A 24-3 season had been a remarkable one and Gibson felt that he and his team were loved by the community and that community stood by them for every minute of those 27 games. In the coming months, however, the Berthoud community turned out to be the one in need.
The least Gibson and his girls could do is lend a hand while still trying to maintain form on the basketball court. The COVID-19 pandemic had started weakening the resources in the area with the local food bank being one of the hardest getting hit.
The Spartans were happy help.
“As we continued on with the situation we’re currently in and seeing how it affected people, we decided to find a way for our girls to help out the community,” Gibson said. “We were lucky enough to play three playoff games at home and the way the community helped and encouraged us, it was just a way for us to say thank you and give back at a time when some of our community members were struggling and hurting.”
The players reached out to the community and asked for item and cash donations to help the food bank recover. They asked with an added incentive. For each item or dollar donated, each player would shoot a free throw. When the donation deadline came, there 850 items or dollars collected by the team.
Meaning the 20 participating girls in the program each shot 850 free throws over the course of a week. It was their way of both supporting those who had supported them while improving their basketball skills at the same time.
Free throws tend to be just free throws, but given the overall situation, the girls felt that shot had added importance given the situation.
“We were giving others food they didn’t have,” junior Breanna Fowler said. “By giving that to other people, we had a connection with them and those free throws meant a lot to us and to those people.”
The players didn’t each shoot 850 in a straight shot. They spaced them out over the course of a week which averaged out to about 170 free throws a day for five days.
After feeling some nerves at first Fowler said she and the girls settled in and completed their task.
“At the end of the week there were over 15,000 free throws shot,” Gibson said. “Over 11,000 were made so we were hovering in the 72 percent range.”
This past season, the varsity team shot 66 percent from the free throw line. When it came to helping their community, they were determined to do better and they did just that.
It was the least they could do to show appreciation for the same people who made sure to support them through the regular season and all through the state tournament.
“We all jumped on it as soon as possible,” Fowler said. “It was a way to give to other people and we thought it was a great idea to do so.”
[dropcap size=big]F[/dropcap]ollowing the fall season in 1921, high school basketball squads began preparing for the upcoming season which was slated to be a special one. It was the first basketball season to be played under the umbrella of the Colorado High School Athletic Conference — or the Colorado High School Activities Association, as it is known today.
There was an aura of confusion and uncertainty surrounding the initial season of organized scholastic football.
The structure of the basketball season as it had previously been played allowed for more certainty and fewer chances out of an outside team claiming the rights to a state champion. After all, four previous unsanctioned championship tournaments had been played with no debate looming over the winners.
So the 1922 boys basketball season, the first season to be sanctioned by a statewide organization, should’ve gone off with little to no controversy.
But that’s not what happened.
A major rule was broken by a dominant team and the ensuing fallout greatly changed the landscape.
This is the story of that season.
• • •
Sanctioning the tournament
Fort Collins Courier | Feb. 17, 1922
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he idea of a state basketball tournament first arose in 1918. After Boulder Prep High School had soundly beaten all of the teams in its area, it craved tougher opponents.
As CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann wrote in Rocky Mountain Basketball, a collection of historical Colorado basketball stories, “Boosters from the University of Colorado rounded up ten teams from across the state for a round-robin tournament.”
Colorado Springs (now Palmer High School) claimed the first three championships, and Greeley won the fourth.
The format was working well in its time, but it was missing something in the way of official recognition. The development of the Colorado High School Athletic Conference in the spring of 1921 brought high schools throughout the state under one athletic umbrella.
Although the format for crowning the state basketball champion was in place, there was still the formality of making the tournament official in the eyes of the new state conference.
Basketball season had already started, but on Feb. 16, 1922, the executive committee of the Colorado High School Athletic Conference gathered on an unseasonably warm, 58-degree day in Colorado Springs.
The purpose of the meeting was to “support the state basketball tournament as conducted by the Boosters club of the University of Colorado,” the Fort Collins Courier the following day.
Getting to the tournament was a relatively simple concept: The winners of six leagues throughout the state would all convene in Boulder, where they would play five games in a matter of three days. At the time, the leagues were the Arkansas Valley, Northern, Northeastern, South Central, Southern, and the Western Slope.
The state championship would be awarded to the team with the best record after those five games.
The executive committee consisted of four divisional representatives that spoke on behalf of the six leagues made up throughout the state.
Professor R.W. Truscott of Loveland High School represented the northern district, which consisted of the northern and northeastern leagues. Truscott had been the temporary president of the Colorado High School Athletic Conference from May-October 1921, was a member of the initial board of control, and later the organization’s commissioner from 1926-48. He also officiated the first football championship game on Nov. 24, 1921.
Rocky Ford’s C.M. Wilson attended the meeting on behalf of the southern district. Professor J.J. Coy out of South Denver was the rep for the central district, and Grand Junction’s J.C. Maley attended for the western district.
Also on the agenda for the meeting was a “remodeling” of the football constitution, which had been first used the previous fall. That issue was to be taken up at the principals conference the following spring.
But the primary objective had been set. The state tournament for the season that had already begun play was now an official event and was to be recognized by the state league.
• • •
The regular season
Pueblo Chieftain | Jan. 5, 1922
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he athletic rivalry between Pueblo Central and Pueblo Centennial was just beginning to heat up heading into the 1922 basketball season.
It had started in 1892 when the two teams met on the football field for the first time. In what is now known as the “Bell Game,” the rivalry between Central and Centennial is nearly as old as American sports as a whole.
Heading into the basketball season in 1922, it was widely believed that the South Central League title would be won by one of these two teams.
Central had advanced to the 1921 tournament. Vernon Cochran, the center and captain for the Wildcats, was the team’s lone selection to the All-State team that year.
Across town, the Centennial Bulldogs were also gearing up to start the year as they, too, played their first game on the road. They traveled to neighboring Canon City, which was in the South Central League along with Central, Centennial, Trinidad and Florence.
In a Chieftain article dated Jan. 5, the team was “rounding into midseason form thru their strenuous workouts under the directions of Coaches Doubenmier and [Williard Stanley] Kettering and the team is confident they will defeat Canon City Friday night in the opening game of the conference schedule.”
