Led by senior co-captains Addison Williams and Chase Graves, Boulder High’s first season in the Front Range league was not their finest as they finished 5-18 overall and 3-8 in league play. “I think the season was a testament to the perseverance of the players on our team. Murphy's Law states that whatever can go wrong will go wrong” said Schulz, “That seemed to happen all year long”. Schulz gave various examples of what the obstacles the team faced throughout the season were. He noted the construction of the New Gym was something that the team had to overcome. However, the final product was something that they could wait for, finishing 3-2 in the New Gym with the biggest win coming on senior night. Schulz gave praise to the new facilities and home fans, “We only got to play 5 games at home this year but it was really worth the wait. The new gym is fantastic and the players loved playing in it. It really did help motivate us to play well when we played at home and we had a blast doing it. The fans were terrific and really helped pull us through some tough games”. Construction wasn’t the only thing that contributed to the Panthers struggle this season, injuries played a major role as well. The Panthers were not at full strength very often, injuries plagued the team since the start of tryouts. The only player on the team with any varsity experience, senior guard Chase Graves, had a broken hand at the beginning of the season that held him out the first two weeks of practice. Schulz noted that the second injury Chase sustained was worse, “Nine games into the season Chase breaks his wrist, that hurts us. Injuries and sickness plagued this team all year”. Following tournament play Graves

Led by senior co-captains Addison Williams and Chase Graves, Boulder High’s first season in the Front Range league was not their finest as they finished 5-18 overall and 3-8 in league play. “I think the season was a testament to the perseverance of the players on our team. Murphy's Law states that whatever can go wrong will go wrong” said Schulz, “That seemed to happen all year long”.

Schulz gave various examples of what the obstacles the team faced throughout the season were. He noted the construction of the New Gym was something that the team had to overcome. However, the final product was something that they could wait for, finishing 3-2 in the New Gym with the biggest win coming on senior night. Schulz gave praise to the new facilities and home fans, “We only got to play 5 games at home this year but it was really worth the wait. The new gym is fantastic and the players loved playing in it. It really did help motivate us to play well when we played at home and we had a blast doing it. The fans were terrific and really helped pull us through some tough games”.

Construction wasn’t the only thing that contributed to the Panthers struggle this season, injuries played a major role as well. The Panthers were not at full strength very often, injuries plagued the team since the start of tryouts. The only player on the team with any varsity experience, senior guard Chase Graves, had a broken hand at the beginning of the season that held him out the first two weeks of practice. Schulz noted that the second injury Chase sustained was worse, “Nine games into the season Chase breaks his wrist, that hurts us. Injuries and sickness plagued this team all year”. Following tournament play Graves

The atmosphere was electric when the final buzzer of the Boys Varsity basketball game sounded at Boulder High’s New Gym on February 17th. On the night the seniors were honored, there was nothing but smiles across the faces of the BHS squad. The second to last game of the year was a great way to nearly complete a season that had its fair share of difficulties. Head Coach Alan Schulz stated that the win was essential, “The highlight of the season was beating a very good Monarch team on our home court, overcoming a 12-point deficit in the 4th quarter.

We were really playing our best ball of the season then and it came just at the right time”. By defeating the Coyotes at home the Boys Varsity was in 3-way tie for the 9th and final district playoff spot with Monarch and Northglenn, “And at the end of the year we played a tough Ft. Collins team to a 4 point loss on (Fort) Collins' home court. Had we won that game we would have made the playoffs in spite of all the tribulations” said Schulz.

Senior Addison Williams pulls up for a shot against rival Fairview High School on January 14th, 2009.

Courtesy of DailyCamera.com

2008 - 2009 BOULDER HIGH BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL REVIEW

Mathew Smith

- broke his wrist and was forced to miss the next six games. He finished his high school with 15.9 points per game (PPG) and 2.3 rebounds per game (RPG). However, Graves was not the only one injured, throughout the entire season there were only three players who played in every game, senior Alex Shaffer, junior Taylor Weed and sophomore Andre Rieder. In fact Rieder, second on the team in total points, was the only player to start all 23 games.

However, the most watched player of the year was neither Graves nor Rieder. It was Fairview transfer and NCAA Division I prospect, senior forward Addison Williams. But due to a CHSAA regulation that requires students who switch schools to sit out the first half of the season, Williams sat out the first 11 games. According to Schulz the season may have had a different outcome if Williams had been on the floor, “Addison's affect on the team was tremendous. Not only is he a fantastic basketball player, but also he brought much needed leadership to the team. Had he been eligible the first 11 games we might have won 9 of those and the season could have taken on a whole different direction”. He made a favorable first impression by scoring 25 points in his first game against Abraham Lincoln. By Williams’ third game he had already outscored the entire team other than Graves and Rieder. He finished the season second on the team in PPG, behind only Graves, with 14.5 PPG and led the way in rebounds with 4.5 RPG. When asked what he thought of the season Williams said, “It was definitely a struggle but we worked hard, everyone pushed each other. However despite the hard work and effort we didn’t get the results we wanted. We just kept losing, but we stuck together to the end. We didn’t play as well as we needed to in order to win games”.

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