Kindness Classic keeps the legacy of Mackenzie Forrest alive

LAKEWOOD — It’s coming up on nine years since Mackenzie Forrest finished up her prep basketball career at Lakewood High School.

Forrest was a standout guard for the Tigers’ girls basketball team from 2012 to 2016. She still remains the all-time leading scorer with 1,420 points. Forrest tragically died after a car accident in March 2016, a few months before she would have graduated from Lakewood High School.

“For me she never leaves,” Lakewood coach Chris Poisson said of Mackenzie, who has her jersey framed in Lakewood’s gym. “Everyday her and my Dad are always somewhere. Something happens while I’m driving or maybe a song comes on. She is always in my mind in good ways.”

Poisson’s father — Joe Poisson, a former high school basketball coach in Jeffco — passed away shortly after Mackenzie’s death. 

“She was a special kid,” Poisson said of Mackenzie. “To get kids like that on your team is special. You have special relationships with those kids. Any way we can keep her legacy alive here (Lakewood High School).”

The Hustle and Heart 33 organization formed by the Forrest Family in honor of Mackenzie. The initiative highlights the core values of hustle (passion) and heart (compassion) that Mackenzie held during her life. Holger Forrest, Mackenzie’s father, was on hand for the tournament that included special warm-up shirts for all teams and MVP awards handed out by Holger after the final two games Saturday.

The Kindness Matters Classic began this season with Lakewood and D’Evelyn co-hosting the round-robin style tournament that included Sand Creek and Summit. Donations were taken during the 3-day tournament to help the Gold Crown Foundation with its scholarship program.

The plan moving is to keep the Kindness Classic as a 4-team tournament next year, but expand to an 8-team bracketed tournament hosted at Lakewood and D’Evelyn for the next 2-year cycle beginning in 2026-27 season. 

“This is a starting point. We want to make it bigger,” Poisson said. “The more we can spread this message and awareness.”

D’Evelyn and Lakewood played in the final game of the tournament Saturday afternoon at Lakewood High School. The Jaguars improved their record to 7-0 on the season with a 49-33 victory.

“It’s a busy two weeks and with our league (5A/4A/3A Jeffco) only having nine league games we had to find 14 non-league games,” D’Evelyn coach Chris Olson said. “But honestly, when we have a young team like this I think it is super helpful to have that many games.”

D’Evelyn did struggle at times in the first half against Lakewood (1-4). The Tigers were able to handle the Jaguars’ signature full-court press pretty well and trailed just 25-20 at halftime.

“One thing that this team has done excellent since our first scrimmage to today is break the press,” Poisson said. “I’m pleasantly surprised how well they are handling it.”

The Jaguars changed to a man-to-man defense in the second half and limited Lakewood to just 13 points to take control. Sophomores Colleen Monahan (12 points) and Lyla Nagy (10 points), along with senior Ellie McMann (11 points) led the way for the Jaguars.

“Coming out after last night I felt like we played really well. We were all really on a high,” McMann said of the Jaguars’ 74-46 victory over Summit on Friday night. “Coming into today I think we all thought we would have an easy first half and just roll through the game.”

It took a solid halftime speech from Olson to get the Jaguars refocused.

“In the locker room at halftime everyone was just silent. Nobody knew what to say because I think all of us had too much to say,” McMann said. “Olson came in and really switched the mindset.”

McMann drilled one of her three 3-pointers to end the third quarter to extend D’Evelyn’s lead to 40-27 heading into the fourth quarter. 

“I could not think of a better kid to have in that kind of situations,” Olson said of McMann stepping into a bigger role this season. “She is so good with the young kids.”

Lakewood senior DJ Parrish and sophomore Iben Last paced the Tigers scoring 14 points each. Fittingly, Lakewood finished with 33 points, the number that Mackenzie wore.

“Holger said that in the locker room and I got a little emotional,” Poisson said of the Tigers finishing with 33 points as the inaugural Kindness Classic came to a close. “I’ll almost take the loss if we finish with 33 points on this day. It doesn’t make the loss feel better, but it sure does make the day a lot brighter.”