Skyview girls basketball coach Chris Kemm was pleased on two fronts Dec. 8.

                His Wolverines beat Bennett 63-8 in the opening round of the Santiago’s Shootout in Fort Lupton. Skyview scored the first 24 points of the game and didn’t allow the Tigers to get on the board until early in the second quarter.

“It was a good start for our girls. I’m very glad,” Kemm said. ”Coach (Mike Rios) over there, he’s got the girls running pretty good. We wanted to make sure that their success and our success match pretty evenly. We wanted to keep our intensity up.”

What pleased him more was the start to the first girls basketball campaign in two years at Skyview. The Wolverines won their first four contests after sitting out last season because of coronavirus. Wolverines’ players joined other area high-school teams last year, and most played some form of club ball over the summer.

Nine players – Marina Boltz, Erica Jaramillo, Kiana Gutierrez, Miklyah Espinosa, Victoria Munoz, Alexa Peraza, Emma Long, Jennifer Jaramillo and Janessa Ketteler – are seniors. That’s a strength, according to the coach.

                “One is not playing (because of injury), so we have a lot of game experience,” Kemm said. “Even though we didn’t play last year, eight of them got a lot of good game experience. We have five or six girls with 50 or more games on varsity. That’s our biggest strength. One of our weaknesses is learning to play together again.”

                It had been more than 640 days between Skyview games.

                “Not that anybody was counting,” Kemm laughed. “When we tipped off the season, it had been 640 days since we played under the name. We had a lot of spring work and summer work. But it’s not the same. We had a lot of 20-minute halves, which is a lot of quick work. You’re not getting the simulation of a game.”

Skyview drew a 3:00 start for its game against the Tigers after a late start to the school day.

                “it’s not fun,” Kemm said. “Those things don’t mix well, especially in a tournament. I told them we had to start hard, just like our practices. It worked out for us. We wanted to keep working on fundamentals. We worked on five or six things that we really simulate in practice. Games like this? You don’t want to disrespect your opponent. But you still want to work on things that can make us grow.”

                Skyview finishes its annual classic format tournament this weekend by hosting Ponderosa at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17.

                “We know our schedule is going to get a lot tougher,” Kemm said. “We have a huge gap between our veterans and our new players. We ran two freshmen and a sophomore today, and they are our stars of the future. It’s nice to have them learn from veterans like Marina and Miklyah and Lex (Alexa Peraza). They have a lot of good girls to loop up to.”