LARAMIE, Wyo. (Feb. 12, 2021) – When fans watch the Cowboys in person in the Arena-Auditorium or on television the Brown and Gold faithful can easily notice the energy on the Cowboy bench. The group calls themselves the Juice Squad on game days and goes by the Construction Crew in practice, but nicknames aside this group has played an important role in the Pokes success this season.

The Cowboy Culture that has been created by head coach Jeff Linder and his staff is to win each day. This means you have one day, one hour, one possession and they want to win each of those with hard work and effort. That is done by bringing the juice. What is juice? Well that can be best described as energy and excitement.

"The bench is the most juiceful and useful members of our program," UW assistant coach Sundance Wicks said. "The authentic energy that the bench brings to our team means everything to our players. Momentum is a real thing and our bench brings the best out of our guys. When our players look over to the bench and see them going crazy that is what being a true team is all about. It speaks to the level of commitment our guys have to the culture we are building here."

The Juice Squad on game nights can be see waving towels, dancing and celebrating plays in various fashion. But during the day, they go by the Construction Crew by helping build what the opponent's offense and defense will look like in the game.

The leader of the Juice Squad and the foreman of the Construction Crew is freshman walk-on John Grigsby. A native of Colorado, Grigsby played his senior season at Park Center High School in the suburbs of Minneapolis. He is familiar with Cowboy head coach Jeff Linder, as his brother Roy played under Linder at Northern Colorado.

"As the foreman of the Construction Crew it is Grigsby's job after every game to give his hard hat to the hardest working player," Wicks said. "Grigsby shows up with the most energy, the most effort and most enthusiasm. He has earned that right to hand out the hard hat to his teammates."

The Construction Crew got created after Christmas break. Coach Wicks brought up an idea to help the team build and identity by being hard workers. He handed a hard hat to Grigsby and gave him the honor of handing it out after every game to the player who works the hardest to help the Cowboys win the game. That player doesn't have to be the highest scorer, it goes to the player that does the little things to help the Pokes.

"I was very honored that he gave me that duty," Grigsby said. "I feel that my role on this team is to bring the energy and work hard every single day in practice. It is great to see how much the coaches see how hard I work every day. I want to bring the energy and work hard every day to help us win games. I know I may not get in the game, I have to bring energy in practice and on the bench."

Grigsby was joined at winter break by walk-on Terrin Dickey, a native of Albuquerque, N.M. He fit right in with the energy level. A few days after Dickey's arrival, Utah transfer Brendan Wenzel also joined the group, as he bring experience at the collegiate level to help the Cowboys prepare for conference play. Now with the injuries to sophomores Kenny Foster and Eoin Nelson, the duo can be seen fitting in nicely with the Juice Squad.

"Every game I'm surprised by the energy that the bench brings," Grigsby said. "We have the injured guys joining the group and they are excited and really bring the juice. The team has guys who are bought in and want to see us win basketball games, it is special."

The group has numerous celebrations and pregame rituals on gamedays. But the towel wave maybe the most seen by Cowboy fans.

"I do quite a bit of dancing and yelling in the locker room to get the guys ready," Grigsby said. "Every guy responds to different things, so I do the best I can to engage everyone's style and get them excited anyway I can."

Grigsby has appeared in three games this season with Dickey appearing in one game.

"We want to take care of business and get those guys minutes to reward them for their hard work," Wicks said. "Those guys do nothing but sacrifice for the team. Those are moments we want for our guys to get a taste of all the hard work they put in."

Grigsby appeared in the Air Force contest on Jan. 18 and the roles we revered with the entire Cowboy bench going crazy after his first career field goal attempt.

"It was awesome at Air Force to even to get in for two minutes," Grigsby said. "It was great to see all the guys respond to get me getting into the game, it was great. This whole team wants to see every single person in out locker room succeed."

The Cowboys return to action next Wednesday taking on New Mexico.