Both the Bulldogs and Wildcats entered the year confident that they could be the South Central representative at the state tournament, but it was Centennial proving their dominance as they took the first of two games against its crosstown rival.
The headline of the Jan. 18 Chieftain proclaimed it to be an “exciting basketball game” as Centennial got a 22-17 win. Central’s Hughes led all scorers with eight points while Hatfield Chilson led the Bulldogs with six.
They met again on Feb. 17, with the Bulldogs getting a more decisive 29-14 win to all but lock up the league title. Centennial actually dropped its first game of the year to Canon City but won every game from there on out and led the South Central league in scoring with 331 points. They also held their opponents to just 156 on the year, and finished the regular season 7-1.
It was this level of play that gave the Bulldogs confidence that they were coming back from Boulder with a state championship.
That confidence radiated throughout the city. In a Chieftain article dated March 8, reporter Harry Kletzky identified Colorado Springs as the most formidable foe. Kletzky then pointed out the high level of play that Centennial displayed in a practice game against the Steel Works “Y” team.
“If Centennial plays as good a game as they did when they defeated the Steel Works ‘Y,’ which they will, it will be practically impossible for the Terrors to defeat the South Central champions,” Kletzky wrote.
The Bulldogs took that confidence and boarded a 5:45 a.m. train to Boulder on March 8 to battle for a state title as the South Central champions.
Also set to take part in the inaugural state tournament:
Lamar Register | March 15, 1922
Gunnison, champions of the Western Slope, who had stormed through their conference. On March 1, the Top O’ The World in Gunnison reported on two regular season wins the team had by using this lede: “The week-end rampage of the Gunnison Cowboys over the Western Slope proved disastrous for the villages in that locality.” They cruised through the league tournament with wins over Delta (55-16), Paonia (65-19) and Telluride (51-25), before beating Montrose 33-27 in the finals in front of 1,200 fans on March 4.
Arkansas Valley champion Fowler, which entered its league tournament an impressive 15-0. They beat Holly in the final to win the league.
Southern league champion Colorado Springs, who were widely regarded as the best all-around athletic department in the state, and who had just won the first football championship in the fall.
Northeastern champion Yuma, described as “fine, clean young athletes” by the Wray Rattler on Jan. 12, won its league tournament with a 23-15 win over Holyoke, a 25-24 win over Merino and a 15-9 win over Fort Morgan. Despite winning the tournament, Yuma didn’t have a single player named to the all-conference team.
The final participant was an unidentified Northern champion.
Events were unfolding in the up north that would have significant implications on the state tournament.
• • •
Chaos in the Northern league
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he archives at Greeley Central High School did not paint an optimistic picture of the 1922 season for the Greeley Wildcats.
The unsanctioned 1921 state title had been won by Greeley and the team afterwards played the Wyoming state champions, winning the battle of Rocky Mountain championship teams.
But according to the Greeley Central archives, “All of the members of the team that had won the 1921 state championship and defeated the champions of Wyoming, had been graduated from school.”
The Greeley High School gym in 1921. (Greeley Museums)
Greeley was starting from scratch.
But at the bare minimum, they had a solid example to build off. The 1921 Wildcats had played their way to the final unsanctioned state championship just a year earlier. While the 1922 version of the team was seen as a bit of an underdog, the 1921 Greeley squad ventured to Boulder as the heavy favorite.
The Wildcats knocked off Wheat Ridge in the first game of the 1921 tournament before coming back the next day to beat Pueblo Central and Simla. They then knocked off Fort Morgan and Steamboat Springs to become just the second team to win a state title since the inception of the tournament three years earlier. They also sent three players to the All-State team giving the Wildcats the most representation of any team in the tournament.
The Wildcats were loaded with seniors who would depart the school leaving the basketball program with an inexperienced group of kids coming back the next season.
What Greeley lacked in experience, it made up for with a pool of athletes from which they could pull. Joe Enright had just come off a football season where he had earned a varsity letter, as had Ruel Heck and Sidney Smith.
From a league standpoint, the Wildcats were going to be challenged by Boulder Prep High School, a team that had proven to be dangerous on an annual basis despite not being able to claim a state championship since the inception of the tournament.
The Wildcats had quite the task ahead of them for the year. They were one of four Colorado schools to face off against East Salt Lake out of Utah through the course of the season. A Jan. 25 Courier article says the Wildcats downed the out of state visitors 30-23. East Salt Lake also lost to Colorado Springs on its trip.
Through the course of the season, the Wildcats played a successful brand of basketball and was every bit in contention for the Northern league championship. They had to somehow get through a tough Boulder team, but the hand of fate was about hand Greeley a big assist.
On Jan. 24, the Courier published its first recorded score of a Greeley High game as the Wildcats downed Eaton 33-9. But just a few column inches below this report, the first signs of trouble for Boulder were published.
When the idea of a state basketball championship first arose in Colorado, the city of Boulder was the unofficial hub. As Borgmann documented in Rocky Mountain Basketball, the Boulder Prep High School team had beaten all of its area opponents and needed something more to validate its status as a basketball powerhouse.
That wish was granted and Boulder made it to the championship game before getting beat by Colorado Springs. The Terrors claimed the first three unofficial state titles in 1918, 1919 and 1920 before Boulder’s northern league foe Greeley took the fourth in 1921.
Boulder went into the 1922 season with expectations of winning a state championship. They dominated the Northern conference at the midway point of the season. The league standings were published in the Fort Collins Courier on Feb. 18, noting that Boulder was “the only team to finish the first circle with a perfect percentage.”
The “Preps,” as they were known, were sitting at 5-0 with Greeley right below them at 4-1. The Wildcats dropped a Feb. 14 meeting with Colorado Springs, but that game did not count in the league standings. The Wildcats’ lone league loss was to Boulder.
Boulder sitting at the top of the standings was especially impressive considering the news that had broken less than a month earlier. Team captain Dale Berkhimer had run into some academic issues and was deemed ineligible.
Berkhimer had failed to “pass the required number of hours” according to a story out of the Boulder Camera. But Boulder had powered through and remained undefeated nonetheless.
