After a strong fall sports season, the Spartans look to maintain their athletic success this winter. This past Monday was the first official practice at Berthoud High School (BHS) for basketball, wrestling, and swimming. Hoping to build on their fall success, where the football team returned to the playoffs for the first time in four years and the girls’ softball team made the state tournament, Spartans new and old showed up for the first winter practice after school on Monday.

“This is a place for building each other up,” said Alan Gibson, the girls varsity basketball coach in his first remarks to the 2022 girls basketball squad. Around thirty players huddled around Gibson as he spoke about the importance of teamwork and expectations for the team. Assistant coach Gary Ozzello spoke next about how character can trump talent on the court. Despite his immense talent, NBA superstar Steph Curry misses 57 percent of his three-pointers, but it’s his high character that allows him to bounce back after every miss said Ozzello.

Photo by Will Cornelius – Coach Alan Gibson talks to his players before a transition drill.

Gibson then broke the huddle and had the girls warm up in small groups with a light shootaround. “We’re going to be in mid-season form in the next 15 days!” yelled out Gibson encouraging his players. The importance of teamwork and leadership was front and center as the coaches made sure each group had a senior and a freshman. After a half hour of shooting, practice shifted to working on transitions as a team. “Don’t let yourself be ignored,” Gibson told his players, encouraging them to work as a team and communicate. After that, the team practiced defense and guarding the post. Ozzello then told his players to “get big and make noise” while guarding each other. The practice ended with more shooting before finishing with the girls running gassers from one end of the court to the other.

After the practice, Gibson said he felt “really good” about the team and the upcoming season. “We’ve started building on this year clear back during the spring last year. So, this is just a continuation of what we’ve done and what we’ve built,” he said. One change the team will have to adapt to is a new league and new classification this year. But Gibson sees this as an opportunity for the team to test itself. “We’re playing great competition, both in our league and in our non-league games,” he said.

Echoing what he said at the beginning of practice, Gibson stressed being ahead of the competition. “We wanna be in mid-season form when the season starts, we wanna be in playoff form when our league season starts in January. And we wanna be in championship form when the playoffs start,” he said. Gibson then said that his “great group of seniors” are going to be the ones leading the way this season.

One of those seniors is point guard Katie Vierra. “I’m super excited. Obviously, we’re missing a lot of the starters from last year. Whenever you lose seniors, you’re expected to get worse, [but] it’s not going to be like that,” Vierra said about the upcoming season. She says playing as a team is going to be key to their success. “We’re going to make that extra pass if we need to. There’s not going to be anyone who is just taking shots willy-nilly,” she said.

The Lady Spartans’ first game will be Nov. 29th at home against Loveland rival Thompson Valley High School.

After the girls basketball finished up the boys basketball team was next to practice. With almost forty boys showing up, second-year coach Lee Espinoza started with full-court sprints. “No ball for the first 45 minutes, see who wants it,” Espinoza said quietly from the benches as his players exhausted themselves running up and down the court. “Lotta these kids have been working hard non-stop over the offseason,” Espinoza said as he watched on. The boys practice then shifted to slide-run-slide cone drills, to work on the players’ defensive skills. “Who can play defense for a whole quarter?!” yelled out Espinoza.

The first part of the practice was grueling with almost no basketballs, but plenty of panting and sweating. The only way the boys got a break, or to touch the ball, is if a player, picked randomly by the coaches, could sink two consecutive free throws while the rest of the team watched on. The drill simulated the pressure players face from the free throw line in a game, while also encouraging the team-first nature of basketball.

After that the mood of practice changed, with music blaring in the background, the players broke into small groups for friendly shootarounds. For many of the kids, the competitive juices started flowing as they began to make baskets. Espinoza then broke the players into squads of three to face each other. The boys became more vocal, communicating with each other as passes and shots whizzed by on both sides of the gymnasium. Dribbling a basketball Espinoza paced back and forth watching the players.

Towards the end of practice, the players alternated practicing five on five in a scrimmage. After a final free throw drill, the players huddled around the coaches. “You can all bring something to the program. Everyone is just as important as the other,” Espinoza told the team. He spoke about the importance of the program as a whole and everyone playing their part.

After practice, Espinoza talked about the progress his players have made in the offseason and the strong cohort of new players coming in. “I’m excited with the numbers we’re getting,” he said. “A lot of freshmen this year, I wanna keep all of them, and the only way I can do that is with a D team,” Espinoza said. This year he hopes to have four boys basketball teams.

Over the off-season, Espinoza created a club team to keep his players involved. Playing in several tournaments in the spring and summer, the team performed well and grew. “They did good … we’re starting to figure out how to win,” he said. Every season is different, with past seniors gone and young players taking their place. But Espinoza said a lot of his older players have been putting in the work in the off-season. “We’re going to be young. But my core group of varsity players … I’ve seen more of them this last year than I see my own wife,” Espinoza said half-jokingly. “They’re always here. I’ve always been a proponent of if a few kids wanna show up and play and get better. I’ll open up the gym all day,” he said.

This Saturday the boys basketball team will travel to Timnath High School for a foundation game. Tip-off is at 3 pm on Nov. 19th. Their regular season will start Nov. 29th when they host Greeley West High School.

In addition to basketball kicking off, boys and girls wrestling, and girls swimming also held their first practices on Monday. At the end of wrestling practice, head wrestling coach Josh Galindo spoke to his team about the upcoming year and the intensity he wanted to see from wrestlers. This year is the first year BHS will field a girls wrestling team. Assistant wrestling coach Matt Hebel stood back reflecting on the first practice. “It’s preseason so the idea right now is to just get everybody in shape and get their minds changed to wrestling,” he said.

This Saturday BHS will host a foundation wrestling match outside at Max Marr Field at 6 pm under the lights against Loveland High School. The match will be played with a heavy heart as the father of one of Berthoud’s wrestlers, David Garman passed away on Tuesday after being involved in a horrible accident on I-25. Proceeds from the match will go to help the Garman family.

Donations can also be made directly through GoFundMe at www.gofundme.com/f/support-david-garman-family.