Pueblo is a premier basketball town
Pueblo South and Pueblo West are contrasting draws for the Steel City’s athletic talent.
But draw they both do — as seen on the football field again this fall and now on the court this winter as the Colts and the Cyclones continue to assert their position among the Class 4A basketball elite.
South, which opened its doors in 1959, has tradition on its side by way of 25 state championships — the most of any Pueblo school — including five titles in girls hoops and two in boys hoops. But West, around only since 1997, has challenged their city supremacy as of late, swelling Pueblo with two elite athletic departments in the process.
“Now West has kind of grown into a big dog in the city, and we’re doing everything we can to wrestle that status away from South — they’re not relinquishing it very well,” Pueblo West boys coach Bobby Tyler said with a laugh.
“South is the inner-city school that all the athletes want to go to, and we’re the county school out on the perimeter of the city that everybody wants to go to, too. It’s a battle in every sport we play — last year, we had three knock-down, dragout fights with them.”
The South and West boys are again 4A title contenders, as the No. 3 Cyclones (2-1) and No. 4 Colts (3-1) — despite both being behind the early-season curve due to the late arrival of football players — have plentiful skill and experience.
Senior-laden South is led by Tonay Aragon as well as Marcell Barbee and Thomas Pannunzio, the latter two of which were key in the Colts winning their first football championship Dec. 2.
“Just like everybody else at this point, we’ve got a lot of work to do, especially because half my team just stopped playing football,” South coach D.J. Johnson said. “So we’re starting a step behind, but we’re just hoping to get better week by week and be playing our best at the end of the season.”
Tyler is also taking an incremental focus with his group, which like the Colts, is heavy in veteran leaders with seniors Nieyeme Smeyer-williams, Pierre Taylor, Jacob Wilkenson and Zeb Jacquart.
“This has been the winningest class we’ve ever had in boys basketball — the majority of these guys were on the roster when we won the state championship two
years ago, and all of them had a big part in what we did last year,” Tyler said. “Having all that experience back is big, and it’s created high expectations as to where we should go.”
On the girls side, the defending state runner-up Colts and the 2017 semifinalist Cyclones — both of whom had their seasons ended by reigning champion Evergreen last year — have their sights set on a return trip to the Denver Coliseum.
The No. 4 Colts (2-3) boast a trio of potent scorers in senior Maya Austin, junior Gabi Lucero and junior Drea Nelson, but coach Shannan Lane feels a sense of urgency within her program considering the team didn’t start the winter with its usual base.
“Last year, the team played fall ball, and when they came into the season, they already had 13, 14 games under their belt,” Lane said. “This team didn’t play fall ball — we’ve been managing injuries since last season’s state playoffs, and it’s been an ongoing issue for us. So I knew we were probably going to take some losses early.”
And the No. 2 Cyclones (2-0) are headlined by senior Olivia Lough and sophomore Hannah Simental as West — using, in part, the city’s rising hoops tide as a catalyst — makes another play for the program’s first state championship.
“Within Pueblo, we’re definitely rivals and we push each other,” West coach Gil Lucero said. “South has had a lot of success in the past — they’ve been the measuring stick in the state for girls and boys hoops for a while, and we’re trying to get to that level.”