But the team’s struggles were only beginning. For those that were following the high school basketball contests at the time, it felt like Boulder had a legitimate shot to capture the first sanctioned state basketball title in Colorado history.
Then everything changed on March 2, 1922.
Fort Collins Courier | March 2, 1922
The Fort Collins Courier published a story in its sports section that day that revealed that Robert Will, the “center and premier shooter of the conference” was born on May 4, 1899. The paper cited a birth notice in the Longmont Ledger dated May 5, 1899.
A search of the Ledger archives did in fact confirm that a birth notice was printed announcing that Mr. and Mrs. Burns Will had a son on Thursday, May 4, 1899.
At the time, it was a Northern conference rule that anyone over the age of 21 cannot participate in interscholastic athletic contests. It was also a founding principle and rule of the new statewide athletic conference.
Will was on the verge of turning 23.
Boulder coach Howard Breseford announced Will’s confession of the matter in a telephone message. The Express noted that it was unlikely that any authority at Boulder knew of Will’s age and it was suggested that Will was unaware of the age rule that was in place.
As a result of the discovery, the Greeley Wildcats ultimately became the Northern conference champions, giving them a berth in the state basketball tournament to be held the next week.
But the process in which Greeley actually won the championship is a little murky.
A story in the Fort Collins Courier on March 7 gives very different details of how Boulder was punished for Will’s ineligibility.
Fort Collins coach Geo W. Scott makes the bold claim that “a mistake was made. Boulder should have forfeited each game in which an ineligible man played and should have been willing to have voluntarily made the forfeit.”
The story claims that the Northern league coaches penalized the Boulder Preps only the points that Will had scored during the season.
But the original story in the Courier stated that once authorities at Boulder were made aware of Will’s situation, they contacted the other schools in the league and forfeited the games. The Express even published the adjusted league standings which listed Boulder with an 0-7 record, and Greeley at 9-0.
To further fuel the confusion, the Courier then published an editorial on March 8 that once again stated that Boulder’s only punishment was the invalidation of Will’s points: “The coaches set a bad example Saturday when the Boulder high school basketball team was penalized only the number of points actually scored by Robert Will,” the paper wrote.
Had Boulder not forfeited its games in which Will played, they would’ve maintained a record good enough to win the Northern league title and earn a spot in the state basketball tournament. But it was Greeley, not Boulder, which represented the league — which suggests that the forfeits were indeed made despite the two Courier stories that suggested otherwise.
• • •
The first sanctioned state tournament
The Armory Building at CU. (Carnegie Library for Local History/Museum of Boulder Collection)
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he state basketball tournament of 1922 looked much different than the tournament that is played today. There was no Selection Sunday, no bracket laying out a visual road map to get to a championship venue.
The event was held in the Armory Building at the University of Colorado, a three-story stone building with hardwood floors that had been built in December 1915.
Outside of the northern part of the state, the controversy surrounding Boulder had gone mostly unreported.
The Pueblo Chieftain focused mainly on Centennial’s preparation for the tournament and promoted the support the Bulldogs were getting from the community and even from their rivals over at Pueblo Central.
“Centennial has a good team this year and they have a good chance for the state championship,” Central coach Fred Huling told the paper on March 7. “Nothing would please me more than to hear Centennial win first place in Boulder.”
But the Bulldogs would have their work cut out for them. Greeley, Fowler, Colorado Springs, Yuma and Gunnison were all making their way toward the Armory with the hopes of returning home as champions. From March 9, a Thursday, to March 11, a Saturday, six teams would each play five games for the honor of claiming the first official state basketball championship.
• • •
March 9
Pueblo Chieftain | March 9, 1922
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]he first day of the tournament was the only day in which each team would play just a single game. Getting a win to start the tournament was going to be essential in determining who had a legitimate shot at claiming the championship.
The schedule had been set as Greeley met Gunnison in the first game of the day with Pueblo Centennial and Yuma to follow and Colorado Springs and Fowler slated as the nightcap.
Ernest Ogle got right to work in the opening game of the tournament as he poured in 14 points to give Greeley a 44-21 win over Gunnison, the Western Slope champion.
Pueblo Centennial followed up that performance with an impressive 58-12 game over Yuma. Per the March 10 Chieftain, Withers was a “star” at center for the Bulldogs and scored 24 points, doubling Yuma’s entire scoring effort.
Colorado Springs beat Fowler 36-16 thanks to a 16-point game from Broils. After the first day Greeley, Centennial and Colorado Springs had put themselves in control. The big test would be Friday’s slate of games as Greeley and Colorado Springs would meet, giving the winner of that game a definitive edge.
• • •
March 10
Pueblo Chieftain | March 10, 1922
[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap]ction at the Armory began at 11 a.m. as Gunnison grabbed its first win of the tournament, beating Yuma 44-29.
Centennial then took the floor hoping to move to 2-0, but an unexpected illness made a win over Fowler less of a sure thing than the faithful back in Pueblo were hoping for. Chilson played in the first half of the Bulldogs win over Yuma, but sat the second half of the game.
He had come down with a case of tonsillitis and was trying to battle his way through it, but couldn’t get on the floor at all on Friday. Kettering held out hope that he’d make his return on Saturday.
Enter Johnnie Elbeck.
He took over in Centennial’s first game of the day, a 26-21 win over Fowler. Elbeck totaled 14 points and added 10 in the Bulldogs’ 42-34 win over Gunnison later that day. But his place in history had already been set.
Already a standout baseball player, Elbeck was the first African-American high school basketball player in Pueblo history. He wasn’t even allowed to step on the court at Centennial until Kettering took over as coach.
He played a vital role in Centennial remaining undefeated through the second day of play, but would soon further cement his place in Colorado basketball history.
The 3 p.m. game provided perhaps the biggest shock of the entire tournament as Greeley beat Colorado Springs, the team that was supposed to be the biggest threat to Centennial. The Wildcats got a 33-20 win behind Edward James’ brilliant 25-point performance. It avenged an earlier 38-17 loss to Colorado Springs back in Feburary.
Greeley carried that momentum into the final game of the day, where they topped Fowler 26-10.
