(Renee Bourcier/CHSAANow.com)
DENVER — Sixty-one years ago, Longmont met Grand Junction in the Class AA championship football game. It was a rematch of the previous season — something the sport rarely sees.
In fact, a championship rematch in the largest classification hasn’t happened in the decades since.
Until now.
When Valor Christian and Pomona play for the Class 5A title on Saturday at Mile High Stadium, it will be the first time since that Longmont/Grand Junction meeting in 1955 that teams from the largest class have met in consecutive years.
Here’s how rare this is: Since CHSAA was founded in 1921, there have been only four championship rematches at the largest classification. And it has never happened before in Class 5A.
Bottom line: It’s not easy to make it to a championship game.
“I’ve always felt that exceptional programs find ways to get to the semifinals,” said Valor Christian coach Rod Sherman. “And sometimes, in the semifinals, you’re going to block a field goal and make one late, and sometimes you’re not.”
Jay Madden. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Said Pomona coach Jay Madden: “I talked to (Cherry Creek) coach (Dave) Logan about it on Monday. He was like, ‘People do not realize how hard it is to do it twice.’ It was hard, but this is a great group to do it with.”
Pomona’s journey was made even more impressive considering it lost All-American lineman Jake Moretti to a season-ending knee injury in the summer. The Panthers lost electric player of the year candidate Max Borghi in the quarterfinals. And then another star, Cam Gonzales, hurt his leg in the semifinals.
“It’s been kinda nuts,” Madden said. “Getting back here, it seems like it’s been a long drive, that’s for sure. But it’s been a lot of fun, too.”
The Panthers were ranked No. 1 in CHSAANow.com’s poll for much of the season.
“This has been the hardest year, just as far as dealing with expectations and trying to get up for Friday night,” Madden said. “The kids just can’t stop thinking about December. You’ve got to bring them back down to Earth: ‘We’ve got to be here tonight. We’ve got to be good today. We’ve got to have a good practice.’
“That part is very difficult. And if we didn’t have good senior leadership, it would be almost impossible.”
Pomona had lost in the quarterfinals in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 before reaching the championship game last season.
“Getting by the quarterfinals seems to be the hardest thing to do,” Madden said. “But once we did it, our kids were hungry to get here.”
Valor Christian, meanwhile, will be playing for a championship for the eighth-straight season. (“I can’t imagine how Valor has played in seven straight” prior to this game, Madden said.)
Rod Sherman. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Only Limon, which went to six-straight championship games from 1963-68, and nine of 10 from 1959-68, has done something similar. (Fort Collins, which went to nine championship games over a span of 13 seasons from 1922-34, did have dominant run, too. Their longest streak, though, was three-straight.)
“This has been the most enjoyable coaching year I can remember,” Sherman said.
His team started 1-3 in non-conference play this season, and has since won nine games in a row to reach the championship stage.
“We’re not going to live by fear,” Sherman said. “My job’s not on the line if we lose in the semifinals. But the challenge as a staff is to get your players not to play with fear: ‘What if we’re the first senior class that hasn’t played in a state championship game?’
“You know, we lost to Creek two years ago (in the title game), and life went on,” he continued. “We played as hard as we could. They made a few more plays than we did. Life went on, and it’s still high school sports.”
Saturday’s meeting will be the sixth time Valor and Pomona have faced one another in the past three seasons. Valor holds a 3-2 edge, including a 2-0 mark in the postseason. But Pomona beat Valor Christian 23-16 earlier this season.
“You can feel the sense of a new-era rivalry,” said Pomona quarterback Ryan Marquez. “It’s a great rivalry. Two great teams going at it, everyone playing their hearts out all the time. So it’s really fun when all of us step on the field together and the best of the best battle it out.”
Rematches at state football
A breakdown of rematches at the largest classification of football since 1921.
- 2015-16: Valor Christian vs. Pomona, Class 5A. Valor Christian won last season’s meeting, 29-26. The two teams meet again on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
- 1954-55: Longmont vs. Grand Junction, Class AA. Longmont won both meetings, winning 40-7 in 1954, and then 32-6 in 1955.
- 1949-50: Denver East vs. Fort Collins, Class AA. Denver East won the initial game in 1949, 27-6, and Fort Collins returned the favor in 1950 with a 14-6 win.
- 1926-27: Fort Collins vs. Canon City, unclassified. Fort Collins won both games, 13-0 in 1926, and then 14-0 in 1927.
- 1922-23: Fort Collins vs. Colorado Springs, unclassified. These were just the second and third championship games in the history of the sport. Fort Collins won the first game in 1922, 16-7, and then the teams played to a scoreless tie in 1923.