Contributed – After the final buzzer sounds on the Dodgeville Dodgers basketball team’s one point loss to #1 seed Mineral Point in the regional semifinals ending their season, the post-game meeting in the locker room comes to completion and the players exit the locker room to a gym full of family and friends waiting to console and congratulate them on an overall great year. But three players remain seated together in the locker room. No words exchanged, no phones out, just three lifelong friends soaking up the last remaining moments they have, in a silent reflection of the countless hours they have spent playing this sport they love together.
In between Division and Fountain Street in Dodgeville, there’s a small, dead end alley where the back yards of three families meet. The families became very close and the children of those families became affectionately nicknamed “The Alley Cats”. Andrew Hesseling (senior), Elliot Hesseling (junior) and Jayce Halverson (junior) have been a part of each other’s lives since the day Elliot was born, him being the youngest of the 3. A majority of their time was spent in the alley cruising on their little yellow cars, playing in the homemade sandbox with their dinosaurs or in the Halverson driveway playing basketball, another neighbor’s yard playing wiffle ball where they wore the grass into naturally made bases and the Hesseling backyard building and adding to their fort. They would wake up and meet in the alley to figure out the days’ plans which almost always included plenty of time hooping in the driveway. They would play pickup games against friends, siblings and parents and when they were in grade school, they made a basketball workout checklist that they had to perform each day. From the time they could walk until the Hesseling’s moved across town a couple of years ago, they have made endless memories together and created a bond so tight, the story has become worth sharing.
The time spent together in the driveway is evident today when you see them on the court. Their chemistry is especially showcased on fast breaks or broken plays, when it’s clear they instinctively know where the other will be when the pass is coming. The highlight reels are saturated with Halverson to Hesseling, Hesseling to Halverson and Hesseling to Hesseling. Their camaraderie on the court has been built on a 16- year foundation where the neighbors became brothers. Now the Alley Cats sit in the silence of the locker room after their last high school game together. Their silence speaks volumes.
The three will have one more day in the sun and will spend the spring on the baseball field together with hopes of a deep run in the playoffs (hopefully) playing well beyond Andrew’s graduation. After that, Andrew will move on to college and Elliot and Jayce will start their senior year mentoring the last wave of Alley Cats as Jayce’s brother, Ridge, becomes a freshman and younger brother, Teague, starts 8th grade.
This is the story of brotherhood and what growing up together in a small town creates. The work ethic these three young men have put in shows in everything they do and they will forever be lifelong friends, laughing and reminiscing about their childhood stories growing up as an Alley Cat.
