The story of Bishop Machebeuf’s baseball season is not about a coach, it’s about a team.
A team that stood together after its coach was arrested in March for the alleged sexual assault of a female student five years ago. A team that struggled with trust issues, but stayed focused on the goal of playing for a state championship.
“You have a group of nine rock-solid seniors, and that whole senior class, including the parents, knew something was special there,” Bishop Machebeuf dad Rick Machado said. “They just jelled together. All of these people are there, together and supportive.
“Being a community of faith, you have to rely on that for adversity.”
The Buffaloes (21-2) are in the Class 3A championship series state semifinals for the first time in the Catholic school’s history and Friday face powerful Eaton (21-1), which is looking for its fifth consecutive title.
“It’s really a unique bunch of guys we have at Machebeuf,” senior pitcher Greg Schaer said. “No matter what we have going off the field, we all come together on the field.”
Off the field, the team was shocked when Denver police arrested Bishop Machebeuf baseball coach Craig DeBiase five games into the season.
According to the state directory, DeBiase, 43, was the athletic director the past three years and the head baseball coach for 10. He coached the girls basketball team for six years, and won a state title in 2003.
But on March 28 he was arrested on investigation of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust for an alleged relationship he had with a 17-year-old female student in 2000.
DeBiase is scheduled for a preliminary hearing May 26 in Denver County Court.
Assistant coach John Gechter was named interim coach in April and head coach last week as the Buffaloes plowed through the Region 3 tournament. Gechter, an Alameda High School graduate, was an assistant for 10 years under DeBiase, and said the news was a “total shock.”
Gechter said he always has been protective of his players, but even more so since the arrest. Some kids, he said, took the news hard, others seemed unaffected and some continue to struggle with it. But that is washed away every time the team steps on the field.
“We tried to harness it and take it in the positive direction, because it was too easy to let it divide the team and take away from the team,” Gechter said.
On the field, the team has excelled. Schaer, a senior, is 10-1, has an earned run average below 1 and has struck out more than 120 batters. He is one of three 3A players named to the Colorado Rockies Senior Top 40 all-star game scheduled for June 5 at Coors Field.
He splits time on the mound with Jordan Johnson (7-1), throwing to catchers Danny Young and Tyler Hensen. Mike Lopez plays second and David Kathmann, Dan Sheley and Lance Roberts man the outfield. David Machado, Dominic Paolucci and Nick Cafasso are juniors who play regularly.
“These guys are on a mission,” parent Dennis Hensen said. “I’m just proud of this group because it’s an extremely close group.”
