Fort Lupton High School boys basketball coach Jim Roedel grew a beard over the holidays. And while he plans to trim it every so often, he doesn’t plan to shave it off until his Bluedevils’ team loses a game.
Through Jan. 2e6, the beard was in place. Fort Lupton's winning streak reached 13 after wins over KIPP-Denver Collegiate and Middle Park Jan. 23. Other recent wins were against Arvada (91-35) and a 58-44 win over Platte Canyon.
The big change has been a switch in offense.
“I told the boys I’ll take responsibility for the first loss,” Roedel said after the win against Arvada. “I didn’t know the style we needed to play and what we had. If we were to go back and play that game again, we wouldn’t have the result we had. Eaton was the same way. It took us a half to figure it out. We learned the style of play that we are, which is athletic, trap, full court, press, get after it.”
Freshman Shane Callahan likes the change.
“We’re playing fast-paced, run and gun,” he said. “It’s my favorite. It’s more exciting. It’s not slow. When we play bad, we play that slower tempo. But when we pick it up, fast tempo, we get the ball up the court. We try to stick to the fast pace.”
“They bought into the system, that’s for sure,” Roedel said. “They work hard in practice at it. So, games are sort of a more intense practice.”
FLHS had a 12-point lead after one quarter against Arvada en route to a 91-35 win. The lead grew steadily from there.
“We passed the ball really well. We got a lot of assists,” Callahan said. “Our coach said it was the best we’d played all year. We practiced. We have good chemistry, and there’s a lot of trust in our teammates.”
“They were inexperienced. They work hard. They are well-coached. It was our athleticism and experience that made the difference tonight,” Roedel said. “We played our style. We pushed the basketball. We turned them over. They couldn’t quite keep up.”
“We’re just as confident as we were at the beginning of the season,” Callahan said. “We never lost confidence. We tried practicing what we were doing wrong. It ended up working for us.”
FLHS visits Denver School of Science and Technology-Montview at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 2.
