GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Are we witnessing the end of an era, a sign of the times or justification of why we play the games?
Or some of all three?
As of this morning, ladies and gentlemen, it’s February, it’s cold with snow on the ground and Cherry Creek, the state’s largest and most successful high school in terms of athletics — perhaps the prime prep symbol of Denver moving beyond a dusty, old cowtown and into suburban sprawl — hasn’t been a factor in either of the two traditional boys sports in the 2009-10 school year.
Will wonders never cease?
Indeed, Colorado is an amazing place and not simply because of its Rocky Mountain majesty, remarkable weather and indelible spirit.
For the time being, the Cherry Creek haters, once thousands strong, have come, gone and turned silent. Presumably, they’ll show up elsewhere, perhaps on your street corner holding signs, right next to the ones already there providing attitude toward private schools. Or when the Bruins begin winning again.
Seriously, this period bears watching.
In the fall, the Bruins finished 5-6 in football, their first losing season since 1970. Think about the time. Nixon was in power, Watergate nothing more than a hotel. John, Paul, George and Ringo were still together (officially). Rotary telephones. Leaded gasoline. And it was well before many of today’s in-state coaches were born.
In boys basketball, Cherry Creek, which has produced the individual likes of NBAers Mark Randall and Michael Ruffin in a steady wave of very competitive and frequent state-title-challenging squads, entered Wednesday 5-14. To finish with a winning record, the Bruins need to sweep their final four regular-season games, then capture the 48-team playoff bracket. Mathematically possible, yes, but if so, it would probably be one of the state’s top turnarounds since the game was sanctioned in 1921.
The Bruins have the only big- school sweep of football, boys basketball and baseball (in the 1994-95 school year) on record.
“We don’t take it lightly,” said Mike Brookhart, a Bruins alumnus who happens to coach both football and basketball at Cherry Creek. “It’s something we talk about all the time.”
It’s a legitimate discussion as well as concern at what has strongly remained Colorado’s model high school for decades in terms of size, participation, academics and athletic championships.
Fact is, Cherry Creek, the state’s largest school, usually at about 3,500 students, isn’t — and can’t be — the popular school of choice it once was. Enrollment is all but limited to those within its boundaries and there are significant other options, including another district school in the works, that have filled in around it.
But shed no tears. The Bruins machine still has some of the strongest roster numbers (their tennis programs have been incorporating more than 100 players each for decades), their academics are about as challenging as they get in the state, and their sports titles are at a Colorado-leading 171 and counting.
It’s just that during this particular period, one in which injuries (Kain Colter) and committing to younger players have taken a toll, the Bruins, who were in the 2008 football finale and the boys hoops championship in 2006, have been forced to suffer setbacks routinely, like the rest of Colorado, a new experience for an area in which winning was assumed, practically automatic.
“It isn’t something our community is accustomed to,” athletic director Randy McCall said.
The Cherry Creek Mystique, the popular phrase coined by former principal Henry Cotton that refers to a mental state that fooled with opponents’ heads, has long been antiquated. The name Cherry Creek isn’t striking the fear it once did.
Brookhart doesn’t argue. While Cherry Creek has won at least one state championship in every school year since 1970, “we haven’t won one of the big three (including baseball) since 1999,” he said.
Observation: I don’t see Cherry Creek whining or fretting. The Bruins have handled their lumps as well as everyone else.
Advice: Enjoy it while you can, Colorado, before the Bruins regroup and dominate again.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
