Many years can pass without being around a sport, but the passion and love for the game seldom fades away.

Such is the case for Fort Lupton’s first-year girls’ basketball head coach Dan Lira, who has coached for 20 years, 15 of them at the boys high school level. His last head coaching job was at Eagle Ridge Academy High School in Brighton, before taking two years off from the basketball courts.

“Once you coach and you’ve been around the program it’s in your blood. It’s hard to walk away. It’s hard to get away from a sport watching it continuously on TV and going to high-school games on my time off. And I was getting to missing it,” said Lira.

A native of the area, Lira saw that there was an opening at Fort Lupton High School, and he didn’t think too much about applying and accepting the coaching job.

“I like the adversity and diversity that comes with it. Like I said, I coached boys and now, going with the girls, it’s a big difference for me. There are times when the girls seem a little bit more committed, more willing to learn,” Lira said. “My position here in Fort Lupton is to try and bring back tradition to the school and try to bring back the commitment of the players, bring back the community and bring the community back to life, and I feel like and I can fill that role here.”

With most of the varsity squad being made up of upperclassmen, Lira understands that there is a transitional period with the girls under a new head coach.

“You have to get them to buy in, and you have to treat them like they’re the leaders of the team. By doing that and accomplishing that they bought in (the upperclassmen), and of course, the underclassmen are the ones that got to follow,” Lira said. “It’s great having some upperclassmen that played last year.”

In the 2021-22 season, the Bluedevils had a record of 5-14. Despite starting the season 0-2, Lira is hopeful that they can have a better season than previous years.

“Us as coaches, we all like to think about winning a state championship. All that I want to accomplish this year is just to bring back a winning season -- even a .500 season, something we haven’t done for the last 10 years, if I can remember, here in Fort Lupton,” Lira said. “We would like to get at least a .500 season going on and set our goals higher and higher every year after that.”

Lincoln High School beat Fort Lupton 28-22 in Fort Lupton Dec. 1. It was the Lancers' season opener. FLHS slipped to 0-2.

Daniella Aviles led FLHS with 12 points. Micaela Garcia scored four. Joslyn Aroujo led the Lancers with six points. Cryah Davis added five.

The Bluedevils continue play in the Santiago's Shootout Tournament the balance of the week. The Friday, Dec. 9, game is at Floyd Acre gym. The Saturday, Dec. 10, game will be at Fort Lupton High School.