REBEL BALL: PATH TO STATE

Columbine Courier sports editor Michael Hicks and photo editor Matthew Jonas are following head coach Andy Lowry’s Columbine Rebels from the start of practice throughout the 2011 season, a year after a 9-2 season and a disappointing second-round playoff loss. We will follow the Rebels throughout the season and the work that goes into it. Second in a series.

DENVER — Twenty-four minutes before the start of the season opener with Thomas Jefferson and Columbine’s football players run through their stretching exercises. Overcast clouds hover over All City Stadium.
Assistant coach Ivory Moore, a motivational speaker if there ever was one, quips out one of his many words of wisdom.
“If you don’t feel it right now,” he tells the Columbine Rebels, “you’re probably in the wrong place.”
The 2011 season is officially here. It’s time for Rebel Ball. As written on the dryboard in the team’s locker room “We Can. We Will.” There is no other alternative for a Columbine team coming off a 9-2 season a year earlier.
Coming off a week in which the team traveled to Florida to play a scrimmage with Timber Creek (Fla.) High School, Columbine opens up with the host Spartans. This season, like many in recent years, comes with high hopes. It also comes with a team prepared to make the most of it. But in order to do so the players have to be ready both physically and mentally. Jaxon Mohr knows that.
Mohr, 10 minutes before kickoff, lies stretched out on the sideline, working out any last-minute kinks to have his body prepared for what he is about to embark upon.
“You got to get loose. It’s time to get ready and get down to business. You don’t want to be pulling any muscles,” Mohr said.

First of many wins
Team captains Nick Carpinello, Hank Hammond, Spencer Armijo and Travis Odoms walk to midfield for the season-opening coin toss. As the visiting team, Columbine gets to make the call and Carpinello swiftly calls tail. He wins the toss and defers taking the ball until the second half. It would be the first win of many to come on this day and probably this season.
Less than two minutes of gametime later, Columbine gets another one of those wins. This time from sophomore defensive back Bernard McDondle. His interception of Brandon Gonzales is returned 22 yards for a season-opening pick six. It would be the first of his three touchdowns on the day.
“That’s how we do it baby,” junior defensive back Aaron Freyta said of McDondle’s interception return as the defense rolled off the field.
Eight minutes later, when McDondle scored on a 47-yard scamper to put Columbine ahead 14-0, older brother Cameron McDondle, the offensive star for the Rebels a year ago, remained standing on the sidelines.
“Your brother is stealing your thunder,” an assistant coach was overheard telling the elder McDondle. Younger brother Bernard didn’t see it that way.
“No, I was just doing what I had to do. Coming out and playing for the team,” he said.
Cameron McDondle, who rushed for 1,583 yards and 25 touchdowns, was held out early due to what head coach Andy Lowry said was more dehydration than anything else. He played just a quarter and half in Florida and had barely practiced the week prior to the TJ game.
No worries, Cameron McDondle would make his presence felt. On his first run from scrimmage — two plays after Josh Croy sacked TJ’s Bennett Rodriguez and Dylan Baker recovered the loose ball — No. 21 was in the end zone for a 16-yard score.

Not to be denied
However, a holding penalty negated the play. Not to worry, on the next play Cameron McDondle took the ball to the house for 26 yards and a 19-0 lead. He later scored on a 94-yard kickoff return to open the second half, juking his way past TJ players with ease. Cameron McDondle is just fine.
Touchdowns by Noah Thompson and Kyle Lopez and a blocked punt by Mohr for a safety capped Columbine’s scoring. But the game wasn’t over for some players.
“You going in,” senior receiver/defensive back Noah Durkin asked teammate Ceasar Lopez.
Lopez, a starting linebacker, replied, “I’m standing by until I can go in.”
Only 9:45 remained in the game and Columbine’s lead was so much that a running clock had been in effect since midway through the third quarter. Lopez’s services, undoubtedly appreciated throughout the game, wouldn’t be needed any longer on this afternoon.
Columbine’s Rebels had proven that, for this game, it wasn’t about Thomas Jefferson but about them. It was about how they prepared and how they played.
“It’s always about us,” Lowry told his team in the post-game huddle.