Through Friday’s slate of games, Centennial and Greeley were both unbeaten and went to bed knowing they had a 4 p.m. showdown with each other. The stakes, however, had not yet been determined as Centennial had a morning matchup with Colorado Springs. A Centennial win over the Terrors and a Greeley win over Yuma would put the Bulldogs and Wildcats on a championship collision course.
• • •
March 11
Pueblo Chieftain | March 11, 1922
[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]here was still plenty of work to be done for the two unbeaten teams. As daylight broke and the Flatirons became visible across the Boulder landscape, one team was set to leave the University of Colorado with the first sanctioned basketball championship in state history.
Play began at 11 a.m. with Centennial taking on Colorado Springs, a matchup that the Chieftain had hyped a week earlier as a crucial one for the Bulldogs. Had the Terrors beaten Greeley on Friday, the first tilt of the day likely would have been the state championship game, but it was not to be.
As the Chieftain believed, the Bulldogs dispatched Colorado Springs 34-17 to claim their fourth straight win at the state tournament, setting up a likely championship game with Greeley.
All the Wildcats had to do was handle Yuma, the only team entering Saturday without a single win in the tournament. Greeley rolled to a 29-16 win, officially making the 4 p.m. showdown with Pueblo Centennial a true, winner-take-all state championship game.
The big setback for the Bulldogs was the departure of Kettering, who had to return to Pueblo to deal with a family illness. That left Doubenmier in charge. But Centennial also got a bit of good news: Chilson had returned to the floor despite missing both games on Friday.
In the penultimate game of the tournament, the Bulldogs and Wildcats took the floor in what remains one of the greatest championship games of all time.
Greeley opened the game making a fast run and taking the early lead. They went into halftime with a 12-4 lead and had effectively shut down Elbeck, who had been the standout player for the Bulldogs all tournament.
Desperately needing to get back in the game, Centennial greatly improved on both ends of the floor in the second half. They closed out on a 16-8 run as regulation ended with the teams locked in a 20-20 tie, forcing a five-minute overtime period.
Although the game followed the same overtime length and rule that remains in place today, it turned out to be a case of next basket wins.
Ogle, who had been subbed in for James, hit the game-winning shot with under a minute to play in the game, giving the Wildcats a 22-20 win. James led the Wildcats with 10 points and it was Chilson who matched that total to lead Centennial. The Chieftain‘s write-up of the game remarked that the game was exciting and fast-paced.
The Wildcats’ five-game stretch at CU was a major historical landmark on the timeline of Colorado high school basketball.
There are several teams that can point to recent titles or total titles. But Greeley is the only team that can point to the first title which played a major role in launching organized scholastic basketball in the state and advancing it to where it is today.
[dropcap size=big]D[/dropcap]espite winning its fifth game of the tournament and officially claiming the state championship, Greeley had some waiting around to do. There was still a 6 p.m. game between Yuma and Fowler that had to be played before awards were handed out and the All-State team was named.
At the conclusion of the final game — which ended with a Fowler win — Greeley was officially presented with a “silver Loving Cup,” which was the standard trophy to be awarded at sporting events at this time. Joe Enright and Edward James were named to the All-State team for the Wildcats.
James was a unanimous selection as was Elbeck for Centennial. His selection was significant as he became the first African-American player selected to an All-State team in Colorado history. He later served in World War II and was elected to the Great Pueblo Sports Association Hall of Fame in 1984.
Relics from the 1922 championship team can be found in what is now Greeley Central High School. In a recent search for the Loving Cup or any trophy associated with the 1922 title, current Greeley Central athletic director Sean Scribbick discovered that it was misplaced during the 1924 move from the old Greeley High School to the current building.
But the championship banner still hangs in the gym as a constant reminder of the team’s historic run to the title. Unofficially it was the team’s second in a row. Officially it was their first. It wasn’t the last.
Greeley proved to be a basketball powerhouse for the first half of the 20th century as it won a total of nine state titles between 1922 and 1962.
They are tied for third-most titles in Colorado history with Denver Christian. Only Manual and Denver East have more.
The 1922 basketball season stands out in the historic fabric of CHSAA for so many reasons. Although it was the first sanctioned season in state Association history, it provided historical landmarks in regard to both the advancement of social rights and the upholding of the values of the Association.
And it was the conclusion of the tournament on March 11, 1922 that marked a major milestone for Colorado high school basketball.
The values and operations of CHSAA have evolved greatly since the spring of that year, but the very seeds of those values were planted at that time.
The growth of those values has coincided with the growth of basketball in the state to the point where now 10 teams each season get to experience the championship journey that the Greeley basketball team embarked on so long ago.
The 1922 Greeley basketball team. (Greeley Central HS)Pueblo Chieftain | March 12, 1922The 1922 state basketball championship banner, hanging in Greeley Central’s gym.
Hailey Schalk barely had time to scoop the ball out of the cup on the 36th hole of the 2017 Class 3A girls state golf tournament before sky-high expectations were being placed on her by observers.
This freshman girl who couldn’t even drive herself to the golf course was going to become the first golfer in Colorado history to sweep her way through every season and claim four state titles, they said, and become of one the best high school golfers in state history, if not the best ever.
It was a lot of pressure to heap on a young athlete.
Contrary to the instant-reaction world of 2020, the reality is that greatness takes time to rear its head regardless if it’s golf, basketball or any other sport.
Especially if the topic at hand is now a high school senior on the verge of continuing her golf career at the University of Colorado.
To be fair, however, when Schalk won her first title, she did it in convincing fashion at the Broadlands in Broomfield. She shot a 6-under-par-65 on the first day which at the time was her career best. The championship was the end of a season in which she had felt herself gaining momentum well before the start of the state tournament.
“I had been playing really good golf my freshman year,” she said. “I was really confident going into that state championship. There were really good girls there like Charlotte Hillary (Kent Denver) and Caroline and Marie Jordaan (Colorado Academy). They were really good competition of mine for many years.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
The proved to be the case the next year when Caroline Jordaan held the Day 1 lead at Elmwood in Pueblo. Schalk rallied to shoot a 67 in the final round to win title No. 2. She claimed her third title at a one-day state tournament at Pelican Lakes. Although she made winning state look easy, she was well aware of each challenge that each tournament provided.
