{"id":2454961,"date":"2020-02-24T21:46:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T04:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/senior-septet-has-demons-boys-poised-for-postseason\/"},"modified":"2020-02-24T21:46:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T04:46:00","slug":"senior-septet-has-glenwood-springs-boys-basketball-poised-for-postseason-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/senior-septet-has-glenwood-springs-boys-basketball-poised-for-postseason-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior septet has Glenwood Springs boys basketball poised for postseason run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Glenwood Springs boys basketball senior co-captains, from left, Patrick Young, Mitchell Burt, John Iuele and Will Narvaez, have the team’s back headed into the 4A state playoffs this week.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Down 14 points to a league rival hungry to improve its lot in the postseason state tournament, a lot of teams might have folded.<\/p>\n

Not the Glenwood Springs High School boys basketball team.<\/p>\n

Behind the leadership of seven senior members of this season\u2019s cast of Demons, and under the direction of second-year Demon alumnus coach Fred Heisel, the Glenwood boys are on a mission.<\/p>\n

Case in point was the final regular-season game for the 2019-20 campaign at storied Chavez-Spencer Gymnasium on Friday night. Glenwood had to battle back from a double-digit deficit early in the second quarter against the Palisade Bulldogs to win it in overtime, 55-47.<\/p>\n

The result: An impressive 20-3 overall record, the state\u2019s No. 2 power ranking behind 22-1 Mead going into the 4A playoffs this week, where they are the No. 2 seed<\/a>, and a perfect 12-0 to win the 4A Western Slope League outright.<\/p>\n

Eye on the big prize<\/p>\n

Patrick Young, one of four senior co-captains on the team, remembers a hastily called secret junior team meeting toward the end of last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one thing written up on the board,\u201d Young recalled a day before the Palisade game, as he sat with his fellow co-captains Mitchell Burt, Will Narvaez and John Iuele.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was \u2018state championship,\u2019\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the group are senior team members A.J. Adams, Gabe Kimbrough and Adam Schrader.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doubted as a class for our entire lives, so coming out and securing a 12-0 league record is huge, and a big confidence boost going into the playoffs,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

Glenwood Springs has finished at the top of the league or with a share of the title each year of the Class of 2020\u2019s time in high school.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the end of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have our eyes on a bigger prize,\u201d Young said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty big deal, yeah,\u201d Iuele added. \u201cWe\u2019ve all worked pretty hard throughout the years, so it\u2019s just been really fun to see us come from little freshmen to compete as well as we have.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve all put in so much work, and that\u2019s what motivates us \u2026 all the work you\u2019ve ever put in, and you don\u2019t want it to go to waste,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coming of age<\/p>\n

Iuele joined the class in seventh grade, but Young, Burt and Narvaez have been playing basketball and growing up together since the third grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t used to be all that good, honestly,\u201d Narvaez said. \u201cBut we all worked together and got in better shape, and put in the time during the summers to get to where we are now.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the court, we\u2019re all really good friends, and we just try to look out for each other,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Burt thinks back to the last loss for the Demons, a 61-45 decision in favor of the Longmont Trojans at their home tournament before the holiday break on Dec. 19, and how that served to motivate the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a great experience for us, because that\u2019s the type of team we\u2019re going to have to play in the playoffs,\u201d Burt said of Longmont, which has traded the No. 2 and No. 3 RPI ranking with Glenwood in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point in the season, it kind of showed us where we were and what we had to improve on,\u201d he said. \u201cGoing undefeated in league is a big step to show we can stay consistent and keep the wins coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Young, \u201cWe\u2019ve put ourselves in a really great position to be competitive in the playoffs. It\u2019s all been about holding everyone accountable and keeping that competitive spirit. That\u2019s what makes this team so great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach\u2019s dream<\/p>\n

Coach Heisel acknowledges that it\u2019s been a bit of a luxury to have so many committed seniors on the team who\u2019ve brought the younger ranks along for a special ride.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s win was a perfect example of how that plays out on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it shows up is in those tight games \u2014 encouraging someone when they didn\u2019t make a free throw, and ensuring we\u2019re not making the mental mistakes late in the game,\u201d Heisel said. \u201cOur seniors just have the experience to take care of those things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seven seniors on this team, and every one of them has contributed strongly to our success, and will continue to do so for the playoffs, I\u2019m sure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tough road ahead, but this group of boys is ready to take it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

How \u2018bout those Lady Demons!<\/p>\n

The icing on the cake for the Glenwood Springs High School basketball program has been the girls team, which has enjoyed parallel success with its own core group of six seniors \u2014 Qwynn Massie, Hadley Yellico, Natalya Taylor, Kate Shanahan, Michelle Marshall and Zeva Carruth.<\/p>\n

The Lady Demons held up their end of the bargain Friday night to also go undefeated atop the 4A WSL at 12-0 and finish with an identical 20-3 overall record.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool, because we\u2019re all friends with the girls and have spent a lot of time together at tournaments and games,\u201d Burt said. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to see them have the same success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Glenwood girls are the No. 12 seed in the 4A state tournament<\/a>.<\/p>\n

jstroud@postindependent.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenwood Springs boys basketball senior co-captains, from left, Patrick Young, Mitchell Burt, John Iuele and Will Narvaez, have the team’s back headed into the 4A state playoffs this week.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent Down 14 points to a league rival hungry to improve its lot in the postseason state tournament, a lot of teams might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 13:49:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}