New challenges ahead for Niwot boys basketball in 2021

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic altered the landscape of local high school sports, the 2021 boys basketball season promised to be full of potential pitfalls for second-year coach Clayton Wittrock and the Niwot Cougars, as they adapt to a new league and a new starting lineup. But seeing his youthful team's resilience during the past 11 months of upheaval and social distancing has made Coach Wittrock hopeful that the Cougars will find a way to build on last season's momentum and roll with the coming changes to a second straight winning season.

"Just the effort and the attitude of the guys, all through the spring and the fall, has me confident they know the effort and what those guys did last year to try to get this program going in the right direction," Wittrock said of the 2021 Cougars, which will feature a lot of unfamiliar faces. "They get it. They're verbalizing to me that 'we want to leave this program in a good place' and 'we want to leave on a positive'."

Needless to say, that will be much easier said than done, and Wittrock is mindful of the struggles the Cougars will face over the course of the modified 14-game season. Most pressing on his mind is his team's lack of varsity experience, an outgrowth of last year's senior-heavy roster. Just four of the five varsity players who didn't graduate are returning - seniors Gage Gruidel, Hayden Morford, Brennan Noterman and junior Dev Mudukutore. Junior forward Rowan Granat, the only underclassman to see time in all 24 games for Niwot last season, will miss 2021 due to an injury. That leaves up to eight spots on the roster for players with no varsity experience at all, and, paired with a short pre-season, means they will have to "learn a lot quickly," Wittrock said.

"We have guys that were on the varsity bench, but as far as hard varsity experience, they're going to have to be in sponge mode the whole time. But I'm excited about the contributions I can see from some of the younger guys who are going to be in there."

Also returning to the program are longtime assistant coaches Charles Trowbridge, Mike Gossett, Joe Kear, and Jeremy Johnson. Like last year, they plan to make strong defense the centerpiece of Niwot's game planning in 2021, and ultimately want the Cougars to be known as a defense-first team. But as Wittrock learned to his dismay as a rookie coach, bolstering the defense can come at the expense of the offense, so Wittrock is looking to bring more "balance" to the overall strategy.

"Going into last year, I knew I had a talented and hardworking bunch of guys, and I probably took the offensive side a little bit for granted. And ultimately, we didn't get as far as we wanted to... But I think as far as running the offense, and I know a big emphasis for us this year, offensively, has got to be our confidence and ability to take care of the ball. And we can't turn it over like we did last year."

Along with the new lineup, the Cougars will face a new slate of league opponents, as they transition into the 10-team Longs Peak League, which was formed when the Colorado High School Activities Association realigned the Class 4A Tri-Valley and Northern Leagues. Other members are Berthoud, Frederick, Fort Morgan, Mountain View, Northridge, Riverdale Ridge, Roosevelt, Severance, and Thompson Valley. Notably absent from that list are traditional Niwot rivals Longmont and Silver Creek, though they are both on the Cougars' 2021 schedule.

Wittrock is "sad" about the dissolution of the Northern League and the home-and-home rivalry games with the Trojans and Raptors, but he is "excited" about Niwot's prospects in the LPL, even though the lack of scouting opportunities could put more pressure on his developing team.

"This is going to make it interesting," he said, "because we're facing a lot of new opponents, and for the most part, with a couple of exceptions, we're only going to face them once. I think in a lot of ways it's going to be a learning year, and I think it's going to make it important that players are used to making in-game adjustments."

Of course, that will be on top of the adjustments Wittrock and the Cougars will be making due to COVID-19 restrictions. On Jan. 7, CHSAA announced the final regulations for Season B sports, including basketball, and some are more cumbersome than others. In addition to a shortened schedule and smaller playoff pool, players will be required to wear masks during play and no spectators will be allowed at home games. Gathering restrictions and social distancing also limit the number of players at practice, the number of assistants on the bench during games, and could make it harder for Wittrock to watch sub-varsity competition. But since the team has taken the other pandemic disruptions in stride, Wittrock predicts it won't take long for both players and coaches around the state to adapt to the new limitations.

"It'll be interesting to see how [masks] plays out at game speed," he said. "I think it's gonna force a lot of coaches, myself included, to be going deeper into rotations to keep guys fresh, and to get them a break. So I think it'll change some things with the game planning. But the social distancing piece, we've been doing that since June. And I've seen kids go hard in masks... it's amazing when they get in the thick of playing, they don't notice it. We're confident that we're going to be able to be within requirements, and still successfully play and coordinate a game."

Still, with a lot of uncertainty ahead 2021, Wittrock admitted that his excitement for the new-look Cougars might be misplaced. With a developing program and players, consistency is crucial, and the waxing and waning pandemic might make that hard to achieve. So while he is optimistic about the "pandemic year," he has also expanded his definition of a successful season beyond wins and losses, starting with the opportunity to play at all.

"It's not optimal, but at this point, it's what's being required to allow us to play," Wittrock said. "And that's the message I'm sending to the boys-we get to play.

"I always want kids to be basketball players, not just run basketball plays," he continued. "And I think that's going to be our big sign, when we're seeing kids getting those experiences and being able to be able to apply a better basketball IQ. Even if the shot doesn't go in, but I know you did everything right, we can live with that. That shows growth, and that's going to leave them with a positive."

Year two of the Clayton Wittrock era of Niwot boys basketball kicks off on Tuesday, Jan. 26 at home against Roosevelt. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. (Home games will be streamed online, but details are still being finalized.)