Aboard The Purple Bus – It can’t be easy handling a bus with a plywood platform lashed to the roof, but John Burtis said it drives like a dream.
That is, if you don’t mind an occasional dead battery.
“Doggone it,” Burtis, 56, said when The Purple Bus, Douglas County Quarterback Club Alumni’s transportation, conked out Saturday morning at a closed gate outside Invesco Field at Mile High. “Well, at least we’re the first ones here.”
Candy, Burtis’ wife, meandered through the 8-ton hunk of steel, checking on the tailgate party booty – cinnamon and pecan rolls stuffed into two glass pans.
It was typical party food for an atypical party.
“You don’t know how long we’ve been waiting for something like this,” she said. “We’ve come so far in such a short time.”
Their Douglas County High School Huskies, long a football conference doormat from Castle Rock, were facing powerhouse Mullen High School in the Class 5A state championship game.
Mullen is the New York Yankees of high school football: always competitive, a frequent favorite to make it this far every year, a Denver school that has claim to some of the best players in Colorado football history. To top it off, the private religious school is led by a modern-day Midas, Dave Logan, the square-jawed former pro football player who already led two other programs to the promised land.
Douglas County couldn’t have been more overmatched; at least that’s what history would lead you to believe. Football afterthoughts for more than 100 years, the Huskies had never recorded a championship in the sport.
But the history really didn’t matter.
On a day with near-freezing temperatures, and intermittent snow falling early, nearly 350 teenagers, their families and hordes of friends piled into a stadium and paid homage to one another.
For those few hours on that mushy field, it was as if the world had stopped for them.
It was why Matt O’Connor woke up at 3:15 a.m. to board a bus with his band and travel seven hours across nearly impassible roads to see his Grand Junction Tigers lose the 4A championship game to Highland Ranch’s ThunderRidge High School.
“I’m just so happy to finally be here and root on all of these guys,” the 16-year-old said.
It was why Darrell Brown came from Kansas to watch his grandson, standout Mullen running back Phillip Morelli. That boy, his boy, sleeps with a rosary and a football because he wants to be a better player – but more importantly, Morelli’s grandfather says, the teenager wants to be a better person.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my grandson,” Brown said.
It’s why Douglas County’s Cameron White paused in the tunnel before walking onto the stubble-thin grass of Invesco Field, the long shadows finally opening to a blaze of light and a sea of blue seats.
He grabbed his head in disbelief.
“Oh, my God,” the junior wide receiver said. “We’re really here.”
This year marked the first time that high school football championships were played at Invesco. Parents screamed; bands played.
Sue Goebel stood in the concrete concourse at halftime of her son’s game, Grand Junction already down 35-0. She wondered how her son, Jared, would take a loss and how she might have to console him.
“I can say only one thing to him,” she said. “‘I love you.”‘
And maybe that’s why they all were there – 11,500 or so pompom-waving fans pulling for their teams, hearts in their throats the entire time.
That’s certainly how John Burtis, Douglas County’s bus driver, felt in the parking lot in the hours leading to his game.
His stepson graduated last year, but the stepfather and his wife still come to the games. Other former Huskies parents joined them, bought a school bus, painted it in the school colors and became the team’s unofficial mascots.
It’s a badge of honor, Burtis said, to be on the periphery of this team. To cheer the boys, win or lose.
Hot chocolate was poured into paper cups after the bus was restarted and frost began to cover the windows. Chili was warming on the gas stove.
And Burtis stood in his purple creation, smiling the entire time. Later, after his Douglas County team won its unexpected championship, 35-13, the night sky filled with purple fireworks.
“I need to thank the kids,” he said, “for allowing us to come along for this ride.”
Staff writer Robert Sanchez can be reached at 303-820-1282 or rsanchez@denverpost.com.
