If you want to feel better about life, about what's happening around us right now, sit down and spend some time with Cowboy assistant basketball coach Sundance Wicks.

I guarantee you'll feel better.

His energy, his enthusiasm for life and his love for Wyoming is the best kind of contagious.

I had the pleasure of that experience yesterday.  Not only did I feel better about everything after that, but I had a renewed love for the place I've had a passion for all my life, Wyoming.

This Gillette native was a great reminder of why I've been at UW for over half a century.

He told me there's a baby picture of him wearing a Cowboy jersey.  He has dreamed about being a Cowboy ever since.

Unfortunately, some 18 years after that infant picture was taken, his dream did not come true.  He wanted to play basketball for the brown-and-gold uniform.  But it was not meant to be.  He would play and star elsewhere.

With Wicks' outlook on life, he wasn't going to let that disappointment tarnish his love for his state or stand in the way of his future.

"God has a way of humbling you," Wick says. "My ego took a hit.  It was tough, but I decided right away to put it behind me and move on."  And he did, with an exceptional athletic and coaching career. 

As good fortune would have it, however, he has become a Cowboy after all.

He is where he belongs and where he wants to be.  "I can't describe how excited I am to be here.  The sheer joy of being a Cowboy is very emotional for me.  This is where I was raised.  I am one of the lucky ones to experience its beauty, to experience its people.  Hell, I'm one of them. So many don't understand what it means to be here in this great place. I do.

"There's so many things to love about it, but there's two special things for me," he continues. "When you are away you forget how the people of this state truly love the Cowboys and Cowgirls.  Our people are so proud of what is accomplished on this campus whether academically, or competitively.  I guess I didn't realize how ingrained it is in the people of Wyoming. That's special.

"Secondly, it's about my family, not only my mom and dad, but my wife Courtene (an outstanding volleyball player as a collegian) and my 15-month-old daughter Grace. I've been 10 places in 20 years, and now it has all aligned for me.  It's my home and I get to coach here.  What could be better?"

Wicks was one of the better athletes ever to come out of Wyoming during his prep days at Campbell County High School.  He lettered in football, basketball and track and field for the Camels.  In 1999 he was the Milward Simpson Athlete of the Year.  He was part of two state basketball championships.  During his senior year the Camels won state championships in football, basketball and track and field.  He was the state 300-meter hurdles champion.  

He was offered a track scholarship by Montana State, as well as football and basketball scholarships to several universities.

But he wanted to play basketball, and Wyoming did not offer him.  

He put that heartache aside fashioned a stellar collegiate basketball career.  He starred at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D., producing a tremendous hoop career with over 1,700 points and nearly 700 rebounds.   He was a two-time All-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference performer in basketball, and also in track in the 400-meter hurdles.

Prior to beginning his career as a basketball coach, he played one season of professional basketball for the Sodertalje Kings in Sweden where he led the team in scoring and rebounding.

Wicks received his degree in international business from Northern, and then earned his master's in health, physical education and coaching from Northern in 2006, because coaching is what he wanted to do.

Why coaching?  "I've always believed that I could make a difference as a coach," he says.  "I love teaching, and motivating.  My 'why' is the kids.  Coaching is a gift, and I want to share it."

While Sundance picked up coaching wherever he's coached during his career—including a successful head coaching stint at Missouri Western (Saint Joseph) -- he credits his mentor and collegiate coach Don Meyer for most of what he's all about as a coach. 

"He was an amazing man.  At Northern he had won more basketball games than any collegiate coach in history, ANY collegiate coach.  Yet, you'd never have known it by talking to him.

"He taught me humility.  His philosophy totally centered on humility.  He always said you never want to be the smartest guy in the room.  He preached three things: always take notes; always pick up trash, and courtesy pays, and discourteous doesn't.  So much of what I'm all about in coaching came from him."

Wicks' enthusiasm and commitment to coaching is easy to see.  Simply put he loves coaching and interaction with student-athletes.

"I try never to underestimate my potential impact as a coach, when done correctly, on young people.  They may not feel that impact until years down the road, but it's there when done properly. I can't tell you how great I feel when a former player calls me years later to say thank you. The student-athlete experience is what we are all about.

"Sure, kids have changed.  But, then, we've all changed.  If you are not willing to change, you will be left behind.  It's adapt or die.  I'm not talking about changing the traditions of collegiate athletics because they are important.  But we have to change, especially as coaches because everything else is changing."  

Wicks has seen the student-athlete change during his coaching experience. "Our young people now have a voice through social media.  This is a generation of kids who have been shaped by social media.  They adapt better, they're smarter. I think they challenge you more because they ask more questions.  We are all adapting to that. We are growing ourselves, and sometimes that growth is uncomfortable.  You have to be transparent with them.  They know what's real and what's fake."

Sundance's best friend, Steve Smiley, actually got him and Wyoming Head Coach Jeff Linder together.  "It is my good fortune to know both men," he says.  "It was ironic, I was at Colorado, so was Jeff.  I was at San Francisco, so was Jeff, but we really didn't cross paths much.  He hired Steve, my college roommate, as an assistant at Northern Colorado, and that's when Jeff and I finally got together.  I believe it would be hard to find a basketball coach who's more locked in than Jeff is.  He's studied the game in a way that very few do.  I've learned so much from him in just this short period of time.  He is an astrophysicist of basketball," Wicks says with a grin.

Wicks is from an impressive family.  He is the eldest of three children of Barb and Mark Wicks.  His sister, Kelsey, is a Dominican Nun teaching at Bishop Machebeuf High SchooI in Denver.  She played basketball at Notre Dame.  His younger brother, Luke, is an assistant coach at the University of Pacific.

I couldn't possibly write about him without asking him how he acquired that wonderful name, and his engaging personality. 

"I was the first born, and my dad wanted to name me after something Wyoming.  There was a ranch called Sundance and of course the town.  My mom wasn't so thrilled at first about it, but after I was born she came around and ended up liking it too.  My dad was a free-flowing, hippieish type of a guy, and my mother was sturdy, and a little bit strict.  I'm a little bit of both of them.  Of the three of us kids I guess I'm the weird one, the wild child.  Kelsey and Luke are normal," he laughs.

"We do have one thing in common, we are all teachers and educators."

What does Sundance think about the Cowboys?  

"The current situation has made it a challenge for all of us.  So, we've been working with our kids on a deeper understanding of the 'why' they are here, and that they are far more than just basketball players.  

"We have four returning players who I believe are meant to be here.  Those four veterans (Hunter Maldonado, Hunter Thompson, Kwane Marble and Kenny Foster) are our foundation.  The new guys look good on paper, but they don't know what they don't know yet. I can tell you we're excited about them!

"I believe we have guys with depth, guys who care about culture, care on and off the court.  With no seniors, this group is going to be together for at least a couple of seasons.  That's unusual, so we have the opportunity to be a very connected team."

Wicks doesn't have a lot of hobbies, although he loves the outdoors, and trout fishing.  He enjoys the wilderness. "I love to hear to the whispering pines," he laughs.  

Then he finishes his thought.

"You know, every morning when I come to work, I see those Snowies (Snowy Range Mountains), and I say 'how can you not feel blessed to be here, and how can you not do everything you can for this place."