Celebrating a {50-Year} Championship!

On March 11, 1967, my dad {Jerry} and his high school teammates hoisted the Colorado Class AA Basketball Championship trophy. Earlier this month, all 12 of those teammates plus family, friends, and current basketball players and staff celebrated again. Broomfield High School planned a terrific celebration and invited back all of the players and staff from that 1967 team. Unfortunately the coach, Mr. Al Gardner, has passed away, but all 12 players made the trip back to their alma mater. The school planned a meet-and-greet with the current boys on the Broomfield basketball team, a guided tour of the high school, recognition before that night's basketball game, and a get-together at a local restaurant following the game.

I was fortunate to attend the festivities with my parents. It was fun to meet all of my dad's teammates and listen to their stories from that magical season in 1966-67. I found it especially awesome that all 12 players wanted to take part in remembering and celebrating an event that happened 50 years ago. The sense of family I felt while with this team reminded my of why I coach and why I think all kids should be involved in extracurricular activities. In my opinion, kids learn valuable skills through activities like debate, drama, band, choir, ag, and sports. I hope that my athletes are learning about discipline, working toward goals, establishing priorities, making sacrifices, teamwork, and respect. However, I mostly want them to look back some day and remember how much FUN they had being a member of a TEAM.

Kudos to Broomfield High School for this celebration and a huge thank you to current boys' coach, Mr. Terrence Dunn for putting it together. This was an evening I won't soon forget! Go Eagles!

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