Steve Ketchum goes more than a mile high-a-minute.
He coaches boys basketball at Aspen, Class 3A’s No. 2 seed and one of only two undefeated teams (Jefferson Academy) in the midrange state tournament that begins Friday.
In hosting a quadrant, the Skiers (22-0) will open against The Academy (9-13). Ketchum admits he knows little about the Wildcats from Westminster, but such is life in 3A, where you may run into a team from the city, up in the mountains, out on the plains or near one of the state’s borders.
A victory means another home game, in the Sweet 16 on Saturday, against the winner of Denver Christian-Yuma. In order, it would either be a matchup versus the Crusaders, headed by Dick Katte, Colorado’s winningest coach, or the Indians, who have established themselves as challengers on a regular basis.
“It might be the toughest regional,” Ketchum said, although I’ve never had a coach tell me his or her region was as easy as shaving with a new blade.
With all his fretting, Ketchum, an energetic sort who two seasons ago enlisted a guest assistant coach for home games and whose house has more hoops than a sporting goods store, and wife Mardi are awaiting the fourth and fifth of their adopted sons. They’re from Haiti and being processed through the system. The Ketchums don’t know if they’ll pick up the newest members of their family at DIA, or as far away as Pittsburgh, and are unsure of the day it will occur. But they realize they’ll be foster parents to boys ages 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9.
“I’ve got the starting five,” Steve said. “Now, we have to work on the bench.”
Aspen’s glitz is even more blinding.
Before the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on Jan. 12, Ketchum had an unexpected line on his new boys, who speak French-Creole. He said his wife had an out-of-the-blue experience the day before he received a telephone call about possibly taking in some of the youth who were to be moved out of Haiti.
“We weren’t interested, but they called us and I guess we had a really good track record,” Ketchum said. “Mardi was driving to Carbondale, and she had a premonition. All she could see was a picture of these boys running to her, something about Haitian boys. . . . The next night we got a phone call. We took it as a sign. So we talked about it a lot, and she said this is what we have to do.”
Aspen, including the Roaring Fork Valley, “has been amazing with its outpouring of support,” Ketchum said.
Area grade-schoolers led a drive that produced a purchase of bunk beds for the newest projected Aspenites as well as a gift card for new clothes.
Ketchum was deeply moved but not surprised.
“For a wealthy community and even in these economic times, these people over here do more in terms of service, outreach and volunteers than anybody I’ve heard of in my life,” he said.
A 12-year teacher-coach for the Skiers, Ketchum also has been granted a two-day-per-week absence by the district. Raising multiple boys is a handful. Two more from another country won’t make it any easier.
“Can you imagine the culture shock of sleeping on cement in an orphanage with no toilets, no TV and having never ridden in a car?” he asked. “And then coming here? It’s one extreme to the opposite.
“It truly enriches our lives and is as much of a blessing to us as it can be to them. For us, it’s just win-win.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
