You never forget where you were. Ever. You don’t forget the moment life opened the door and the thing you loved most walked back in from the cold.
Jack Baumbach was in ceramics class. Kid happened to be palms deep in the muck when his phone wiggled. Basketball group chat. Best text ever.
Bwoop!
WELL, WE’RE NOT GOING TO SEE YOU GUYS ANYMORE.
Taptaptap. Bwoop!
WHAT?
Taptaptap. Bwoop!
DIDN’T YOU HEAR? FOOTBALL’S BACK. WE’RE GONNA GET TO PLAY.
“I just remember running around and the whole classroom going,’What’s going on?’” recalled Baumbach, a senior linebacker at Ponderosa. “I was jumping up and down. It was like the most amazing feeling because I’d missed it. I almost broke my pot because I was so excited.”
What does it mean to have prep football back on center stage during a Colorado fall? Friday night lights in shorts instead of parkas. The public address announcer’s voice echoing for city blocks, slicing through the autumn air. Full hearts and empty lungs. Grass stains. Seven Nation Army. The warmth of children’s laughter as they stomp up and down cold metal bleachers without a care in the world.
“We’re just stoked to get out on the field on a Friday night and put together a great season,” noted Chase Penry, a senior wideout with Cherry Creek, the defending 5A state champion. “And hopefully repeat and win a state championship.”
“It can go anywhere”
For most, it’s about the trophy, the final destination, no matter how winding and strange the road it took to get there.
For some, it’s about getting more game tape, giving college coaches one last look. For others, it’s one last ride with the guys you grew up with.
For Baumbach, it’s a closing statement. He’s a 3.7 student, National Honors Society member, part of the student council and student advisory group on activities. Oh, and the guy runs his own lawn-mowing business on the side, to which he squeezes in 15-17 hours per week whenever there’s a gap between school and football.
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“You’ve really got to learn how to manage time and arrange stuff,” Baumbach said.
It’s a killer college resume, hands down. The kid’s got a million-dollar head on his shoulders. But as a 5-foot-10, 190-pound linebacker, the football scholarship offers aren’t rolling in from the big boys, who generally prefer bigger bodies to stack in the box.
“I’m keeping (options) open,” said Baumbach, who racked up 4.8 tackles per game and four stops for losses as a junior. “If I don’t get a scholarship or I decide not to play, I’d want to get a degree in engineering.”
If it’s a question of academics, he’s leaning CSU. But he’s also been invited to camp at Mines, which would tick a lot of boxes, too. Everything’s up in the air.
“That’s why I’m happy we’re playing,” Baumbach said. “Because we get more opportunities to be looked at and have better film. And it can go anywhere.”
“Used to playing in the fall”
For Mason Maddox, it’s about showing progress. The 40 pounds he added in the offseason. The two-tenths of a second he’d lopped off his 40-yard dash while also packing on muscle.
“All the work we put in this summer it would just be a waste to sit around all fall and come back in the spring,” said Maddox, a senior defensive lineman at Cherokee Trail. “I got stronger and worked on my quickness so I could prepare for the season, whenever it was going to start.”
He’s got the motor. And at 6-3, 270, he sure as heck has the frame. Sessions at Six Zero Strength and Fitness in Centennial have shaved some of the rough edges off his junior year film. In March, Mason could bench press 225 pounds 13 times, NFL-combine style. By late September, he was doing 24 reps. A year ago, he ran a 5.1-second 40-yard dash at 240-ish pounds. He recently clocked a 4.95 at 270. He’s even faster when it comes to processing what’s in front of him.
“I’ve really been studying film work and reading keys, understanding the game better,” Maddox said. “And also the intensity of how I’ll play.”
He’s got four offers, all from Division II programs, including CSU Pueblo and Colorado Mesa. But with a chance at six more games, six more looks, who knows which other schools might come calling?
“(Playing in the fall), it’s huge, because, through my (previous) years of high school, I was used to playing in the fall,” Maddox said. “And switching things up, just would be different. It just feels back to normal.”
“We’re just thankful”
For Penry, it’s about closure. In January, before COVID-19 turned sports and entertainment upside down and shook it like a snow globe, the Bruins standout had verbally committed to the CU Buffs. He’s since been offered by UNLV and three-quarters of the Ivy League.
“There’s a lot of kids who would’ve graduated early and not even played in the spring,” said the 6-1 Penry, who’s ranked by 247Sports.com as the No. 8 recruit in the state for the Class of 2021. “I would’ve stayed just to finish what we started here at Creek.
“A lot of kids are relying on this year, kids who are seniors and who are juniors, to send this film, to get on colleges’ radars. So I think it was a really big thing, especially for the kids in my class, to get the opportunities for the next level. We’re just thankful.”
Grateful, too.
“With all the changes going on in the world right now, I think the biggest thing is to keep some perspective,” Penry continued. “There’s a lot of people hurting in the world right now. Losing graduation (ceremonies), canceling prom and all that, obviously, it hurts our senior class. It’s just trying to keep some perspective, some outlook, too.”
With mandates on gatherings and social distancing, football won’t look the same. It probably won’t sound the same. But once the ball’s kicked off, it’s going to feel the same. Like it never left.
Football’s back.
Baumbach’s pot?
Not so much.
“Let’s just say it had to be remade,” Baumbach laughed. “This one had very reasonable circumstances for the excitement. And my teacher understood that.”
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