BROOMFIELD — God bless today’s high school schedules. They make fools even of those who run the teams.
The Broomfield girls basketball team was set to debut its pink uniforms at home Tuesday against Frederick in a Class 4A Northern League regular-season finale, a heartfelt gesture by a bunch of teenagers who wanted to do their part for cancer awareness.
Problem: The game was held at Frederick. No matter. The Eagles will be pink and proud tonight at home against Frederick in the first round of the league tournament.
Recently, senior forward Chaundra Sewell asked coach Mike Croell if she could wear pink laces in her sneakers.
The coach was ready: “I told her I could do her one better. And they think it’s awesome.”
‘Tis the season for females to head the fight against breast cancer, and the Eagles are excited about their small part amid school posters, donations from businesses and opting for the color of the time.
“We’re really glad to do this,” said center Anna Prins, The Denver Post 4A player of the year last season. “This is very important and a nice start to a new tradition. We’re happy they let us do this.”
With the blessing of the Colorado High School Activities Association, the Eagles and dozens of others decided to think pink. Even the referees have been using pink whistles.
“It’s touching,” CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann said. “We’ve given everyone permission to observe it the way they need to.”
And it’s smart to use Broomfield (19-0 overall, league champion at 16-0 and ranked No. 1 in The Denver Post/9News 4A poll) as a positive poster child.
As for winning games, the Eagles are in the stretch of one of the most glorious runs since the girls game was sanctioned in 1975. Tonight will be their 102nd game in four seasons, and they have lost only four times.
The two-time defending state champions are the 4A truth — since the 2005-06 season, they own winning streaks of 16 and 41 games, and now are on a 31-game roll.
On Jan. 20, host Longmont fell to the Eagles 56-45. Broomfield’s 18 other foes have lost by an average of a nearly unbelievable 49.5 points.
“We get a little bit of this and that about running up the score, but they don’t read between the lines,” Croell said of the misinformed who fail to realize it’s a 4A game that still contains a strict diet of haves and have- nots. “I hear about it all the time. But this year, one thing about this team is that it doesn’t get wrapped up in streaks, home games or points. As a coach, I like that they don’t make a big deal about it.”
As for character, the inner core of the Eagles, such as the 6-foot-6 Prins (bound for Iowa State), Sewell (Wyoming) and Sophie Rhodes (Missouri- Kansas City), has it. In addition to their thoughtfulness about women’s cancer, practicing hard and getting it done in the classroom, the Eagles are a bunch that were rebuilt in 2005-06 from within with freshmen and got to the Great 8. They won state in 2007, then weathered a much-publicized couple of high-profile transfers the past season in taking a second title.
They also have withstood being targets as well as the emergence of surrounding schools, yet remained the same, old Broomfield.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
