BROOMFIELD — It’s a little too ironic … don’t you think?
When the first round playoff pairings for Class 4A and 3A were released on Sunday by the Colorado High School Activities Association, all longtime Broomfield coach Gary Davies could do was chuckle.
The inner laughing was not at where his young Eagles were seeded, 10th in the 4A bracket, but more over their first round opponent. During the week of the floods that devastated the Boulder area and canceled football games all over the state, Broomfield’s game with Loveland — their first round opponent on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Ray Patterson Field — was scrapped.
“When all of that went down, we had already traded film with them and had it planned out,” Davies said. “Now we are just waiting to see how much they have changed and obviously we have changed a little bit too.
“At least we have kind of an idea of what they are about.”
Broomfield was 0-2, both losses to 5A teams, when the floods hit and have gone 6-1 since with their only loss in that stretch coming in conference play to Monarch.
Davies can’t point to exactly when his team hit the switch, but if he listened to his kids, they could give him a pretty good idea. And like most coaches this time of year, after their start, he is happy to have a chance to be in the tournament.
“We got off to that crazy start with two losses, missed our third game , we didn’t practice and then went into our fourth game with two days of practice,” Davies said. “I don’t know if that was the key, not to practice, because we started playing better. I know it’s cliché after the way we started, but it is nice to have these kids in the playoffs.”
Loveland is 9-1 and even with a new coach at the helm this season, Davies and his staff are more than familiar with many of the looks and schemes the Indians have presented over the years when both teams used to be in the same league.
The winner of the Broomfield-Loveland game will likely get No. 2 seed Monarch. The defending state champs will open their defense against 15th seeded Vista Ridge out of Colorado Springs. The Coyotes only loss this season was to top-seeded Montrose.
The other local team to earn a playoff spot was Longmont. The Trojans are seeded 12th and will have to make a trip south to Pueblo to battle the Foothills League champion and winners of eight straight games, the Pueblo South Colts at Dutch Clark Stadium.
On the Class 3A side, three more area teams earned spots into the 16 team bracket. Northern League champion Holy Family is the No. 4 seed and will play host to No. 13 Delta likely on Saturday afternoon.
“Delta is historically a tough program and a tough team and we have our work cut out for us, but there really is no easy draw in the playoffs and we know that,” Tigers coach Mike Gabriel said. “We are just happy to have a home game.”
Defending state champion Silver Creek earned the highest seeding possible to a non conference champion at No.9 and will begin their title defense on the road against No. 8 Evergreen. Raptors coach Mike Apodaca said the game will likely be at Trailblazer Stadium.
“We are in and that is the most important thing, no we just got to go play,” Apodaca said.
Frederick also earned an at-large bid and is seeded 14th. The Warriors will travel north to Johnstown to take on the RoughRiders of Roosevelt, the No. 3 seed, in the first round.
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