No choice: 'Stangs accept season with no finale

 

At this point, it isn’t known if there will be official winners of Colorado’s 10 classifications of boys and girls basketball championships because no title games are being permitted.

The COVID-19 pandemic finally shut down assorted venues hosting tournament play by late Thursday night and the deepest in the bracket any groups got to were completing the 5A and 4A girls semifinals. The other eight brackjets of boys and girls play were through quarterfinals.

However, Mullen’s Frank Cawley thinks he has a solution to cover the 4A girls portion of the interrupted field.

As head coach of the Colorado champions in the 2018-19 season, Cawley and the Mustangs were part of the Thursday group that actually played its designated round. They used overtime to get past Berthoud 64-57. And parochial-rival Holy Family beat Green Mountain 38-31 in the other 4A semifinal.

So both teams, which met in the past season’s semifinals, were agonizingly close to a championship before having the proverbial plug pulled late Thursday night.

“I’m going to call Ron (Rossi, the Holy Family coach) and declare us both champions,” Cawley said. “I’m sure Ron would be OK with it.”

To date, nothing has been speculated about or released concerning a possible resumption of basketball’s final rounds by next month should the virus scare and preventative measures be lifted, although nothing has been ruled out by officials.

The Mustangs, Cawley said, had been looking forward to repeating.

“All I know is, the kids in our junior class haven’t lost a playoff game,” he said.

As freshman, Mullen girls didn’t qualify. They won it all a year ago by going 5-0 and are 4-0 in 2020.

“If nothing happens, it’s why we’ll be going for a threepeat (in 2020-21),” Cawley said. “And this way, both of us can put up banners (as state champions).”

Like everyone else, especially after getting to play on Thursday, the coach said “we’re really disappointed. It is what it is. What else can you do?”

Mullen was unique to this season’s field – it had no seniors, so every player in the program can return.

Other teams weren’t as fortunate as a lot of the compassion went toward seniors who were eagerly awaiting opportunities in final rounds.

“It’s tough,” Cawley said.

The Mustangs would have brought a 20-7 record into the 4A finale that was slated for noon on Saturday at the Denver Coliseum. They were 20-8 a year ago in winning their fifth championship.

And of their 10 in-state losses the past two seasons, all were to 5A powers – Cherry Creek, Grandview and Regis Jesuit.

Here are the top players from the 2019-20 roster returning for Mullen:

--- Juniors: Makenna Elges, Alexa Dominguez, Elaina Martinez, Jessica Oates-Stamm, Megan Pohs, Haley Van Horn, Abby Webster.

--- Sophomores: Bella Aragon, Kilah Freelon, Gracie Gallegos, Evenyce Gutierrez, Imani Perez.

Assorted spring sports were able to hold games and events the past Wednesday and Thursday, but all in-state play has been suspended through April 6.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Cawley said.