Rams claim first state trophy in over a decade, best state finish in 25 years

POCATELLO — After his team performed well but was eventually sent home without a trophy in 2025, Highland High School head softball coach Bryce Bybee quickly turned his sights to 2026.

Bybee knew that the loss of senior Emerson Gifford, the team’s only senior and one of its most productive hitters, would be felt. But he also knew he would be returning several standouts, including his daughter and lead-off hitter Reece Bybee, pitching star McKenna Sutton and breakout freshman Dawson Sommer.

So, speaking at his daughter’s college signing ceremony in November, when Reece officially committed to play softball at Utah Tech University, Bryce said he believed Highland would make a run at the program’s first state championship this year.

Then he doubled down at the start of the season.

Bryce told the team that the state title would come down to them, Owyhee and Eagle. As it turned out, that trio of teams finished last month’s state tournament in first, second and third place.

When the Rams were forced to settle for third, there was some frustration. But they have since realized the gravity of their achievement and accepted it as success.

“They were happy with third, but they were definitely disappointed,” Bryce said, adding that upon receiving the third-place trophy, the tears his team shed were of sadness and frustration rather than joy and elation. “We fell short but we did compete really well.”

Reece joked that all the pictures she took at the trophy ceremony were of her best friends and teammates of a decade, visibly upset.

The thing the girls have accepted is that their third-place trophy is the first the program has brought home from the state tournament since 2013, when Highland finished fourth. It represents the Rams’ best finish since a third-place trophy in 2001 — long before any of this year’s players were born.

Bryce has coached this year’s seniors since they were seven. He recalls going to Highland games when the girls were young and discussing with them that they were capable of success at that level.

“We would go to the high school games and watch the girls, and talk about, ‘This is, if you work hard, what your future can look like,'” he told EastIdahoSports.com. “We started it then, and we built a culture around that.”

When Bryce took over as Highland’s head coach in 2024, the team shifted its goals. They wanted to improve every year, culminating in the program’s first banner.

In 2024, the Rams went 15-22. They improved to 27-15 last year, earning Highland’s first state tournament win since 2017. The East Idaho Sports softball Team of the Year finished 2026 with a 33-8-2 record, and the school’s first state trophy in over a decade.

With their coach telling them they could win a title this year, the players entered the season with high expectations. They won their first five games of the year.

But some questions began to creep into Reece’s mind when they hit an early-season speed bump, losing three games in a row and four out of seven.

Two of those losses came against Eagle, and in one of those games, the Rams fell behind 12-0 before scoring 11 unanswered to fall 12-11. Reece said she saw then that this year’s team absolutely could play with the Treasure Valley powerhouses, despite the loss.

“I was like, wait, we actually can compete with that side of the state,” she said. “That’s when it, kinda, clicked for me that we actually did have a chance.”

Highland, after powering through the district tournament, entered the state tournament as the No. 4 seed. They beat No. 5 Mountain View in the opening round, setting the stage for a showdown with No. 1 Owyhee.

The Rams opened the scoring with a two-run homer from Sommer in the top of the first. Little did they know that would be the game’s only scoring.

Reece robbed a two-run Storm homer in the bottom half.

“It was plays like that throughout the whole (game) that set the tone — everyone wanted that game,” Bryce recalled.

Sutton took care of the rest, allowing six hits while striking out 13 in a complete game shutout.

Reece said that she knew her team could beat the title-favorite Storm, but there is always a touch of doubt when facing a heavy favorite.

Highland fell to Eagle in the semis, then to Owyhee, who came all the way back to beat Eagle twice on championship Saturday and claim another state championship, its third in four years.

After 10 years of coaching this year’s seven seniors, including his daughter, claiming a state trophy was bittersweet for Bryce. It meant that the team had accomplished a goal, but it also meant he was done coaching this group — at least for the school.

“It’s a hard year for me, for sure,” he said. “Reece, obviously, is a huge part — that’s why I do it. But I’m also losing the other kids that I raised playing softball. Team culture has always been something that we’ve talked about all the time, but I do think we did it even more this year.”

Bryce focused more this year on team dinners and enjoying the time together. He and Reece, he said, took more pictures together this season than the previous nine combined. Reece joked that she had to force her dad to take some of those pictures.

As Bryce said, his job as a coach is to prepare his players for the game of softball and the game of life. And for this group of seniors who have played for him since they were seven, his portion of that journey is just about done — though they all will still be together this season, as members of the USA Explosion 18U Premiere travel team, a team Bryce thinks has a chance at some national titles.