Loveland heads to Montrose

Control what you can.

Loveland football coach Wayne McGinn knows his team has been darn good at doing just that through an undefeated 2018 campaign (12-0), one that led to Friday’s trip to Montrose for Saturday’s 4A state semifinal showdown with the home team (11-1).

What he found out during a more-than-seven-hour bus ride Friday is his team handles what is out of its grasp pretty well, too.

“Toward the end, they’re ready to get off, but they did a great job,” McGinn said as the team pulled into the Holiday Inn just shy of 7 p.m. “I think they’re ready. They just know how important it is.”

The trip didn’t go exactly as planned. They expected to stop midway and get in a quick practice at Battle Mountain High School. The snowstorm they figured they might hit did, and it caused some delays at the Eisenhower Tunnel as bus driver Chris McCay figured it was better safe than sorry and stopped to put chains on the bus.

Trey Cardenas, Zach Weinmaster and Isaiah Meyers all got off for an impromptu snowball fight, which McGinn could only laugh at as he told them to get back aboard.

As McCay started the process, with help from McGinn, a siren went off and the tunnel was closed. But once the chains were on, the tunnel was open and the trip resumed.

It was a long trip, but the players used their time wisely. Some listened to music, others watched game film on their devices. They joked and laughed, acting like close teammates.

And they slept, even on each other. Garrett Sollin fell asleep first — head back, mouth wide open. A few minutes later, Austin Jones was asleep on his shoulder.

“I think the funnest part honestly was sleeping, cuddling with my teammates,” Sollin said with a laugh. “Just joking around.”

Hey, only a family can be THAT comfortable. “True that,” Sollin said. But McGinn decided not to stop and practice, because he didn’t want wet players getting back on the bus. He too, figured it was better to be cautious instead of having players getting sick before the game. By the time the team had eaten at Applebees in Montrose, an idea to script a quick walk-through was nixed for the night in favor of morning meetings and a walk-through then at the hotel.

“Everyone’s just been extremely focused, there hasn’t been a lot of messing around,” Mason Adams said. “Everybody has their eye on the prize, they know what they have to do. There hasn’t been any messing around, even through the summer. Everybody had been extremely focused.”