“I don’t know if it felt easier,” Schalk said. “Going into that second state championship, there was an article saying I was going to win all four. There’s always pressure and that can get the best of you.”
Her shot at an historic fourth title was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s far from the end of her golf journey. Schalk will stay close to home and play golf at the University of Colorado.
And looking beyond that, she has a recent example of just how great girls golfers from her area have the potential to be.
Like many others, she’s paid attention to the heights that Jefferson Academy alum Jennifer Kupcho has soared. A win at the Augusta National Women’s Am and an NCAA title are certainly benchmarks that Schalk can now shoot for.
It helps that from comparisons of their respective high school games, Schalk sees some similarities in how she and Kupcho have both played at that level.
“Exactly what Jennifer said (earlier this month), my short game has never been the best part of my game,” Schalk said. “Driving the golf ball and striking the ball has always been the best part. That’s given me an advantage the last four years. Anytime I can get on the green on a par 5 in two, it was always better than me trying to hit wedge in there.”
Schalk leaves Holy Family with the designation that there was never a state golf tournament that she played in and didn’t win. She handled the pressure of people claiming early in her career that she would win four and is now ready to tackle the game at the collegiate level.
So those reactions to her win freshman year came to fruition: Schalk did become one of the best at this level, if not the best ever.
She will continue remain focused on the task in front her, the very approach that allowed her to have arguably the greatest high school golf career in state history.
But her overall career path has yet to hit its apex. If the flight of that trajectory continues to rocket like a well-struck tee shot, her story is just beginning.
Nic Olney is up for his latest challenge as a football coach. He led St. Mary’s to the playoffs in 2014 then served on staff at Liberty in 2015 before taking the head job at Widefield.
He coached the Gladiators for three years before stepping away. But now he’s found his new home as he’s been hired as the first football coach at Banning Lewis. His new challenge is building a program from the ground up, something he has always wanted to take on.
This challenge, however, is unique. In an uncertain time, he has to navigate his way through a spring and offseason clamped down with limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But he won’t be deterred. He’s using the avenues he can to keep his kids in shape and get them education on how he expects them to play.
The off-field stuff that comes with building a new program?
That’s the part he’s looking most forward to.
[divider]
Question: What was the main appeal in taking on a program coming into its infancy?
Olney: Just that. Starting out, I consulted with a lot of my coaching mentors and buddies and them what would it be like to do this? A lot of them just kept saying the same thing. Go do it. You’re going to do a good job at it. And it’s one of those things where you get to do everything. You get to pick the jerseys, you get to pick the helmets you get to go through and help, everything from, we don’t really have a home stadium, so help make the home stadium work and really just start everything from scratch. So that was definitely the biggest thing for me.
Q: How much motivation do you have to have from beyond just an X’s and O’s football standpoint to really embrace that kind of challenge?
Olney: I have a strong, strong passion for coaching and seeing kids succeed. So I think that the motivation is just naturally there. Anybody that can do what they love and have a passion to do. Seeing kids succeed and coaching high school football, there was no need for the motivation. It was already there.
Q: What did you miss the most about coaching since you had stepped down at Widefield?
Olney: The kids. I stepped out of teaching this year too and it’s hands down the kids. Scoring touchdowns and winning football games are great, but, I missed working with the kids and the relationships that you build with the kids, the parents, the administrators, the other coaches.
Q: You’ve coached both small school football and medium to big sized school football. What challenges that you’ve learned from, from each aspect of that is going to help you not just get this program off the ground, but grow the program into one that you were hoping is going to be successful?
Olney: I think with being a smaller school, it causes for a lot less kids, which usually causes a lot less problems on and off the field. But the biggest thing is if you’re at a Widefield, you know, anytime you face a Pine Creek, you’re going to see 15 different formations and three different types of defenses. Whereas at the 1A level where we’re starting out, I don’t plan on seeing that. I’m thinking that things are going to be a lot less complex. A Cover-3 teams is going to run a Cover-3 most of the game. They might trick us up here a little bit and run some Cover-2. But for the most part, you know, what you see is what you get.
Q: This isn’t an ideal time to take a new job as a football coach…
Olney: Yeah, definitely.
Q: What are the challenges you’re seeing given the current global situation and how are you navigating yourself through all that?
Olney: Well, you’re exactly right. I didn’t really think of it until now, but the biggest issue is hands down, not being able to work with the kids. Football is truly a year-round sport, no matter what level that you’re at. And not being able to work with the kids and see the kids right now is definitely a killer. Not being able to get in the weight room, but the main thing is not being able to install our culture, which we want to build there, and all the offseason stuff just as well as introducing the offense and introducing the defense and what kind of special teams we’re going to run.
Up until CHSAA sent out that email recently, I was really just sitting around twiddling my thumbs when it comes to it because it couldn’t have contact with the kids. We couldn’t be in the building or anything. So I haven’t been able to do a whole lot to be honest with you. So that kind of puts us way behind the 8-ball for sure.
Q: Are you able to get on and video conference with the kids and give them some general workout ideas, film to study, anything that can potentially keep them as much up to date as you can with the limitations?
Olney: I was able to get with the kids for about two and a half weeks after I got hired on, before we got put on hold. I left them with a couple of things. We need to make sure that we’re staying active and working out as best we can because at that point we didn’t know that we couldn’t get into weight rooms either. The kids that have been working out with us that weren’t engaging in spring sports, and even those that were, we gave them their offseason workouts. I’m lucky to have a great strength coach on staff and we left them with that. As far as the Zoom meetings, we’re going to start the Zoom meetings next week, the week of May 11th, to start, introducing what we’re going to run on offense and defense and so on.
Q: How much of this Banning Lewis football team is going to have the Nic Olney stamp or are you approaching this build as identifying things program on establishing an identity for Banning Lewis?
