Carey seeking his 800th win, 10th state title
To build a prep basketball legacy is one matter. To maintain it — and to polish it off with another state championship — is another task altogether.
Such is the situation facing Denver East’s Rudy Carey, who at 65 is in the twilight of his coaching career. Carey has won nine state titles over 42 years, and he has the tools this season to post a record 10th — not to mention break the 800-win mark should the No. 2 ranked Angels continue at their current 9-1 pace.
The Class 5A boys basketball career leader in wins, state titles and state titles at one school (six with the Angels) said he assesses his coaching status on a “year-by-year basis,” although this season looks as promising as ever for Denver East to wrap up his career with another state title.
“It’s getting down to my dad’s last few years, and it feels like time is running out,” said Carey’s son David, an East assistant coach. “Even with all our talent, we have to do all the little things right and we have to have a sense of urgency.
“This is like a family business for us — so we want to make sure the business is being run the right way, and that he goes out the right way.”
Business has been booming this winter. The Angels head into Friday’s showdown against No. 4 Chaparral coming off a runner-up finish at the prestigious Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas, and they have not lost to an in-state opponent. And while Carey is still the program’s frontman — yelling, pacing the bench, working the officials — outside of game day, it’s David who is fueling the hopes of East winning its first gold ball since 2014.
David, who won more than 100 games as the coach at Montbello from 2005-11, is the one who directs practices. His energy, funneled into the development of two of the state’s top players — senior guard Daylen Kountz (averaging 21.9 points per game) and junior guard Kwane Marble (16.5) — as well as a strong supporting cast, has the elder Carey confident his team can build off last season’s Sweet 16 loss to eventual state champion Eaglecrest.
“We were young, immature and inexperienced last year, and we ran up against a team that was very seasoned,” Carey said. “(Coach) John Olander did a tremendous job with getting those kids to peak at the right time — there’s no substitute for the experience of three straight semifinals — but this year, we have the potential to match that experience and result.”
In Kountz, a University of Colorado commit, Carey believes he has “the best player in the state, and it’s not even close.”
“Daylen is, in my estimation, one of the top 10 players in the state in the last 20 years,” Carey said. “He’s compromised some of his scoring to do other things — rebounding, blocking shots, defending — and offensively he’s got what you call a 14-foot game, which is a lost art among high school players.”
But while Kountz and Marble (who has received three Division I scholarship offers) remain centerpieces from last year’s team, much else changed. Most notably, East had three players on its roster at 6-foot-6 or taller, including a 7-1 giant, but all those players graduated or transferred. The Angels now roll out a starting lineup that runs about 6-3 across the board.
“To make up for size disadvantages, it’s about getting everyone on the same page, keeping our energy up on defense and making sure we’re doing the little things — communicating, getting loose balls, running the floor,” Kountz said. “We don’t have the big man that we did last year, so Kwane and I both have to make sure we’re bought into every defensive possession against those post players.”
And in Class 5A, where there are five to 10 teams with a realistic shot at winning a state championship, David Carey emphasized that “removing egos” is essential for East to achieve its potential.
It is Rudy Carey’s legacy in the balance, but the team’s individuals are in charge of the outcome — as they always have been in what the Angels Hall of Famer described as “not a program, but a culture.”
“It’s a student-driven basketball team — it’s their buy in that’s going to get us to where we want to go,” Rudy said. “And honestly, I’m just enjoying the ride this year. This is a motivated group.”