Sports Teach It, The Military Demands It
Alex Semadeni
Teryn Gardner always knew what her dad did was cool. She just didn’t know how cool.
Growing up, she knew her father, Larry, was a pilot with the Montana Air National Guard. She knew he would fly F-16s, jets that can reach up to 1,500 mph. She had met famed soccer player Abby Wambach through her dad, who joined him on a flight. She had heard stories of trips he had flown all-around the world, including an instance where he was intercepted by a Russian fighter jet.
“I don't think I realized how big of a deal my dad was until probably high school,” Teryn said. “As a kid I knew my dad flew planes. Now I’m like, ‘dude, you flew fighter jets.’ That’s like the biggest flex ever. People ask me what my dad does and I’ll ask if they’ve seen ‘Top Gun.’ He did that.”
Her father was her role model. The youngest of four, Teryn grew up watching her older siblings in the variety of sports they played, while their parents served as coaches. Their mother, Kelli, was a former collegiate women’s basketball player at Carroll College, and helped out with basketball. While serving his country, Larry covered a variety of sports in his youth coaching career, including baseball, football and Teryn’s favorite – soccer.
As her rec league soccer coach, Larry spent time on the internet ahead of practice looking up a variety of drills for the team to partake in.
“He was always looking up YouTube videos on what drills to do,” Teryn said. “He just put so much time into it. It was a rec league, and he was still looking up film and figuring out ways to get better. He was a great coach.”
The coaching paid off – as all four Gardner children ended up playing collegiate sports. But more importantly, they were instilled with the life lessons sports inevitably teaches while admiring from afar the similar characteristics that came from their father's 30+ years of military experience.
JOKER
Like the four kids he eventually raised, Larry was all about sports as a kid. Growing up in Great Falls, Montana, he played everything possible, but was particularly keen to baseball, football and basketball.
A multisport athlete at Charles M. Russell High School in Great Falls, he initially wanted to play baseball in college, but realized if he wanted to stay in his home state, football was the better route. He ended up playing football 90 miles down I-15 at Carroll College, competing in all four seasons for the Fighting Saints.
“It was fun,” Larry said. “I got to play the whole time I was there and we had a good team.”
Though he grew up in a military family, Larry hadn’t given much thought to enlisting. His father was a Vietnam vet and his grandfather was a World War II vet, while his stepfather Roger was in the Air National Guard for 36 years.
Between his sophomore and junior season, he made the unique decision to go to boot camp for the Air National Guard. His stepfather, Roger, had been in the Guard for 36 years. Though he hadn’t given it much thought before, there were many aspects that appealed to him.
“Even when I grew up around it, I didn't really know a lot about it,” Larry said. “It just hit me that I could serve my state and nation, but I could also have a career and go to school. I figured I could use some extra money and job experience, and it sounded pretty appealing. It was just a great career. It was the best decision I could have ever had.”
Once out of college, his initial plan was to join the Montana Air National Guard for six years. But in the late 1990s, the opportunity of a lifetime arrived. He began the process to become an F-16 pilot, overcoming a rigorous application process of over 200 applicants.
After getting selected, he was off to pilot training.
“They always say that if you have three bad days at pilot training then you’re done, so you have to do well and keep progressing,” Larry said. “By the time you get home, it’s been like two and a half years of grueling pilot training. It’s very fast-paced. It’s challenging and it’s a lot of hard work, but it’s hard to describe how much fun it is.”
Though known by all as a glass-half-full guy, there were certainly challenges. Training required long stretches of time being away from his wife and young family and required not only rigorous coursework, but an expectation of being in great shape.
“It's the best job in the world, the best office in the world, to fly a single-seat fighter. It was awesome. Once I did that, it was just off to the races.”Larry Gardner
However, blessed with a desire to persevere and a plethora of life lessons learned through sports, Larry made it through.
“It's an extremely challenging job, which college sports helps prepare you for,” Larry said. “It's not just a cliché. It’s team-oriented, and there are a ton of demands and responsibilities that you have to balance.
Through his career in The Guard, Gardner has served, among other roles, as an engineer, a fighter pilot, a mobility pilot, a squadron commander and a maintenance commander.
“We always called it selfless service, because you truly are giving to a neighbor and a nation,” Larry said. “For me, sports and the military were always one and the same. When I was flying fighters, you're doing that in a team framework. In the fighter world, you’re an individual fighter jet, but you're out there with up to eight other jets or whatever. There’s a team goal, a mission. That team framework is always there. So from that standpoint, sports and flying goes hand in hand. The lessons are there. The commitment, the selflessness, the working together and by the way, still being aggressive, being driven. You can’t just sit back. You’ve got to work and challenge yourself. It’s the same thing in sports.”
HIGH SCHOOL DOMINANCE
With that mentality in mind, it’s no surprise that all four Gardner children ended up playing collegiate sports. Teryn's older sister, Addison, played basketball at Montana State Billings, while her two brothers played for Carroll – her oldest brother, Kaden played football (and is currently working toward a master’s degree at Boise State) while her other brother, Brycen, is on the track and field team.
“Certainly the way my wife and I raised our kids, we were 100% about sports,” Larry said. “It was a lot of fun. “We also just loved sports. We loved the competition, and we knew it would be good for the kids. They naturally gravitated towards all their individual sports.”
Larry coached several youth teams, including the Teryn’s rec league soccer teams. The YouTube talking heads must have known something, because she became a heck of a soccer player.
