Kent Denver is off to a 6-1 start this season in Class 3A. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
When the Class 3A boys basketball season began, Kent Denver wasn’t considered one of the state’s top teams. The Sun Devils, however, have turned plenty of heads after racing out to a 6-1 start.
That record is more impressive considering Kent only has two seniors.
“With all the attrition we had and all these new players, there wasn’t much talk of us winning six games all season,” veteran Kent Denver coach Todd Schayes said. “But, they have come together fast.”
Although the Sun Devils are youthful, they certainly aren’t avoiding tough competition. On Tuesday night, Kent suffered its first loss of the season – a 75-47 at Pueblo Central. The Wildcats were ranked No. 7 in the current 4A CHSAANow.com poll, and Kent was No. 6 in the 3A poll.
“We have the toughest 3A league (Metro) in the state so we made a conscious effort to schedule the toughest schedule we could,” Schayes said. “We appreciate the Pueblo Centrals of the world scheduling us. The takeaway is we are young and we are going to need to get better. We are still learning to defend and rebound and not turn the ball over, but you couldn’t ask for a better group of guys.”
Kent Denver boys basketball coach Todd Schayes. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
Freshman Stone Delaney is the team’s leading scorer at 11.3 points per game, but this has definitely been a team effort to get the Sun Devils to mesh quickly.
“For this team, the reason why we won our first six games is the camaraderie,” Schayes said. “We have four players coming off that state 3A soccer championship, including Max Mehlman, the 3A state soccer player of the year. We also have Max Gottesfeld, Robby Dunn and Tyler Nowak from the state championship soccer team. And we have Rob Casey and Matt Wells who were on our football team that lost in this year’s state championship game, and we have tennis state champion Willie Gold as well. So, we are a product from coming from winning programs.”
Mehlman, a sophomore, has really enjoyed the basketball season so far. Kent returns to action Saturday at home against Manitou Springs.
“No one really thought we were going to be too good this year, but we started off strong and we play well together,” Mehlman said. “We play a team game. We don’t have a superstar. None of us have really played together before, but we are having fun and we are really getting to know each other. It was tough to lose (to Pueblo Central), but we will learn from this. This was good for us to play a tough 4A team and 3A also will be a good test for us.”
Casey is optimistic about what the Sun Devils can accomplish this season.
“We want to make a deep run in the playoffs and get more experience as we go,” Casey said. “We want to play the best teams we can and I know the best is still ahead for us.”
Kent Denver won the state 3A boys basketball title in 1997 with a 51-44 victory over Centauri.
The Sun Devils most recently made it to the title game in 2012 losing to Faith Christian (41-40) and then they were upended in the 2013 finals to Pagosa Springs (53-49).
“We going to have to keep improving to give the Faith Christians, Lutherans and Jefferson Academys of the world a run for their money to get into the state tournament,” said Schayes, who led the Sun Devils to that state title. “We are a product of completely new kids, but we have shown some signs that we can be pretty good at some point this year and it is a lot of fun. We are not going to base our success this year on wins and losses. It’s going to be based on continuing the success of the program and doing things the right way with character and class.”
Kent Denver’s Max Mehlman (23). (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)