On Monday, Mark Robinson was at a drive-through picking up lunch for himself and his Lakewood football staff.
Eat-on-the-fly coaching staples like Big Macs and fries were on the immediate menu. Undefeated and second-seeded Grand Junction, Lakewood’s next foe in Class 5A’s football quarterfinals Friday, already was in its taste buds.
“We’re going to try to bite (the Western Slope Tigers’) ankles,” Robinson said.
Kidding aside, Lakewood is the most interesting — and unlikely — of the big schools’ eight remaining teams and Robinson, employed at and committed to his alma mater for the past 18 years, understands all of the reasons.
The Tigers of Jefferson County, who during various seasons lacked roster numbers and size up front, are in their second year of being lumped with a struggling Denver Prep League contingent, a chance to regain competitiveness.
“I think it was a great chance to hit the reset button,” Robinson said. “Our numbers are back up.”
Lakewood was drubbed 32-0 in the preliminaries by an ordinarily mediocre Palmer a year ago, which didn’t exactly justify its DPL title — or did it? — and a second league first-place finish has been followed by trying 2011 postseason victories over No. 23 Gateway and a suddenly resurgent Horizon that deflated after committing seven turnovers.
Robinson is no fool — he hears the whispers that his Tigers shouldn’t be in the quarterfinals, but it doesn’t mean he has to listen to them.
And he doesn’t. Nor does he bring up when he was part of the 1985 Tigers that dressed less than three dozen players, yet waxed powerful Cherry Creek 47-8 in the finale at Folsom Field, which was undoubtedly the most surprising championship outcome in several decades.
Lakewood’s eye-opening victory over Columbine and pillar lineman Ryan Miller in the Rebels’ title run in 2006 doesn’t enter current conversations as much as its student body getting to contribute to the space shuttle, develop fuel, study aerodynamics or turn down Boettcher Scholarships.
What Lakewood lacks in 200-plus-pound linemen is more than made up for in high grade- point averages.
Dylan Nelson, John Greer, Cassius Simpson and Robert Condon are some of Lakewood’s better players, but its roster has better numbers in ACT scores than sack counts, pancake blocks and yardage.
A surge in the school’s overall athletic success — the Tigers’ volleyball team finished third in 5A the past weekend — could prove “scary for some of our neighbors,” Robinson said, as he would love to see the public-school Tigers “become the Stanford of the Denver metro area.”
Lakewood, projected to join the Big 6 League in the next two-year cycle, has made a statewide point by regrouping the past two years through realignment, with the chance for more Friday in Grand Junction.
“In my mind, I think some of (classification) system is definitely flawed,” Robinson said. “But I look at what it has done for some teams, it has gotten people excited about football. I wish it could be that way for everyone.”
Footnotes.
• Colorado High School Activities Association commissioner Paul Angelico said he followed up on Littleton’s late forfeit against defending 4A champion Valor Christian in Week 8 and was convinced the Lions had an assortment of problems. They were able to complete the final two games of their schedule.
• The Otis-Fleming game for the 6-man title Saturday will be shown on and denverpost.com/preps.
• 5A head coaching jobs open, apply within: Overland in Aurora and Doherty in Colorado Springs.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
