LOVELAND
— Troy Beans smiled and lowered his hand, drawing an imaginary line nearly at floor level in his office.
“If I wasn’t fine with being clear down here,” Campion Academy’s athletic director and basketball coach said, “I wouldn’t be here, I’ll tell you that right now.”
Beans, 44, wasn’t referring to his own importance, but the emphasis — or lack thereof — on sports at the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s school.
“Our school is very academic-oriented,” he said. “Sports aren’t at the top of the list by any means.”
Campion’s mission, painted on the outside of the gym on the north side of the campus, is “Experiencing Christ in a Learning Environment.”
It is not “Take State!”
Despite winning their fourth consecutive Northern Front Range League title this season, the Cougars (13-1) won’t be part of the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Class 2A state tournament — though Beans and his players would like that chance.
Instead, they will play in an annual tournament for Seventh-day Adventist schools at Union College in Lincoln, Neb., beginning tonight. They’ll likely roll through the tournament, but it’s not the same as state.
The 101-year-old academy’s strict adherence to the Fourth Commandment — “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” — and the traditional Jewish definition of the Sabbath, means the Cougars can’t play between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday.
That’s only part of the rub, though. Even when CHSAA officials relented a few years ago to allow the Cougars to work with potential district and regional opponents on scheduling, Campion’s faculty refused to allow it.
Beans, part of a four-generation Campion family, and his players respectfully disagree with the policy.
“I think it would be a good opportunity for our team to show who we really are, and be a good ministry for our school and our religion,” starting center Nathan Lorenz said.
Beans’ son, Michael, a senior guard and the team’s leading scorer at 16 points per game, said: “It’s frustrating to know that we could get recognition for the school and the team, and they won’t let us do that. The payoff in sports is a championship, and every team deserves a right to at least have a shot at that.”
The words look harsher in print than they sound in person. This is no campus rebellion.
“I love this school, and I love this atmosphere,” Michael Beans said.
“It’s been a big family for me,” Lorenz said.
The dissent is framed in the context of students recognizing that sports shouldn’t be a major focus of their life. Lorenz, who comes from Gilcrest, yet lives at the school, considers his passion for playing the saxophone and basketball mere adjuncts in his life. And that’s not just typical; it’s the way it has to be.
A majority of the 155 boys and girls in grades 9-12 board in the campus dormitories and work, in janitorial and other roles at the school or in Loveland or Berthoud. To facilitate that, the seniors and sophomores attend school from early morning to noon; the juniors and freshmen from noon to 5 p.m.
It was only in recent years that athletic competition with other Colorado schools was allowed.
The hallways of the school are lined with framed pictures of senior class members; most of the students in those photos didn’t have the opportunity to represent Campion in sports. Troy Beans was a member of the Class of 1982, having played only intramural ball. His father and grandfather also attended the school.
The Cougars joined the CHSAA in 1997. Denver’s Seventh-day Adventist school, Mile High Academy, has sports teams — the boys’ basketball team was drubbed twice by Campion this season — but isn’t a CHSAA member.
“When we joined the CHSAA, CHSAA told us, ‘You have to understand you’re not going to playoffs of any kind,’ ” Beans said. “We accepted that. I thought, maybe down the road, this will change.”
Two years ago he heard that a Jewish school in Denver went to district in volleyball and wondered how that was allowed. He called CHSAA and was told state tournament games were “pretty much set in stone,” but that they were willing to allow the Cougars in the district and regional tournaments in all sports, if opponents cooperated in flexible scheduling.
“My principal took it to a vote of the faculty here and they turned it down,” Beans said. “That’s where we’re stuck.”
Principal John Winslow, at the school since 2005, said there’s no reason to change the school’s stance.
“I think of it in this realm: With all we have here, it’s difficult to extend our season. . . . We want to have good seasons, and then we’re going to our local kind of church playoffs (in Lincoln) and we’re going to call it good.
“Troy is an awesome coach. He teaches them things way beyond the game. I speak highly of him because of those things. We’re just trying to keep a balance.”
So instead of state, the Cougars will settle for their annual trip to Lincoln for the tournament at Union College, the Adventist school Troy Beans attended and his son Michael will attend this fall.
“I’d have to say it’s better than nothing,” Michael Beans said. “It’s fun, but it’s not state.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
Campion Academy
Location: Loveland mailing address, in the old Campion settlement. Go to Johnson’s Corner on Interstate 25, have a world-famous cinnamon roll, and head west on Colorado 60 about 6 miles, about half a mile past the intersection with U.S. 287.
Founded: 1907
Enrollment: 155, grades 9-12
Tuition: $7,500 a year for commuter students, $12,300 for boarding students