Olney: This is definitely going to be an us thing. I’m definitely a transformational coach, I like to get a lot of players involved in this stuff. That’s what’s cool about this. What’s been cool about starting a brand new program is nothing’s in place. There’s are traditions. There’s no specific way that we warm up or anything like that. So being able to start everything from scratch and establish traditions and how we do things is definitely going to be a big thing. Letting the kids decide what we do. It’s my job to guide and be the role model and be the leader. But at the same time, I let the kids decide what we’re going to do.
Shelby Hoffman fully admits that she’s more of a basketball player than a volleyball player. But the key to her success on the court — any court — is a competitive drive that’s motivated by the success of her team.
But sometimes that can have a side effect that plays into the favor of the athlete. A junior this last season, Hoffman typically played as a hitter but coach Kelley Hale saw a glaring hole at the libero position and moved her to fill that gap.
Needless to say it worked out. The Falcons finished the year at 24-8 and Hoffman made her way into the newly updated CHSAA volleyball record book by recording 895 digs in the season. It puts her at the very top of that category.
“If I’m going to play a sport, I’m going to give it my all,” Hoffman said. “Coach put me at libero this year for the very first time. I didn’t know what to think about it at first, but it was kind of fun and digging was really fun.”
Hoffman wasn’t the only volleyball player to set a record in the fall of 2019. Palmer Ridge freshman Kyra Kisting ended the year with 1,223 assists to top that category and Castle View senior Leanne Lowry set a career mark with 2,177 digs.
What will tie these three players together is that the records they set were about setting up others for success. And they were never doing with the mindset of getting their names atop a list of record holders.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“I knew I was close (to the record),” Lowry said. “But it was never really something that I had on my mind the entire time.”
She played and battled for every dig like it was her mission to reach that mark, however. In just the Sabercats’ fifth match of the year, she had a season-high 32 digs in a five-set win over Palmer Ridge.
She averaged 5.7 digs per set as a senior and kept her play at a consistent level which proved to be a key factor in setting that career record.
“It just shows that everyone is really focus on who hits the ball, which is a very important aspect,” Lowry said. “It’s really cool to show people how important libero and defense is. For me that was really cool.”
And often times, the direct pass to setup a thrilling kill can get overlooked. But Palmer Ridge’s Kisting thrived on making sure she the ball set up for the right hitter at the right time.
Her first year in the program resulted with her seeing significant varsity time and proved essential in the Bears’ run to the Class 4A state title match against rival Lewis-Palmer. She also ended the season with more assists in a single season than anyone else in Colorado history.
“I was really blessed with an amazing back row that started every play,” Kisting said. “I also had such a variety of hitters that I knew I could go anybody. And they were all so welcoming to me.”
With plenty of volleyball still to play in her career, Kisting plans on using a season record to motivate her to improving as an overall volleyball player.
“It’s really been pushing me to get better,” Kisting said. “Now my goals are becoming a better athlete and a better teammate. I feel like this is all making me better.”
(Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics Communications)
It wasn’t long ago that Jennifer Kupcho wasa going through a list of her proudest accomplishments with her swing coach. The Jefferson Academy alum has quite the list to get through as she has won championships at several levels of her career.
She won an NCAA championship at Wake Forest in 2018. In 2019 she made history by winning the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, the first organized women’s tournament to be held at the annual site of the Master’s.
As she went through her list, her coach, Ed Oldham, acknowledged that her high school state championships were every bit as important in her journey.
High school golf for Kupcho is where she started to gain momentum toward becoming the nation’s top-ranked amateur and a star in the making on the LPGA Tour.
“He told me that it was the big stepping point in getting to the national level and moving on to where I could compete in college,” Kupcho said. “I never really thought about it that way, but it’s definitely true right now.”
It was the first of many stepping stones Kupcho used to evolve into the elite player she is today. The first title came on May 20, 2014 at the Country Club of Colorado. She navigated her way around the Pete Dye design and overcame a tricky set of greens to finish the tournament at 2-over-par.
She won the tournament by 14 strokes.
(Courtesy of Mike Kupcho)
She made her way to River Valley Ranch in Carbondale the next year to defend her championship. By then she knew she was headed to Wake Forest to play for the Demon Deacons and looked every bit the part of a Division I golfer.
On the par-5 second hole, her drive landed in the middle of the fairway and she casually stepped up and knocked it on the green in two shots to give herself an eagle put. It seemed ordinary at the time, but looking back Kupcho knows that the biggest flaw in her game at that time made it crucial for her to get to the green as efficiently as possible.
“I was much more aggressive player then,” she said. “I was always going for greens and trying to make each shot as short as possible because my wedges weren’t that good and my overall short game wasn’t that good. So when I went for greens and I missed it, it was not a good combo.”
She claimed her second title with a 10-stroke win over Cheyenne Mountain’s Kylee Sullivan and tied a bow on a remarkable high school career.
(Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics Communications)
She continued making a name for herself at the collegiate level and battled her way to the individual NCAA championship in 2018.
It was an additional stepping stone on the path that had been laid out to her by Oldham. It was clear in high school that she had conquered girls golf in Colorado and now the focus started getting a little wider.
“I remember him saying to me at a young age, you’re the best in Colorado, now let’s get to the best in the country,” she said.
She worked her way up to become the top-ranked amateur in the United States.
“Once I got to the best in the country, now let’s get to the best in the world,” she added.
All indications are she’s on her way. Kupcho made perhaps her biggest historical impact last year as she claimed the first Augusta National Women’s Amateur championship.
Augusta National was long known for not allowing women to become members. That policy ended in 2012 when the club admitted Condoleezza Rice and Darla Moore as its first female members.
The founding of the ANWA was intended to fuel the growth of women’s golf. The first 36 holes of the tournament were played at the Champions Retreat Golf Club in Evans, Georgia with the final 18 holes being contested between the top two players on the leaderboard. The two were Kuchpo and Arkansas’ Maria Fassi.
Kupcho shot five-under over the final six holes of the tournament to get the four-stroke win, forever placing her name in golf history.
“I’m starting to understand it more than I did,” Kupcho said. “Fast-forward a year, the week it was supposed to happen I was getting a bunch of media requests and I told my agent I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal, it happened a year ago.”
Her agent had to remind her that she had literally made history.
