HIGHLANDS RANCH — Go play.
Girls from North and Valor Christian took that to heart as usual Saturday in a Class 4A nonleague girls basketball game that drew enough fans that would have filled, say, two of those shuttle vans that take people to the airport.
There were no television cameras, no interest for national rankings or showing up other players, just a couple of teams with different histories that have players who showed up to, well, play.
“It’s still there, kids want to play,” said North coach Charles Adams, a 46-year-old who knows what he’s talking about. “Back in my day, we played 2 4/7, we played all the time. Now, these kids have so many other interests, computers, the Internet, video games, cellphones . . . but these girls keep working hard.”
The North girls, 10 strong, enjoy a labor of love with their basketball team in every sense. The Vikings, who have been in North Denver for decades, managed their first victory of the season in 12 tries this past week by downing the newer Bruce Randolph School.
And the Vikings took it on the chin, again, Saturday in a 54-17 whipping at the hands of first-year varsity program Valor Christian in which they never were in the game.
This was in addition to having a three-of-four game stretch in which they scored only single digits as a team and suffered through multiple scoreless quarters. North was crushed by Poudre 65-6, Fairview 58-4 and Westminster 65-6.
Who wants to get shellacked?
“It doesn’t bother us,” junior Vikings guard LeNiece Sinclair said. “We still want to play.”
Said North junior Desri Gallegos, “We enjoy it, it gives us something to do.”
On the other side, almost-brand- new Valor Christian, which has a campus that would be the envy of small colleges, notched its fifth victory in its first 14 varsity games. It wasn’t pretty — there were enough air balls to fill a hot-air balloon and send it around the world at least once, and the number of turnovers could have filled a bakery stand at a grocery store, but the spirit was real.
The Eagles began the season by losing by 50 points to Regis’ junior varsity. Weeks later, they played the Regis varsity and lost 97-7.
“We probably shouldn’t have played them,” said Eagles freshman Janine Beckie, wise beyond her 15 years. “But that showed us what we need to do to get there and be able to reach that level.”
Level? The two groups already have experienced the sweetest level there is in athletics, the one that drives them to compete, enjoy their teammates and leave what happens on the floor, on the floor.
It was refreshing. Not once did a player make a play, then point to the sky. There was no ridiculously loud music between quarters or timeouts, when it was quiet enough that coaches and players could be heard talking strategy.
There was only one senior on the rosters, and Gallegos and Sinclair competed while wearing the kind of glasses kids usually reserve for classes.
Not once did I hear anyone mention the words “college scholarship.”
And the game ended in exactly one hour, after which heartfelt handshakes and well-wishes were exchanged.
As opposed to the prime time of Friday night at 7, this one was contested on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
It was vastly different from Friday’s Regis-Highlands Ranch game, which was a matchup of the first- and third-ranked big-school teams and contestants in last season’s title game, but contained just as much meaning, if not more.
“These kids come to practice every day and play hard in the games,” Adams said. “As a coach, that’s all you can ask.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
