Talent-rich Pueblo gaining traction on Colorado girls hoops map

When it comes to girls basketball in Colorado, the general consensus is to look south for the marquee athletes.

Perhaps folks aren't looking far enough in that direction.

Much farther south than the Highlands Ranch-area hotbed, Pueblo athletes are toiling in relative anonymity as they light it up in the Steel City.

Perhaps it's the town's location in the banana belt of the state. Maybe it's the notion that Pueblo teams operate in 4A rather than 5A, so the talent is often more suited for Division II with the occasional D-I blue-chipper. Or, possibly it's the notion that no Pueblo team has won a state championship since 1994, when Pueblo South upended Centaurus 54-45 in the 5A game (the state had a 6A classification in those days).

Whatever the case, Pueblo sometimes isn't given the credit it is due when it comes to girls hoops.

"Most definitely, we do get overlooked a lot," said Pueblo South junior guard Shannon Patterson, averaging a city-best 18.8 points a game. "But we do have good athletes and girls who are committed to basketball down here. We have quite a few on our team."

Pueblo South coach Shannan Lane was a part of that 1994 Colts' title, the final of three in a row for the school. She hasn't witnessed any more titles by a Pueblo team since then, but she's seen a lot of quality programs and quality players.

"We've always had good basketball talent," said Lane, who played at Southern Colorado (now CSU-Pueblo). "I think some other sports have come up through Pueblo, with girls softball having a big pull here and soccer as well. I think we get a lot of great athletes here, a lot who move on to the next level, but it's not always in basketball.

"Over the past few years, you're seeing a few more in basketball."

Included is Lane's own Mikala Gordon, who is committed to play at Colorado Christian next season. Gordon, a 5-9 guard who often posts up against smaller players, is averaging 15.6 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Colts (9-1), who are spending the holiday break ranked No. 8 in the latest Colorado Freeman Rankings.

Patterson, a tick shorter than 5-7, also appears a lock to play college hoops, as does junior classmate Kendra Jesik, the Colts' point guard.

The talent, though, is not restricted to Pueblo South. 15th-ranked Pueblo West (10-0) has a standout point guard in Northern Arizona-bound Taylor Leyva (18.2 scoring average) and a standout sophomore guard in Haley Simental (15.2).

Pueblo Central has had an up-and-down season at 5-6, but guard Kori Eurich is another of the city's top performers. She has topped the 20-point plateau four times and averages 17.5.

Pueblo County (9-3), which took a five-game winning streak into the break, is not to be left out. The Hornets have a pair of emerging juniors in Lindsey Sandavol (13.8 scoring average) and Jaylene Ayala (12.5).

Without omitting balanced and perennial competitor Pueblo East (6-4), the question begs, would these girls get more recognition if a team broke the city's title drought?

Since Lane's Colts won in '94 (and Pueblo teams moved to 4A), the classification has seen a dynasty down south in Lamar, which won four straight in the late 1990s, and up north with Broomfield, which had a five-year title reign snapped last season.

But it hasn't witnessed a Pueblo champion.

"It's funny, because it seems like Pueblo has been overlooked in a lot of arenas," Lane said. "You even look at '94 when we beat Centaurus, you look at all their seniors who went D-I. Then you look at our starting five in which none of us went D-I. A lot of that is recognition up north."

This is not to imply that Pueblo doesn't get looks from colleges — University of Denver assistant Abby Waner has been spotted a few times in the Steel City — but maybe not as much.

"I don't even know if winning a state title would give us that recognition, because even when we won three, I didn't see colleges really recruiting hard," Lane said.

It certainly wouldn't hurt. And if it didn't necessarily equate to a recruiting boom, it would serve as a source of pride and relief for the city, which has been close. South and West each were in the Final Four last season.

"We all compete with each other so hard in league, so I think if one of us won it all, it'd give us all a kind of confidence that anyone could do it," said Patterson, who recently went 6-for-9 from 3-point range en route to 28 points in a win against Falcon.

Patterson and others from Pueblo admit that while the teams are heated rivals with one another, they'd root for whichever Pueblo team was in a state title game.

Unless it was a co-Pueblo final, of course.