work ethic and a few prayers from Nashville have taken Sundance and Luke this far. Next stop? Who knows, but it will be anything but boring.

Jim Young '85 returned to USF as associate athletic director for communications in October of 2012. He previously headed up communication departments at Santa Clara University, the Oakland A's and Stanford.