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With steady coaching and an influx of talent, Fairview girls basketball primed for a breakout postseason

The Knights returned all their key pieces from last season and have burst out to an 11-3 start

Fairview Girls Basketball
Jeremy Papasso, Daily Camera
Fairview High School’s Ashley Panem goes for a layup over Morgan Miller during a game against Pine Creek on Thursday in Boulder. The Knights have their sights set on a Final Four run this season.
Kyle Newman, digital prep sports editor for The Denver Post.

BOULDER — In Rod Beauchamp’s 17 years as the Fairview girls basketball coach, he has had plenty of success: 11 winning seasons; a 2005 Front Range League championship; seven consecutive playoff appearances.

But with the core of last season’s team returning and a depth rivaled by few in the conference, Beauchamp and the Knights have their sights set even higher this season. Class 5A No. 8 Fairview (12-3) made it a goal to reach the Final Four, something Beauchamp has never done in his time on Greenbriar Boulevard.

Losses so far to No. 2 Ralston Valley (77-50 on Dec. 10), No. 9 Regis Jesuit (69-52 on Jan. 7) and No. 4 Horizon (64-57 on Jan. 13) have proved, just like last season’s first-round playoff loss to powerhouse Grandview did, that a Knights team laden with potential still has plenty of strides to make.

“Heading into the winter we knew we were returning our three leading scorers from last year’s team, and they were only going to continue to get better as we filled in the pieces,” Beauchamp said. “But from that Grandview game at the end of last year, though, we knew we had a lot of work to put in if we wanted to beat one of the top schools. I still don’t know if we’re there yet, but we’re working towards it.”

Senior Grace O’Neil (17.9 points per game), junior Ashley Panem (16.4) and junior Denali Pinto (14.3) give the Knights a three-pronged offensive attack, with freshman Izzy Munson and senior Sydney Rios rounding out the starting lineup and senior Lena Haddad, sophomore Kate Lampert and junior Kelsey Webster playing key roles off the bench.

“We need Grace, Ashley and Denali to get their points, but we’ve known from the beginning of the season we’ve got a bunch of role players who can come in to give us four to six points as well as defend and get some rebounds,” Beauchamp said. “For the most part we’ve had that every game. It’s about everyone knowing how important their role is if we’re going to be successful.”

Beyond the talent on the floor this season, Beauchamp stressed one of the biggest reasons for the program’s success is the continuity of the coaching staff. Junior varsity coach Dave Becker and freshman coach Jim Carpenter have been with Beauchamp for the entirety of his Fairview tenure, while the program’s “C team” coach is a former player.

“I think we do a good job of building our players from the ground up and teaching them skills at the younger levels, and also what we expect from a player at the varsity level,” Beauchamp said. “I know I have some girls this season like Ashley Denali who went right to varsity as a freshman, but most of our players were on the freshman team and have gone through the pecking order. Only five freshman in my whole career here have made varsity.”

Fairview has one girls basketball title to its credit, a 4A title back in 1985, and will lean on its experience as the Knights continue to make adjustments throughout Front Range League play.

“We’ve been allowing too many points to too many teams, so defensively we need to lock it down a little bit,” Beauchamp said. “And outside of Ralston Valley, who shot lights out against us, we’re losing to bigger teams. So we’ve got to learn to match up better against bigger teams, because teams like Regis Jesuit and Horizon have quite a bit of size on us. We can overcome that if we just continue to come together.”