YHS boys basketball team banquet

Editor’s Note: The YHS boys basketball team could not have a team banquet after the season this year, for obvious reasons, so Dave Sheffield decided to have it in the newspaper.

Season summary
Coming off back to back State Championships, the 2019/2020 Yuma Indians came into the season with very high expectations. We returned 5 of our top 7 from last year’s rotation. The Tribe went 5-1 in their pre Christmas schedule, with our only loss to Colby at the Topside Tipoff. We started off the new year winning our first 7 games before falling to Chase County in Imperial. After that loss, we closed out the remainder of the regular season without a loss, sweeping through the conference schedule for our third consecutive LPAA Conference Championship. During the District tournament we battled through adversity, as we were hit with injuries in the semifinals, and lost to Holyoke. We bounced back in the final game of Districts with a win over Sedgwick County, giving us the #9 seed in the Regional Tournament. The week of Regionals is when COVID 19 hit Colorado. Our Regional site, originally at Vail, was changed to Clear Creek. At the Regional Tournament, we started to play our best basketball of the year, as the production from various players increased. In the opening round we beat Meeker 63-45, and then earned the #3 seed at State with a 67-35 win over Vail Mountain. At State we opened against #6 Fowler in a rematch of last year’s State Semifinal game, which Yuma won 56-47. This game was as good as the last. After falling behind early, we took a 24-19 edge at half, allowing only 1 point in the 2nd quarter. The Indians controlled much of the second half in a tight game, eventually pulling out a 55-51 win, sending us to the Final 4. The State Tournament was cancelled that night at 11:00, leaving everyone to wonder what if… The Tribe finished with a 21-3 record. The Indians had 5 seniors who finished their careers under these uncertain times: Rolando Caraveo, Chase McCreath, Preston Blach, Jonathan Rascon, and Creighton Eyring.

LETTERMEN
Rolando Caraveo SR
Chase McCreath SR
Preston Blach SR
Creighton Eyring SR
Jonathan Rascon SR
Cade Morton JR
Bryson Castillo JR
Lane Remmich JR
Javier Gamboa SO
Beau Tate SO
Clay Robinson SO
Kobe Rayl SO
Jesus Ross FR
Javier Duran FR

The JV, C-team and D-team also had great seasons. The JV went 16-3 with losses to Sterling, Brush and Sidney. The C-team went 14-2, losing only to Chase County and Sidney, and the D-team went 5-3.
Combined, the four YHS boys teams went 56-11 in 2019-2020 season.
Letter of PARTICIPATION
J Gordo JR
Caleb Long JR
Jaxson Lungwitz SO
Brekyn Josh SO
Alberto Rascon SO
Conner Lynch SO
Andre Baucke SO
Forest Rutledge FR
Jonathan Carrillo FR
Nash Richardson FR
Cesar Varela FR
Kevin Orona FR
Abraham Lopez FR
Jack Blecha FR
Coaching Staff:
Dave Sheffield, Josh Rahe, JP Carwin, Larry Winger, Jared Coughlin
Managers: Brody Sheffield, Silas Baucke, Breann Witte
Filmer: Cody Gross