The new-look Roaring Fork High School boys and girls basketball teams open the season with their home Brenda Patch Tournament this weekend.
Girls coach steps down
Right off the bat, the girls team is adjusting to a coaching change following the unexpected resignation this week of new head coach Albert Blanc.
Blanc, a 1966 Glenwood Springs High School graduate and later an accomplished coach at various schools across Colorado, tendered his resignation to RFHS Athletic Director Crista Barlow on Monday, citing health reasons.
The decision leaves one of Blanc’s former players at Glenwood, Mike Vidakovich, to take on the head coaching duties after he had signed on to be Blanc’s varsity assistant coach.
Vidakovich is a veteran coach himself, having led the Glenwood Springs varsity girls from 1991 to 1998, and the Eagle Valley High School varsity girls in 2003-04.
For the past four years, he has coached the Glenwood Springs Middle School eighth grade girls, assisted by Rich Law. Vidakovich has asked Law to be his varsity assistant at Roaring Fork, and Barlow is looking to hire a new junior varsity coach.
To start, Vidakovich will be on the sideline coaching both the JV and varsity squads this weekend, as the Rams invite Aspen, Steamboat Springs and Front Range guest, Prospect Ridge, to Carbondale for the Patch tourney.
The tournament is held each year in memory of Brenda Patch, a former Rams basketball player who died in a car wreck along with her mother during Brenda’s junior year in 1986.
Vidakovich inherits a young Rams team that he describes as “very enthusiastic and very coachable.”
The team is heavy on sophomores and juniors, with several key returning players who saw ample playing time last year, including juniors Erica and Carley Crownhart and Maddie Anderson, and sophomore Nikki Tardif. The lone seniors on the team are Avery Smith and Lelany Gardesani.
“We will try to play fast, and do that while playing under control,” Vidakovich said of a speedster team that will look to thrill fans on the fast break.
He cautioned, however, that the team will take some development through the early season, leading up to the always tough 3A Western Slope League slate of games starting in late January.
The Roaring Fork varsity girls match up with Prospect Ridge at 6pm Friday at the RFHS gym, and will take on Steamboat Springs at 1pm Saturday. Over in the Auxiliary gym, the JV girls play at 4pm Thursday against Basalt and at 3pm Friday against Palisade.
The team is then off to fine tune some things on the practice court ahead of the Basalt tournament, Dec. 13-16.
Rams boys regroup
Meanwhile, the Roaring Fork boys will look to try to rekindle the playoff flame this season after making it to the Sweet 16 of the 3A State Tournament last year. However, they’ll have to do it without a core group of six seniors who graduated after the 2022-23 campaign.
Roaring Fork is led by third-year head coach Jason Kreiling, who has had the rare opportunity to continue coaching a group of student-athletes he began with as the eighth grade coach at Carbondale Middle School before taking the high school varsity helm.
“We have a lot of guys out this year, which is nice,” he said of a team that will have some needed depth on the bench.
Seniors Noel Richardson and Josh Hernandez, who had to sit out last year with a knee injury, provide this year’s leadership, along with some newer upperclassmen who also decided to give basketball a try this season.
A talented group of juniors, including Sam Brennan, Luis Andrade and Lawson Kreiling, round things out for the Rams.
“These younger guys got some experience in those games toward the end of the season last year, because we were able to dress a full roster of 14,” Kreiling said.
The Rams finished second to Cedaredge in the 3A WSL last season, and will look to again be among the top teams this year.
The varsity boys open against a familiar league opponent to start the Patch tournament, taking on Aspen at 7:30pm Friday. They’ll return to the court Saturday to play Prospect Ridge at 2:30pm.