BROOMFIELD — Holy Family’s Tigers?
Of course, they’re on the verge of joining the highest echelon of Colorado girls basketball history and being called Gr-r-reat!
If they manage two victories at home in regionals Friday and Saturday, the Class 3A top-seeded Tigers will have earned their 99th and 100th (against five losses) over four seasons. And should the team sweep three rounds next week at Colorado State in Fort Collins in the state tournament, Holy Family will have its fourth consecutive championship.
Indeed, there are a lot of ifs.
Only three programs have won four state championships in a row. Wray won from 1976-79 in Class AA, the first four trophies presented in sanctioned play. So did the great Lamar teams in 4A, featuring Britt Hartshorn, from 1995-98. And 4A Broomfield has won the past four, with a strong chance of taking an unprecedented fifth in succession.
Holy Family coach Ron Rossi, in his eighth season, knows a special group when he sees one.
“We’re playing well right now, having fun with the year and we had a great regular season,” he said.
At 21-1, the Tigers have been ambitious in terms of competition. They handled midrange powers Eaton and Estes Park, 5A Smoky Hill and 4A Wheat Ridge as well as Broomfield. Never mind that Kimmy Hansen of Estes Park was injured and Broomfield had a couple of suspensions. It’s not Holy Family’s fault.
The one loss for the Tigers was to Longmont (76-61), a game after facing Broomfield. Holy Family led after a quarter before the Trojans gradually pulled away.
“Our kids needed more challenges, needed to be sharper,” Rossi said. “It was tough, but worthwhile.”
He eschewed the trend of heading out of state for high-end competition. Why leave Colorado when the likes of Broomfield, Longmont, Legacy, Monarch and Fairview — Rossi called the north area “a hotbed of basketball” — are among multiple accomplished foes and all within a short ride?
“No doubt, the kids will remember that Broomfield game. It was a ‘fire marshal game,’ ” Rossi said of squeezing as many fans into the gymnasium as officials could get away with.
Since moving from north Denver to Broomfield, Holy Family has flourished. It went from an old school in a traditional neighborhood to the open spaces of suburban sprawl that one of these days probably will fill in from Boulder to Colorado Springs.
“You hope the community buys into what you’re doing,” Rossi said. “By moving away from the city, we were able to draw from Longmont, Loveland, Golden and Arvada. There was only one Catholic school on the one side of town. It helps to be more spread out.”
Holy Family has two seniors who know about spreading out — Sarah Talamantes and Taylor Helbig have been starters since they were freshmen and sense joining the unique club of being regulars on four-year state championship teams.
“We’re pumped and we’re ready,” Talamantes said. “I’m just lucky to be a part of such a great basketball club. It would be unbelievable to do it and I’m just so excited.
“We just never overlook any team and we go out and play our hardest. And if we do that, we’ll be tough to beat.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