“Going through that week and reliving the day over after they replayed the event (on TV), it definitely sunk in a little bit more,” Kupcho said.
The next step was turning pro. She had earned her LPGA Tour card in November 2018, but delayed actually turning pro until she finished college. She made her professional debut at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open.
She later made her way to France to compete in the 2019 Evian Championship which plays as a major on the LPGA Tour. In the final round of the tournament she carded a five-under-par-66 to finish in a three-way tie for second. At 13-under on the tournament, she finished two strokes behind champion Ko Jin-young out of South Korea.
But the second-place finish was just another sign of her growth as a golfer. It started when she was young, it continued when she won state championships at Jefferson Academy and hasn’t slowed down one bit.
(Photo courtesy of Wake Forest Athletics Communications)
(Photo courtesy of Doug Ottewill/Mile High Sports Magazine)
For 16 years, Kyle Sand stood in a class all by himself. A standout wrestler for Arvada West, Sand went through his entire high school wrestling career without suffering a single loss.
It goes without saying that he claimed four state titles in that span. After high school he wrestled at Adams State University in Alamosa and later became an assistant coach. His coaching career now continues at the level he shined the brightest as he has been named as the new head coach at Grand Junction High School.
In his time as an assistant at Adams, he quickly realized that his work as a coach has far outweighed his accomplishments as a wrestler and he’s excited to keep that work moving forward.
“I have more pride in my coaching accolades than I do my actual wrestling accolades,” Sand said. “I coached a national champion at Adams State and that’s what I would call one of my proudest moments in my coaching and wrestling overall career. It’s more of a selfless act.”
That mentality right there is what makes Sand a perfect fit at the high school level. He can think back to the early 2000’s when he was looking to become the first Colorado wrestler to go undefeated all four years.
All these years later, he can still remember how crucial his high school coaches were to the process.
“They were very significant,” he said. “They mentored me through, mentally, trying to help me with the pressures of that. They helped with preparation and the process. Focusing on the process helped me deal with a lot of the mental pressures as well. I always relied on them for advice and direction.”
His parents taught him at a young age that the most rewarding acts are the selfless ones and he feels that’s a big reason he took so easily to coaching.
Remembering the impact his coaches had on him and combining it with his folks’ message that service is rewarding, he can’t wait to begin impacting these kids through a sport that has become such a big part of his life.
And the opportunity to do it at Grand Junction made the opportunity so much better for him.
“They have a rich tradition already,” Sand said. “Obviously a head coaching position appealed to me. I knew one day being able to run my own program would be very appealing.”
And it gives him the opportunity to dive back into a world where he became a household name with his fourth state championship win. He became the first Colorado wrestler to finish career undefeated, going wire to wire from 2001 to 2004. He was the only one to hold that distinction until this last February when Windsor’s Dominick Serrano matched the accomplishment.
Sand wasn’t able to be at Pepsi Center to witness Serrano’s historic win, but kept track from afar.
“I was following it,” Sand said. “I usually try and get down there and it would’ve been great to see the young man accomplish what he did. I’m proud of him. I can’t say anything but good things about him.”
Since he last had his hand raised as a Colorado high school wrestler, Sand has learned the value of passing experience and knowledge to future generations of wrestlers. He now has the chance to do that as the lead guy for the Grand Junction Tigers.
Like Arvada West was in the early 2000’s, Grand Junction &mash; already one of the top programs in the state — figures to be even better with Sand involved.
Shannel Swiader, a senior at Highlands Ranch High School, is the president of CHSAA’s student leadership state representatives. We caught up with her this week to get her thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic from a student leadership perspective.
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Question: We hope you are staying safe during this public health emergency. How are you doing?
Shannel Swiader: I’m doing well. I am missing school and interacting with my peers, but enjoying this time with my family and my pets, especially before heading off to college.
Q: What do you miss the most about the “normal” day-to-day of the school week?
Swiader: I miss seeing all of my fellow Falcons. Connecting with people, whether that’s peers, teachers, or administration, on a day-to-day basis was always really fulfilling. I’m glad we live in an age where technology allows us some connection, but it’s just not the same.
Q: How are you staying connected to your school community?
Swiader: My student council and I have been doing weekly Zoom calls and been talking a lot over our group message on GroupMe. We are planning a virtual spirit week to unite our student body and give somewhat a feeling of normalcy.
Social media has been an awesome tool when it came to communicating out information about free meals for those needing them, and technology distributions at the beginning of online learning. Using things like Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter has been efficient.
Q: What are you seeing from schools and students across the state to help their communities?
Swiader: I’ve seen a lot of virtual spirit weeks. These include days like “Bring Your Pet to School” or “Fancy Day.” Typically student councils have had their students take pictures of themselves dressed up, and then repost their pictures.
Douglas County High School awarded free food delivery for the student with the best picture or outfit each day.
Rangeview High School did a mental health week. They encouraged students to take care of themselves by participating in activities like painting, cooking something they’ve never made, or enjoying the outdoors (safely, of course).
Mountain Vista High School ordered signs for all of their seniors with the hashtag #we’reallinthistogether for them to post in their yard. They also ordered a bunch of yard signs for students of all grades to grab to help unite their community.
Many schools are making sure their student body is staying connected and doing okay in their own ways.
Q: If you could share one message with your fellow seniors, what would it be?
Swiader: I would tell the other seniors that this situation isn’t all bad. Many of us are going off to college, starting a full-time job, or going into the armed forces in a few months. We have been given some extra time to slow down our crazy lives and spend time with our families and pets before we have to leave.
Also, this online learning format is very similar to what many of us will experience in college. We will have this kind of independence, and this experience lets us establish that work ethic early so we are ready to go in the fall.
I’ve been applying for tons of last-minute scholarships with my extra time as well and I’d encourage others to do the same. Get as much as you can so you won’t have to pay it off later!
Don’t get me wrong, it stinks we don’t get our senior proms and our graduations will look a little different, but high school isn’t all about the last quarter.
I encourage them to reflect on their last four years, take time to thank those who have helped them get to where they are, and stay grateful for the amazing times we did get to have.
Q: If you could share a message with other student leaders, what would it be?
