Bahls balance family and basketball on the court
LAKEWOOD — Monday night was typical during the middle of the season for Evergreen’s girls basketball coach Amy Bahl.
While the coach of the defending Class 4A girls state champions was busy getting her team ready for the non-league game at Bear Creek High School, her husband Michael Bahl was keeping track and entertaining their daughters Alice (4) and Abby (2) up in the stands.
“My wife usually shares the bigger of the load,” Michael admitted during pregame warmups Monday. “The kids (Alice and Abby) even go to practice with her. We try to come to as many of each other’s games as we can. It’s daddy daycare right now.”
Amy is in her sixth season as head coach of the Cougars’ girls basketball program. The success Evergreen has had since she took over the program before the 2012-13 season has been remarkable.
The Cougars have turned into a Class 4A powerhouse with back-to-back state title appearances over the past two years. Amy guided Evergreen to its first girls basketball state title last season while racking up a 49-7 record during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.
“I couldn’t be more happy for the success she has had at Evergreen and what she has done with that program,” said Michael, who is in his first year as the head men’s basketball coach at Metro State University in Denver. “I was emotional with her because I know all the hard work she had put in.”
The Rocky Mountain High School and Fort Lewis College graduate has the Cougars clicking again this season with a 17-2, 9-1 league record after Evergreen’s 73-42 victory over Bear Creek.
The Bahls have made it work juggling family and basketball.
“I’ve always wanted to make it an effort when I had kids that I was still going to coach. I wanted to make it work. Our family will adapt,” said Amy, who brings her daughters to practice often. “Obviously it shows the players that my family is priority and they do lighten up practice. There is a bigger picture to all of this. Family is important to us.”
Most of the Cougars’ varsity players have watched Alice and Abby grow up over the past few years during Evergreen’s transformation into a powerhouse.
“To have that little laughter in the background lightens up the mood at practice for sure,” Evergreen senior Baylee Galan-Browne said of Alice and Abby. “It makes me sound so old, but they grow up so fast.”
Amy Bahl — formally Amy Mohr before she got married — grew up in Colorado and is the most decorated women’s basketball player to come out of Fort Lewis College in Durango. She is still the leading scorer (1,765 points) and rebounder (945 rebounds). The 2005 graduate was inducted into Fort Lewis College’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
Michael wasn’t too shabby on the basketball court either as a player before he began his coaching career at Metro State University.
The Broomfield High School graduate had a stellar career at Metro State from 2003-07. Michael most impressive career statistic was that he led the nation in 3-point shooting his senior year connecting on 52 percent (105-for-202) from beyond the arc.
Michael served the previous seven years as an assistant coach at Metro State. The Roadrunners are right in the thick of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference title. Metro (13-10 overall, 12-5 in RMAC) currently sit in third place in the conference standings.
“He (Michael) helps me a lot. We are a different kind of couple at night,” Amy admitted. “We have literally sat on the couch and drawn up plays on our coach’s whiteboards.”
There isn’t much of a question that Amy and Michael are working as a team to bring success at home and on the basketball court.
“We are in this together,” Michael said. “She is an assistant coach to me and I’m an assistant coach to her.”
