Merino boys basketball’s strengths don’t just lie on the court. No, the Rams boast a number of athletic talents across the board.
Last year, when they stunned Class 1A by playing all the way to the state title game as the No. 7 seed, the boys leaned on their all-encompassing athleticism that derives from the usual small-town feel. Their runner-up accomplishment, following a tough loss to No. 5 McClave in the championship, only fueled their desire to return to that final contest even more.
“For me, it’s more so the work ethic, because all of us are small town kids so we’ve all grown up having to do everything,” senior Deacon Trenkle said. “If you’re an athlete, you’re playing at least two sports, most of the time three so we all have that drive to win. Each school has that tradition so when you get to play against those other teams, it’s super, super special, because it’s not just one-sport athletes, it’s three-sport athletes. You know each other from every sport, so you’ve got rivalries from across the board.”
The squad, which hails from the northeast corner of the state and plays incredibly tough competition each year, knows what it takes to put itself into a position to win. The program boasted seven state championships from 1969 to 1980, and last year’s unexpected run served as a reminder that this team is still relevant 40 years later.
Their Lower Platte league sent two teams to the Class 1A state tournament and two to the Class 2A state tournament last season alone.
“You have a target on your back every night and that starts in practice … so you know that expectation’s got to be higher and higher,” head coach Chase Debus said. “There’s not a deep-breath game on our schedule. We show up in another gym or in our gym, and we know we’re going to see kind of the cream of the crop when it comes to competition.”
Debus, of course, knows what it takes to win a championship, having done it himself three times — once in baseball and twice in basketball — during his heyday at Caliche High School. He believes his Rams, most of whom are returning for the 2022-23 season, will have another strong chance to win their way back to the title game.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that they will be returning two of their top scorers with junior Tyler Miller (11.8 points per game) and junior Kaden Piel (8.7 points per game). If nothing else, they’re regular-season slate will serve as a good litmus test for where this team stands once the postseason rolls around.
“I think the competition in that part of Colorado is pretty special. I think there’s a lot of good competition out there,” Miller said. “I think that we will be pretty successful this year, considering having the two top scorers still back.”