Swiader: I would tell other student leaders to bear down right now. This is a weird time, but it’s a time to thrive. Your communities need you right now more than ever. It is important to stay connected, be creative, and check on your classmates and teachers.
It’s easy to be a leader when everything is laid out for you, but you can shine when times are uncertain. Take advantage of this opportunity.
Q: What are you looking forward to doing most when we start to get back to some level of normalcy?
Swiader: I can’t wait to connect with my friends. I’ve been doing a lot of Zoom calls and Netflix parties, but it’s just not the same as in-person contact. I’m glad I do get to see their faces, though, even if it’s just through a screen.
Q: What have you learned most about leadership in the last couple of months?
Swiader: I’ve learned it’s really important to stay positive in difficult situations. When you have a good attitude, people around you and people you talk to are more likely to shift their perspective on things. A positive attitude helps in every situation. It’s also a lot easier to get things done when you and those you’re working with have good attitudes. No matter what is happening, there is always something to be positive about.
The CHSAA office has found a few frequent topics when answering questions about the COVID-19 pandemic and the spring season.
So, we created a page dedicated to the latest information about the Coronavirus and included a list of Frequently Asked Questions. That page is here, and will be updated with the latest information, should updates be needed.
Commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green answered these frequent questions, and we are also publishing them below.
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Why hasn’t the Commissioner made the decision to cancel spring sports?
We understand how extremely tough this is for our activity and athletic participants, especially graduating seniors, coaches and their school communities. We continue to extend dates aligned with restrictions, mandates and recommendations from state and health officials.
There are many factors that would need to be considered after the most recent extension of suspending spring sports to April 30. The primary factor in a decision like that will be a guarantee to our Association that activities can be conducted statewide without jeopardizing the safety of not only our students but our officials, coaches, staffs, volunteers and spectators. We are not confident that an assurance like that will be forthcoming after the 30th.
Our country and our state continue to adjust as they work to find answers and mitigate the spread of the virus. We don’t want to give false hope. Resuming spring activities and athletics statewide due to safety concerns does not appear promising.
May students have contact with coaches during this time?
We strongly encourage virtual contact by coaches and administrators to check on the well-being of their students as well as to upload workouts, but we have not permitted voluntary team workouts, rehearsals, or tryouts due to the direct or indirect implications of a mandatory participation by the students.
We need to be focused on our “Why”, which is ensuring that our students are navigating this disruption without pressure.
Some school districts have closed. How does that affect the spring season?
State, health and educational mandates and recommendations will take precedence in discussions leading to April 30. The cancellation of in-building instruction and athletics, as well as the closure of many HS and collegiate facilities will definitely be considered.
Will the summer be a consideration for the spring season?
If statewide spring activities and athletics are cancelled, we would not conduct a summer season outside of the educational construct. If the spring season is cancelled and once the defined school year ends, no events would be conducted.
This is not about creativity or an unwillingness to think outside the box. Our staff does that very well when inclement weather or facility availability disrupts an event.
This is a statewide health emergency and a statewide safety situation, and as a result a potential cancellation would end of the season.
Can students and/or coaches have access to school facilities during the moratorium?
No, per the Governor’s executive order all school facilities must remain closed through April 30.
Tate Bessire learned at an early age that if he wanted to be great at basketball, he had no excuse to not reach the level of greatness he was aiming for.
It was a tough lesson and one that he learned because life dealt a bad hand to his older brother. But Ky, a 2015 graduate at Resurrection Christian, never sat around and complained. He merely got to work.
Ky was born with clubfoot, a rare birth defect in which one leg is twisted out of shape or position. There are less than 200,000 cases of clubfoot diagnosed in the United States annually. But one of those cases was Tate’s older brother.
“It was really tough for him,” Tate said. “He went through a lot of surgeries but he always had that drive to stay after practice and become the best player he could be.”
Ky played basketball despite being born with a physical defect that would logically make the game difficult. But he loved it too much.
Ky’s work ethic is where the seeds of Tate’s selection as the 2019-20 Class 2A boys basketball Player of the Year were planted. As Tate grew up and saw the effort that Ky was giving to become the best player possible, he knew he wouldn’t allow himself to give anything less.
“I’ve always looked up to him ever since I saw what kind of a hard worker he was for the game,” Tate said. “I always talk to him and tell him that if he didn’t have clubfoot, he could be a top player in the country just because of how hard he works.”
Tate had no problem trying to carry that mantle for the both of them. In his senior season, he averaged 22.8 points, 6.2 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 5.1 steals per game.
“He absolutely fills up the stat box and puts in the work,” Huskies coach Pete Freeman said. “As a coach you can teach a lot of stuff but you can’t teach the court vision he has. The way he sees the court in unreal.”
The Huskies play an aggressive style of defense that accounts for many of Tate’s steals and assists. But the key to the full-court press that Freeman has installed is that it’s all based on instinct rather than making sure certain players are at certain spots as their opponents bring the ball up the floor.
“A lot of it is anticipation and making the right reads,” Freeman said. “All of our traps are based on reads so we’re not calling them out and they’re not in a system. They go when they want to go.”
And Tate loves it. For as long as he can remember, he’s been playing in defensive systems that utilize a full-court press. He’s found in his basketball career that disrupting things on the defensive side of the ball will translate to a strong offensive attack.
He doesn’t believe that his defensive and offensive abilities would exist without each other.
“I’ve always had to prove that I can do more than just score and pass,” Tate said. “I can get boards and a lot of my talent comes from the defensive side.”
He has evolved into a complete basketball player, which was always the plan in his mind. He’ll look back at his senior season and always be grateful for being able to battle with his teammates. Among those teammates is his younger brother, Jase.
Jase appears to be following the same path as he averaged 19 points, 4.6 assists, 6.1 rebounds and five steals per game this season.
Apparently it’s a family thing.
Both Bessire boys were a vital part of the Huskies 24-1 record this season and are hoping to play beyond high school.
If there’s one thing that’s almost guaranteed about their basketball future, it’s that their drive and work ethic will never go away. It can’t. The reminder of how their older brother worked as a basketball player built the foundation of how these boys approach basketball and life.
