How the West was won sounds like a long time ago. And it is, for a certain side of the city’s big school boys basketball.
Left of center on the Denver-metropolitan dial, Jefferson County has been in left field, far out of range for the state’s top hoops prize.
Since the 2003-04 season or when East’s Sean Ogirri christened yet another new postseason format after the prep game was priced out of the Pepsi Center and landed at the University of Colorado’s Coors Events Center, Class 5A Jeffco has not had any kind of an answer for Denver, its other suburbs and various out-of-area powers that have risen from Colorado Springs to Fort Collins.
Jeffco’s last quarterfinalist was Dakota Ridge five seasons ago, as the once fertile west-metro league that runs north from Arvada to Westminster and to Littleton south has gone an embarrassing 13-38.
What the heck happened?
This is a group that had produced terrific individual talents such as Chris Crosby and Justin Kaliszewski of Chatfield, Nick Mohr of Columbine and Tom Starkey of Green Mountain, to name a few in the past dozen years or so. Jeffco had three consecutive Mr. Colorado Basketball honorees. Its teams were so fun to watch that there was a time when attendance at a top county game could only be assured by being in the building before tipoff of the junior varsity game. And the coaching list included the successful likes of Bruce Dick and Gary Osse.
Jeffco’s most recent 5A champion was Columbine in 1997, or back when its current players were no older than second-graders.
Excuses or reasons? Is it a cyclical thing? Is Jeffco boxed in? Have county kids lost interest in the organized game? Or is the talent all but dried up?
Believe me — Jeffco folks, who used to regularly churn out top-flight squads, have hated nonfactor status.
But things may be looking up. Through the first half of the 2008-09 regular season, the upper end of 5A Jeffco has been experiencing a modest resurgence of sorts and the watch is on for more.
No, Jeffco shouldn’t automatically be included with Eaglecrest, East, Fairview, Regis and George Washington, which have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the 64-team field in the season’s seventh week, but left-siders may be coming.
Through Tuesday, Green Mountain had won its first 10 games. Ralston Valley, a power for years in 4A, finally made the long-awaited jump to 5A. Chatfield, as solid a program as Jeffco has had the past decade, was 8-2 against a demanding schedule. Pomona and Arvada West may be poised to make at least a little noise. Many others like Bear Creek’s talent.
There are two Division I players in Jeffco, relatively high for a Colorado league. Ralston Valley’s Pierce Hornung, an All-Colorado selection by The Denver Post last season, will play at Colorado State, and Columbine’s Connor Osborne, who is still coming back from an injury, has signed with Northern Colorado.
A deeper look reveals Green Mountain guard Brian Hunt, a heady leader; better league-wide youth; and — perhaps Jeffco’s most glaring weakness in recent seasons — much-needed height.
The league’s switch — to home-and-away against area teams, then a single matchup versus others in Jeffco either farther up or down the road — is an underestimated improvement in terms of developing and maintaining interest within the community, as well as a step up in state tournament preparation.
Jeffco is tired of watching the Centennial account for a season’s 5A final four (2006); the Denver Prep all but owning a spot in the finale; the Continental’s considerable prowess; and assorted titles and spirited runs from the Colorado Springs Metro, Front Range and Skyline groups.
Minimally, Jeffco may be coming together, the first step back.
Said Rudy Martin, the Green Mountain coach formerly at Columbine during its high times: “Everybody’s aware of it, and we’re pulling for each other.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
