Valor Christian and Evergreen girls basketball are guided by friends, former prep standouts
HIGHLANDS RANCH — In their one meeting against each other, Amy Mohr’s Rocky Mountain Lobos beat Jessika Stratton’s Coronado Cougars in the Class 5A Great 8. That was in 2000.
Today, Jessika Caldwell is 4-0 against Amy Bahl as the respective coaches at Valor Christian and Evergreen. They may be older, they may have different last names and they may worry where they’re dropping off their kids as opposed to meeting up with their friends, but Caldwell and Bahl remain entangled by the game of basketball.
Only now they get to face each other much more often. That included Thursday night as Caldwell’s Eagles (19-1 overall, 13-0 4A Jeffco League) 44-37 win over Bahl’s Cougars.
“There’s a of similarities with us being moms and coaches and coaching high school girls,” Bahl said. “It’s exciting to play against her. I like to talk to her off the court, too, about basketball and our conference and that kind of stuff.”
Before taking the job at Evergreen (18-3, 10-3) in 2011, Bahl had been well-immersed in a competitive basketball lifestyle. Following her time at Rocky Mountain, she played Division II basketball at Fort Lewis.
She was no slouch. When she left the Skyhawks, she had set school records in scoring (1,765 points), rebounds (945) and made free throws. She was inducted into the Fort Lewis hall of fame in 2015.
“We were similar players in that we worked hard, always,” Bahl said.
But they didn’t necessarily follow the same path. Caldwell earned a scholarship to Baylor and in 2004 was named the Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year.
She came back to Colorado and her hometown of Colorado Springs to become the head coach at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs before taking a position as an assistant at Colorado Christian University.
She was hired as the girls basketball coach of Valor in July of 2014. She led the Eagles to state title in 2015.
But the time she gets to spend with Bahl is one of the favorite aspects of this job. As teenagers, the two played club basketball together for the Boulder Rockies.
“It’s so much fun to be able to partner alongside another female, especially a female with a family,” Caldwell said. “We get to compete, because we were such competitors as athletes, so this a fun way to continue that competition and do it against one another.”
But what about when they actually got to battle it out with each other on the court?
Bahl’s team came away with the win in the one, true game where they played against each other. But as club teammates, there had to be times where they came up against each other on the practice court. If they know the results of those sessions, they aren’t sharing them with anyone.
“It’s so hard to remember, it feels like such a long time ago,” Caldwell said. “I graduated in 2000, (laughs) it’s kind of embarrassing to think about.”
In that time they’ve developed lives well beyond basketball. Perhaps back in 2000, any pregame talk would’ve centered around strategy or what was happening within the conference.
But Thursday, the focus was on something that is a more pressing issue.
“Before the game we talked about kids,” Caldwell said. “It’s such a blessing to me because basketball takes friendships so much further.”
It’s something they get to do twice a year, bring their teams and play it out for the Jeffco title. But even with a taking all four games that she’s coached over Bahl, Caldwell still has the one recorded loss from their time as players.
Upon remembering that game, Thursday’s loss suddenly got a little easier for Bahl.
“Yes! I got her there!” she said.