After moving to Spokane, Washington the summer before eighth grade, Gardner began to blossom on the pitch. A product of Mead High School, she developed all-state and all-conference recognition by the time she ended her high school career.
However much she excelled on the soccer field, basketball was her passion.
“Kelli was the basketball coach,” Larry said. “So Teryn is a credit to her, her skillset and all. One hundred percent.”
Teryn was a superstar at Mead (which is coincidentally where Boise State women’s basketball assistant coach Heather Sower won a state championship in 1990), leading the Panthers to three consecutive top-five finishes at the WIAA Class 3A Championships, including a runner-up finish as a senior. She was named to the Washington All-Classification, All-State team twice, earned the SB Live’s WaFd Bank’s Washington 3A/4A Senior Girls Athlete of the Year and was named the Greater Spokane League MVP. She garnered all-conference nominations in all four seasons and finished her career with 1,568 points.
Her play impressed the Bronco coaching staff, who aggressively recruited her. The staff was impressed with her excellence in multiple sports and the fact that she was her class valedictorian.
“I'm not super flashy and showy,” Teryn said. “I’m a more consistent player. So in the recruiting process, it took a little bit longer for coaches to get to know me and my game. That’s what the coaching staff here did. They liked that I played multiple sports and took that into account in recruiting me. They just really took the time to get to know me as a person because at the end of the day, basketball is just a sport. It’s going to matter more how you are as a person and how you're doing as a person. That’s something that this coaching staff really cares about. That's what ultimately drew me here.”
???????????? ?? @TerynGardner24 is a Boise State Bronco ??#BleedBlue | #WhatsNext pic.twitter.com/J4XW8WLtLO
— Boise State Women’s Basketball (@BroncoSportsWBB) November 8, 2023
LIFE LESSONS
Gardner arrived on the Boise State campus in the summer, spending a month in the gym with the Bronco squad. She spent a lot of the time learning the ins and outs of the program – the offense, the plays, the unwritten rules of the team culture, the difference in collegiate rules – all while adjusting to life away from home.
“I'm definitely enjoying it,” Teryn said. “There's obviously been some struggle with the adjustment to this level. I'm still trying to find my place and adjust to the quicker speed of play and playing with new people. I’m keeping my head up and being strong mentally. It helps having a good coaching staff that knows when to get on you, but also knows when to pick you up.”
During the adjustment period, she has leaned on her parents immensely. All three of her siblings – and both of her parents – know the struggle of the freshman-year adjustment.
“I think the mental aspect of it is the hardest part,” Teryn said. “I'm going to have good days. There's going to be bad days, but you just have to push through it. No matter if you're making all the shots or if you're missing them, you just have to be mentally tough."
Through the adjustment period, Teryn has been in constant contact with her parents, who keep a similar messaging.
“Sports just teaches you so much,” Larry said. “There’s so much to learn about how your individual effort can help the team. I was always taught to be selfless and give yourself to others. Having a commitment and a responsibility toward others and yourself is important, and we tried to raise our kids that way.”
“It's the team framework,” Larry said. “It's the giving of oneself. It's not cliché. You're truly doing that, and you do that in sports. You're being asked a lot of yourself, and giving to a greater good, a greater need. And it's just neat. Sports teaches you that. The military demands that. They're many parallels.”
Her family has visited multiple times already in the fall, and was present over the weekend as Teryn made her debut in the Blue and Orange.
“One thing about Boise State that I really love, is that when I meet Boise State fans, I haven’t met a single person that doesn’t love their alma mater,” Larry said. “They love Boise State and it’s genuine. For me, that’s pretty reassuring to hear as a parent and now we get to be surrogates. We’re not alums but we get to be a part of it. I love the campus. I love Coach P and this program. There’s a lot in front of Teryn but I’m excited to get to be a part of it. We bleed blue now which is pretty cool.”
Had a couple players knock down their ?????????? ???????????????? basket in the Blue & Orange! ??#BleedBlue | #WhatsNext pic.twitter.com/9CjFrJPDTU
— Boise State Women’s Basketball (@BroncoSportsWBB) November 6, 2024
For Teryn, she’s just excited to make her mark on a talented team. The Broncos return 92.9% of their scoring (the third-most in the country) from a team that finished 21-14, advanced to the semifinal round of the Mountain West Tournament, and qualified for the Women's National Invitational Tournament. Despite the talent on the roster, Gardner is expected to be a key part of the team's rotation.
In her first time wearing the Blue and Orange in an exhibition contest against Bushnell on Nov. 2, the freshman guard led the team in scoring with 15 points.
“I'm super excited because I have high expectations for myself, but also this team can be really good and we can do big things,” Teryn said. “I'm just excited to see where it takes us and what we can do. The team is very senior heavy and upperclassmen heavy. They've all been very inclusive. We have high expectations and high goals for this year and we're looking to make things happen.”
Boise State will host Colorado, a team receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll, on Sunday, Nov. 10 at 2 p.m. Fans can purchase tickets online at BroncoSports.com.
???????????? ???????????? does it again! ??
— Boise State Women’s Basketball (@BroncoSportsWBB) November 6, 2024
Let's keep the momentum going! Get your season tickets TODAY before this Sunday's big matchup against Colorado!
??? - https://t.co/WQCua2DxxU#BleedBlue | #WhatsNext pic.twitter.com/NgWEi0AynH