Falcon High School varsity boys and girls basketball teams have a few things in common: winning their conference/league championships, heading to state competition and having a member of the Wood family as a coach.Chris and Donald Wood are all about the Falcon community and Falcon school sports. Chris Wood was the girls junior varsity coach for three years, took one year off last year and is now the head coach of the varsity team. Donald Wood coached the freshman team for one year and has been coaching varsity for three years. This year is the boys second conference championship in a row. The brothers coached middle school teams prior to high school. In the earlier days of their coaching careers, both coached third graders in club sports.The girls team is ranked 16th in the state and will host Skyview High School from Thornton for the first round of playoffs. ìA lot of people didnít think we would even be a 500 team. They didnít think weíd make playoffs. They didnít realize how good these girls really are,î Chris Wood said.Caislyn Long has been a leader on the team and consistent in points. Wood said, ìShe has a good chance of being voted Player of the Year by other coaches. She brings defense and she makes every other girl around her better.îThe FHS girls team has four graduating seniors this year. Wood is positive about the future of the team. ìJuniors are queuing up,î he said. ìThe seniors have done such a good job that they are going to leave it [the team] better than they found it.îThe end of season is not the end of practice. The girls team has a goal of participating in 30 games in 30 days in June to keep their skills at the highest level.The FHS boys team is a young team, having graduated nine seniors last year and only having four this season, one junior and four sophomores. Donald Wood said he started coaching the sophomores on the team this year when they were in third grade. ìMost of them have been together since then. They are a good group of boys who really love basketball,î he said.Donald Wood attributes the success of the team to the work the players put into the game outside of practice. The team motto is ìwe before me.î Wood said, ìWe work at playing together as a team.îJunior Eric Graham is the teamís only varsity player who returned for this season. Wood said he could win Player of the Year. ìIíve already had a few college coaches reach out to me about Graham,î he said. Sophomore Jeramiah Potts is one of Woodís players he coached in third grade. ìHe shows a lot of potential and interest in moving up to the next level,î Wood said.The boys team is ranked 30th in the state as they head into the state championship playoffs.State playoffs started the week of Feb. 20. Similar to March Madness in professional basketball, if a team doesnít win a game, they go home. Playoffs last about two weeks, starting with 32 teams ó until there is one.At the time the NFH went to press, the FHS girls basketball team won their first playoff game in overtime. The boys team lost their first playoff game.
