SVA Mile High League Coach of the Year Takes Team to the Elite Eight

By Tom Lenderink

On October 29th, 2019, two weeks before the season started, I was asked to take over the SkyView Academy High School Boys’ Basketball program. Though I had helped with off-season summer and fall workouts, I had never been a head coach.

I felt blessed with the opportunity to mold boys into men just as the legendary Coach Dick Katte of Denver Christian had done for me. As excited as I was for the opportunity to coach, the team was not as welcoming. There were seven seniors on the team, and I was their third coach in three years. This resulted in a power struggle until the Senior Captains Luke Wright, and Jake Gregory decided to take a stance toward their fellow seniors and explain that things would get better if they bought in. That buy-in came to fruition at a game on Martin Luther King Day, January 20th, 2020, vs. a sweet 16 team. The Hawks had a 16-point comeback in the 4th quarter, and a potential game-winning three-point shot that went in and out for Senior Jake Gregory changed how those boys viewed me as a coach. 

“I felt blessed with the opportunity to mold boys into men just as the legendary Coach Dick Katte of Denver Christian had done for me. As excited as I was for the opportunity to coach, the team was not as welcoming.”

Coach Tom Lenderink

Until this point, there was little to no summer basketball culture infused into the team, which was a critical missing piece, and I was determined to change that to give them every opportunity to succeed. I held summer workouts for the entire month of June and signed the team up for four camps. We needed to get time in the gym to improve. In addition to ramping up our training, we added three key hires who were pivotal in shaping our players and teams. Jake Gregory, who was part of the first senior class I coached, became an Assistant Coach and helped develop younger players. Parker Humphrey, who had coached for multiple years in Colorado Springs, took over as my Assistant Coach. Last but not least, Michael Kamman stepped into the role of the JV/C Team Coach to begin building the program from the ground up. Kamman brought with him over 18 years of coaching experience from New Mexico. These three hires and our returning players from the year before had me hopeful we could begin to score more victories.

“Until this point, there was little to no summer basketball culture infused into the team, which was a critical missing piece, and I was determined to change that to give them every opportunity to succeed.”

Coach Tom Lenderink

January 22, 2022, we were set to play Manual High School- home of the Gatorade Player of the Year, Jordan Reed. One of the best players in the state. Freshman Issac Dove was put in as the on-ball defender and wreaked havoc on Reed as we competed from the first whistle blow to the last, only losing by 15 points. The Hawks went to the final four in the 3A Boys Basketball State Tournament. It was a moral victory, to say the least. The boys clutched the belief that they deserved to play on the same floor as all of the other elite teams. The Hawks ended the season with only 3 wins and a total of only 8 wins in the previous three years. I was still determined to change the culture as I continued to cling to the glimpses of hope I saw over the past year. 

Last summer, we went 22-10 in games as a Varsity Basketball program and only lost one of those games by more than 10 points. Three of the four sophomores, now juniors, returned to our program, Kyle Cosart, Ty Coberly, and Jesus Aguirre. All three have made massive strides in their skills and abilities and have become outstanding basketball players. Their freshman year, they lost a game to Kent Denver 107-33 and now know the feeling of success. 

As we began 2022-2023, there was a lot of hope that this could be our year. We started out flat, winning only 1 out of our first 3 games. We had a team meeting, and I asked the boys, “What do you need from me?” I told them I was becoming hesitant and that maybe I was not the right coach for them. We won by 30 points in the next game and 5 out of the next 6 games. We felt the waves of success only to face unexpected calamities around the corner. On Monday, December 26th, we were informed that a pipe had burst at the school, and both of the gym floors were destroyed. There would be no practices or games at the school for the foreseeable future. This is every coach and player’s nightmare. Thankfully we found a backup gym to practice at though it was chaotic. We began practicing every morning at 6:00 am before school at Basketball Social House. The boys were asked to be student-athletes and expected to keep up with their schoolwork, yet they still diligently made an effort to wake up early before school every day to practice. I was in awe of their desire for excellence in success. 

The Hawks did not get to play another home game and rather became road warriors. They continued their success, ending with a 14-7 record (10-2 in the conference) and beating the two best teams in our league, Front Range Christian, on February 2nd and Bishop Machebeuf on February 17th. Those two, and the rest of our wins, earned us an at-large bid for the State Playoffs for the first time in SkyView Boys Basketball History and the 2022-2023 Mile High League Co-Champions. The boys wanted this and were fired up as we faced Ellicott High School. The boys played neck in neck with Ellicot all game long, going into multiple overtimes until they prevailed, sending them onto the Sweet 16. This was icing on the cake, but the boys continued to believe and won the following day again, beating Strasburg with another great performance as a team. The boys were Regional Champions and qualified for the Great 8. It was a Cinderella story, to say the least, and it showed them that success could be earned if you put in the time and hard work. At the beginning of the season, the target was to put something on the blank banner hanging in the gym, and we achieved that by winning the Mile High League, qualifying for State, winning Regionals, and going on to play in the Great 8. 

“It was a Cinderella story, to say the least, and it showed them that success could be earned if you put in the time and hard work.”

Coach Tom Lenderink

You might ask what their motivation is now. 83-35 was the final score of the Great 8 game vs. Highland. The boys are eager to go back to DU to take care of continuing to earn success past the Great 8 next season. These individual boys, this team, these coaches, and this community are ready to take on the 2023-2024 Boy’s Basketball Season challenges. Go Hawks!

Coach Tom Lenderink was named the Colorado Mile High League Coach of the Year. He serves as SkyView Academy’s Head Varsity Basketball Coach, Director of Athletics, and Director of Student Engagement and Mental Health. SkyView is honored to have him leading and serving our students in multiple areas.