Torches often have a funny way of getting passed.
For the Pueblo South boys basketball team, the Colts’ winning tradition has been rooted in one central figure: Dave Lockett.
But who knew that when the longtime coach guided the Colts to their second Class 4A state championship eight years ago, their three young ball boys at the time would become a large part of the core of this season’s undefeated and top-ranked team?
By design, it’s perfect timing. Lockett is retiring after 20 seasons, and the youngest of his three sons (he’s coached all of them) and one of those ball boys, Brody, will graduate and probably play football in college.
“It’s my last time around for everything, just like theirs,” said Lockett, who is looking forward to catching up on his hunting and fishing at the cabin he built near Poncha Pass.
All the plot devices for a storybook ending are present.
The Colts (12-0) are immensely talented and have been since this core group was sophomores. They were a unanimous preseason No. 1 in a classification renowned for its surprises and are beating teams by an average of 24.6 points.
Brody Lockett and fellow seniors Kameron Wilhite and Tim Zufall — the ball boys in 2001 — have watched older brothers play for the Colts and touched the gold ball atop the championship trophy. Along with seniors Josh Dome, Brandon Kliesen and Sam Collins, and juniors Tyrell Williams, Kivon Cartwright and Jevon Hall, the Colts have played together for years and have been dreaming the same dream.
“This is his last year,” Brody Lockett said of his dad. “We’re going out together. We want to go out with a title.”
Lockett has a record of 361-115, including Tuesday’s 88-27 Southern League victory over Cañon City. He has guided the Colts to 10 20-win seasons, 12 league championships, eight trips to the Elite Eight, five Final Fours, three finals and state championships in 1995 and 2001 — the latter of which was immortalized that year by state Senate joint resolution 027, which made the Colts honorees for the day and earned them a tour of the Capitol.
“We want that gold ball,” Dome said. “Anything less is going to be unacceptable.”
And with that comes pressure.
“It’s huge pressure,” Dave Lockett said. “When you’re supposed to win every game, it kind of takes the luster off winning.”
The Colts have failed to advance past the Elite Eight the past two seasons. In 2007, Ralston Valley eliminated them on its home floor. Broomfield sent them home last year with a victory in Pueblo.
Fairly or unfairly, those losses fuel their detractors, who tell the Colts their nonleague and league schedule isn’t tough enough to prepare them for the state’s best. Recent history doesn’t bode well either: The past six 4A titles have gone to teams in the Denver area.
But the Colts really like their personnel. A running team by tradition, the Colts love their inside game of Williams and Cartwright and are more comfortable in a half-court set.
“Our big guys are a lot stronger than they were last year,” Wilhite said.
Lockett, Dome and Wilhite are physical guards who present matchup problems, and the four-man bench has been solid.
And don’t forget the intangibles. History. Pride. Tradition. And three former ball boys trying to win one for themselves and a coach who has been a father figure to each of them.
