The boys basketball team proved their state-potential dominance in a cumulative 211-115 post-winter break triple header victory last week. Coach Jon Rakiecki’s (staff) 2024-25 basketball team is an impressive 11-3 and continues their march toward the state tournament.
On Jan. 10, the Wizards started off their post-break matchups against the Greeley West Spartans, delivering a decisive 90-25 victory. The game started rather slowly with neither team holding a lead greater than three points for the first five minutes of the game. After the first time-out — taken by the Spartans — the Wizards began to pull away, exponentially increasing their lead.
“We knew going into Greeley West that it was going to be us against us,” Madden Smiley (11) said. “We knew it was probably going to be a little sloppy … but I think overall we played well.”
Less than 24 hours later, on Jan. 11, the Wizards took on the Centaurus High School Warriors in a closer but still decisive matchup, with Windsor prevailing in a 57-33 victory. With the quick turnaround, the coaching staff made several key substitutions throughout the Greeley West game as well as the Centaurus game, allowing for the team’s starters to get some rest in preparation for their matchup against Fossil Ridge High School in the coming week.
Though the quick back-to-back games are tough on the players, it is not abnormal, with previous seasons hosting tournaments in the weekends following break. Four-year varsity veteran John Backhaus (12) said, “This year has been a little less crazy as the past years. We played a lot more games before Christmas than we usually do and normally we have a tournament the first week of January. So this year it was kind of nice to have a few more practices and get more prepared.”
Early back-to-back games may not have been out of the ordinary for the team, but the highly anticipated game against Fossil Ridge High School in the second week back was certainly not normal. As such, a large amount of the team’s efforts in their practices and double header were focused on being prepared for the Sabercats: “Really we were just preparing for Fossil,” Marcus Martinez (11) said. “Our coach was saying that it was one of the biggest games that’s ever happened at Windsor.”
Leading up to the game against Fossil Ridge High School became a nearly inescapable topic around the campus, with students, players and teachers all discussing the game and theme dress-up ideas.
On Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m., the teams took the court with one of the largest student sections the team has ever seen: “I’d say the crowd was awesome. It was the biggest crowd I think I’ve ever had in my high school career,” Backhaus said.
That evening the parking lot was full to the brim, with fans filling out the student, staff and dirt lots, not to mention the stands themselves, spilling over the edge onto the sidelines.
In an intense back and forth game, the Wizards prevailed over the Sabercats, defeating them 64-57 with several last-minute plays by Smiley and Backhaus to widen the score gap to unreachable.
Shaking off the dust this January turned out to be more pleasant than expected, with two easily achieved victories against Greeley West and Centaurus High School and a theatrical masterpiece of a competition against Fossil Ridge High School, but these games do not conclude the season.
“Our goals are to win conference again like we did last year, so obviously a bit harder this year being in an all 6A conference,” Backhaus said. “And then after that, our goals are to win state this year. (We) came up short last year, but we really want to win it this year.” The team lost last year 53-57 against Mesa Ridge in the 5A State Championship.
The team’s goals are simple: make it back to the state championship and emerge victorious. But the team must continue their dominant performance for the remainder of the regular season. The Wizards will play Fossil Ridge High School again on Feb. 7 at Fossil Ridge High School, hoping for a much more decisive result, and will finish out the regular season against Loveland High School on Feb 20.