With its eternal clock and annual renewal each spring, baseball has long been the sport that has lent itself to epic poetry and philosophical musing. And so it was last spring, watching his youngest child Mikey play in a youth league, that Mike Griebel would often walk alone beyond the center-field fence, lost in thoughts of a different kind of cycle.
Could seven years have passed since his oldest child Mitch played in that same league, on some of those same fields? Eight? Nine?
“It seems like he was just here, a little tiger, playing,” Mike says. “That’s how fast it went. They say ‘Don’t blink,’ and I can tell you that it’s true. I don’t think I missed too much, but it’s nice to be able to appreciate Mikey now.”
But as he trampled the blades of grass, there was more than nostalgia involved — between the balls and strikes, Griebel, the head football coach at Heritage High School, occasionally found himself pondering the 2009 season.
There isn’t a lot of classic verse set on the gridiron. Football isn’t epic poetry — it is the jarring hit, jolting you into reality; it is sudden death in overtime.
And so, in some ways, the clock has already started ticking in the fourth quarter for father and son, the coach and his star quarterback, Mitch. It would be nice to say that when the Eagles, ranked second by The Denver Post and seeded fifth in the Class 4A playoffs, take the field Friday evening at Littleton Public Schools Stadium for their opening-round game against Ralston Valley, that the duo will be in control of what happens — whether it’s over the ensuing 48 minutes, or the next month, all the way through the Dec. 5 championship game at Invesco Field at Mile High.
But that’s not true; with similar expectations a year ago, Heritage found itself confronted by an inspired Pine Creek team and a nasty day in which the wind chill reached minus-22. The Eagles didn’t handle either very well, losing 17-7 in the second round.
Today, Mike Griebel argues that this year’s team has benefitted from the loss, that going through that experience has taught them to be prepared, mentally and physically, for anything that might come their way.
But although the coach, the father, would never say it, the best thing his team may have going for it is Mitch Griebel. Now in his final year, Mitch started as a freshman defensive back on the varsity team. Even before that, given his dad’s position, Mitch was immersed in the program, to the point that Mike calls him a “17th-year senior.”
Taking care of businessIn many ways, throughout the regular season, Mitch appeared to have knowledge that his opponents just couldn’t grasp. For the year he ran for 673 yards and six touchdowns; in the air, he threw for another 1,567 yards with 28 scores — a state single season-record 21 of them going to wide receiver Shane Opitz, who played with Mitch years ago on those Little League baseball teams.
But everybody’s got numbers of one kind or another. Mitch Griebel’s aren’t what defines him, what’s driving him this season. Throughout the year, the quarterback has insisted that he’s all about taking care of business, as in winning the state championship that eluded his team last season.
That means, potentially special moments like avenging a 2008 loss to Wheat Ridge, the eventual state champion, with a crushing victory two weeks ago, or routing Dakota Ridge on “Senior Night” last weekend have pretty much been met with a collective yawn.
“You can see him just saying, ‘I’m not done — this is just one step towards the next step,” says his mother, Karen. “It’s been fun to watch, but there’s a part of you going, ‘Where’s the celebration?’ You just don’t get much out of him.”
But while there may not be much in the way of exuberance, there is plenty of passion for Mitch. Ask what this season means to him and he simply says: “Everything — it’s what I’ve been playing football for forever.”
A special season for father and sonCurrently the coach of the Heritage girls gymnastics team (which includes daughter Kendall), Karen Griebel won three state championships in the 1990s at Cherry Creek.
“Wouldn’t it be nice,” she would say to Mike, “if you won a state championship with Mitch?”
Ever the coach, Mike’s response was that he would take a title anytime he could get one. That it could actually happen this year, father and son together, has given an additional texture to the season.
Mitch says many of his feelings about this year are because of being able to share his final season with his dad. But while Karen tears up at the thought of it, she says there isn’t much talk about it at home.
But there’s no question, she says, that “it’s something that’s just unspoken between the two of them.”
When Mitch was a baby, Mike placed a poster over his bed, the text saying that character is what comes from what you do when no one is looking.
Mike Griebel is big on signs, on slogans, on inspiration. The walls along the weight room at Heritage are slathered with clippings and adages meant to inspire the players. In the locker room each afternoon, the coach pens a thought of the day; when they take the field to practice, the players huddle under the goalposts, near a plaque dedicated to the memory of a fallen Navy SEAL who lived in the neighborhood and attended the school.
But sitting in his cramped office in Heritage’s athletic department this week, the coach points to a sticky note hovering above his desk. Penned in red ink, the words read, “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”
Son’s title quest for his coach, fatherAs good as Heritage has been this season, Mike Griebel says he’s just as proud of how his team has handled itself throughout the year, saying, “There’s been a lot more cool stuff than blocking and tackling.”
But in truth, those words have an even greater meaning with regards to his oldest child. If even the Mighty Casey struck out, how can football offer any sort of guarantee? The truth is, there are 15 other Class 4A teams that feel, with varying degrees of reality, that they have just as much of a claim on the championship as Heritage. And they don’t care that if the Eagles don’t win, it will be years before Mike Griebel gets another chance to coach one of his sons.
And so, as Mitch Griebel “goes about his business,” taking the next step, the first postseason step, in an ultimate quest to win one for his coach, Mike Griebel knows that the father had better be ready to step in.
“He has a goal, and I know that it’s lifting that little gold ball at the end of the season,” he says of Mitch. “If we don’t win, I’m sure he’ll feel on some level that he let me down, but I certainly wouldn’t perceive it that way.
“If it doesn’t work out, I know I need to be ready for it — I don’t think anybody on the Earth will be crying as hard as he will, I know that right now. I know that I’ll need to be there for him.”
With that, Mike Griebel walks into a room to greet his staff and prepares to meet his team and implement the game plan for the opening round. He turns and smiles.
“However,” he says of the possibility of dealing with the agony of defeat, “that’s not our plan.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
