Nucla’s about to have traffic, and not from cows. It’s tournament time for high school basketball, and the combined Mustangs are top seeded teams, which means they’ll host other teams in their own house for regionals this weekend.
On Friday, March 6, the girls teams for Briggsdale and Creede face off at noon, followed by the Ouray guys playing De Beque at 2 p.m.
Then, the Nucla girls, with a record of 21-2, play DeBeque Friday at 4 p.m., and the Nucla guys, undefeated at 23-0, play Kit Carson at 6 p.m.
Winners of games play in the finals at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 7, for the girls and guys, respectively.
Head coach for the girls Stan Galley told the Forum over the weekend it’s been incredible.
“It’s a pretty good feat for two teams from the same school, to have those kinds of records,” he said.
What are the Mustangs focusing on now?
Galley said the girls are thinking about their game against DeBeque. They played them earlier this year and beat them, but he said they’re not looking past Friday because they have to win that first game to get to the second.
“But we should do fairly well,” he said.
Galley estimated that Briggsdale would likely win over Creede.
“And they’ve been a pretty good team for a long time. They’ve got a good coach and decent players,” he said. “It will be a pretty good contest for us, if we win Friday.”
He said the girls were feeling good, and the excitement is building. He admitted it’s a long season for the girls, starting in November and then running through February and early March. Through all of that, the young women have had good attitudes and are ready to start postseason.
Galley said the fan support has meant a lot.
“We’ve had some pretty good crowds at the last couple of home games. The community is pretty excited for the kids,” he said.
He said it was tough to wait until Sunday, when the bracket was released, to find out who they were playing. The girls had been waiting since Thursday, after they beat Dolores. Now it’s time to prepare.
“I’m just really proud of the way the girls finished the season,” Galley said.
“Exciting times for our communities during basketball season for sure,” head coach for the guys Mike Rummel said.
Rummel told the Forum this has been a special year so far with the guys.
“They were talking amongst themselves early on in the year, maybe even before we started playing any games and were saying to each other that they should be able to go 23-0,” he said. “They would ask each other ‘who is going to beat us?’ Now it is a reality. They pulled it off.”
Rummel has coached most of the boys, from their middle school years on the court on up to now.
“In middle school they had a lot of success, and I thought back then that if they stayed together through high school that it could be something special and something to remember, and it has been up to this point,” he said. “This year they knew if they stumbled at any time someone could take them down. We had a few games that we had to fight back to pull out the win. Never during any of their games could you sense that there was any doubt in their minds that they weren’t going to win the game.”
Rummel said even in the last regular season game, when the Mustangs were down 18-15 at the half against Dolores, they came back out and started hitting shots, playing like they could. They ended that game with a 60-41 win.
“We are not finished,” Rummel said. “We want to go make our mark on the other side of the mountain at the state playoffs. You have to get over there to give yourselves a chance. We feel like we can play with any of the teams that could make it over there.”
He’s asking for support for the guys and the girls.
“Fans, please come out this weekend to support both of our teams and rock the Mustang Dome!” he said.
