The talk has begun throughout the neighborhoods of the Denver Prep League.
The jokes and teasing, too.
“It’s already started,” said David Carey, who was named head coach of Montbello boys basketball this week.
The son of longtime DPL coach Rudy Carey soon will get to square off against his father, who has surpassed 500 career victories and won six Colorado big-school state titles at Man- ual and East.
“It will just be another game,” the younger Carey said of his Warriors’ first meeting with his dad’s East team in the 2005-06 season. “A lot of outsiders are making it bigger than what it is.
“But it’s really exciting for me. My father and I are joking about it. He tells me I’m playing for second place.”
Said Rudy Carey: “(David) has worked hard and come a long way. He’ll be baptized this year and we’ll see where he’s at.”
The younger Carey, 29, played for his father for three seasons at Manual, then switched to the East Angels in 1993-94 as Rudy Carey took over at East, his alma mater.
David Carey, a point guard who was named all-state by The Denver Post, went on to play at Regis University. His experience incudes a season of student coaching at Regis, then at East as a volunteer assistant. Last season was his first as a paid assistant, and he has helped with various teams in summer play.
His immediate objective is to return Montbello to its glory days of the 1980s and early 1990s.
“They get talent out there,” Rudy Carey said.
His son’s job is to keep it and do something with it.
“I think the kids here really aren’t in touch with the history of the program,” David Carey said. “They need someone who knows what Montbello basketball is all about.”
Included on his first staff are previous city stalwarts Marcus Harris, a former Denver Post All-Colorado player for the Warriors, and John Whiteside, formerly an all-stater at rival George Washington. Former East teammate Brian Howard completes Carey’s assistants.
Carey, a physical education teacher at Denver’s Prep Academy, an alternative school, is eager to begin coaching.
“I’ve already been with the kids and I’m looking forward to the challenge of making it a top program again,” he said.
