None of the Columbine High Rebel players on the field in Denver Saturday were yet born on April 20, 1999.
But they’re aware that their school name that day became — as it still is — the buzzword for school shootings in the United States. That’s whether you live in Colorado … or Oregon … or Ohio … or South Carolina … or anywhere.
Columbine senior quarterback Jadon Holliday was fighting off tears when I approached him after the Rebels lost 35-10 to the Cherry Creek Bruins, also from suburban Denver, in the Colorado Class 5A high school state championship game at the Broncos’ home stadium – the recently renamed Empower Field at Mile High.
Holliday wears No. 13.
He wears it to honor the 12 students — including sophomore football lineman Matt Kechter, who was studying in the library — and teacher Dave Sanders, all murdered by two Columbine students that day.
“That’s what drives me,” Holliday said. “That’s what 13 is for. I try my best and give my heart for my school. Once you’re a Rebel, nothing can take that away. I love this school like I love my family. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Holliday and senior tackle Andrew Gentry, a 6-foot-8, 310-pounder considered among the top lineman prospects in the nation’s signing class of 2020, with offers from virtually every program in the country, accepted the runner-up trophy for the Rebels Saturday.
They are both second-generation Columbine students.
Holliday’s father, Derek, played for the Rebels and now serves as an assistant coach to long-time head coach Andy Lowry. After the game Saturday, the father hugged and consoled the distraught son at midfield (picture featured at top).
Gentry’s mother, the former Susan Madsen, also is a Columbine grad.
Colorado is an open-enrollment state, essentially meaning students can attend other than their neighborhood schools if there is room for them, and Holliday lives in the Chatfield High School district. The fact that Columbine’s enrollment remained steady in the years after the murders is amazing. The Columbine commu
nity, to the southwest of downtown Denver in Jefferson County, stayed together. Long-time principal Frank DeAngelis, who finally retired in 2014, was at the forefront of the resilience and recovery as families kept sending their kids to Columbine.
“Oh, man, it’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Gentry told me. “I love being a Columbine Rebel. This is my family. No matter what happens, we’re always going to be a family. This is where I wanted to go, ever since I was a little kid. This is the place for me.”
No, it did not go well for the Rebels Saturday.
They never were in the game against Cherry Creek.
So Columbine came up short in attempting to win its sixth state championship, beginning in 1999.
Yes, in the next school year after the shootings, Columbine won its first state title under coach Andy Lowry, who in 2019 still is on the job.
Matt Kechter’s parents, Ann and Joe, in 1999 had said in a statement read at his memorial service: “The greatest gift of remembrance you can give Matt is finding the courage and the strength to rebuild your school and your community.”
Columbine has done that.
The Kechters attended that 1999 state championship game — ironically, against Cherry Creek – along with Matt’s younger brother, Adam, and joined in the locker room situation.
There were a lot of myths going around about a “jock” culture and bullying being an issue in the killers’ motivation, but that since has been entirely debunked. Matt Kechter was the only athlete killed, and he was not targeted. He was in the library, where 10 of the 13 murders occurred, at the wrong time.
Matt Kechter would be 36.
Bear with me a moment while I name the others murdered. Their names are listed outside the school’s new and relocated HOPE Memorial Library. They should not be forgotten or overlooked:
Cassie Bernall, Steven Curnow, Corey DePooter, Kelly Fleming, Matt Kechter, Daniel Mauser, Daniel Rohrbough, Dave Sanders, Rachel Scott, Isaiah Shoels, John Tomlin, Lauren Townsend, Kyle Velasquez.
On Saturday, I came down from the press box and joined DeAngelis on the sideline for the fourth quarter. I was trying to be neutral because Dave Logan, the Cherry Creek coach, and I go as far back as being teammates — and batterymates even — at the Denver area’s Wheat Ridge High.
The Rebels came up short.
I suspect that their comments might sound to you as straight out of the disappointing-loss template. But at Columbine, there is a different backdrop.
“Only us old guys were around at that time,” Lowry said. “These kids go to our school and they understand what it means. But they don’t meed to carry that burden with them. The really don’t. I’m just proud of them.”
Earlier this year, the school district floated and rejected a proposal to perhaps raze the existing Columbine and rebuild it nearby. That would have been a well-meaning project, but not one that necessarily addressed and overcame the issues that caused the proposal to be brought up in the first place.
That involved what district superintendent Jason Glass termed a continuing “morbid” fascination with Columbine 20 years later. That led to, among other things, the school becoming a tourist site for the curious and harmless, but also a point of fascination for such warped personalities as the 18-year-old young woman who traveled to the area from Florida in April and legally bought a pump-action shotgun within two miles of the school before committing suicide in the Arapaho National Forest west of Denver.
With the emphasis on keeping the name, the nickname and the school’s traditions, Columbine would have remained Columbine — and not just in name. That’s good. That’s praiseworthy.
Even when Glass floated the proposal to tear down and rebuild, the response from DeAngelis and others underscored — perhaps even inadvertently — the fallacy.
Columbine is more than a building.
Columbine is a spirit, too.
About Terry: Terry Frei is the author of seven books. His novels are Olympic Affair and The Witch’s Season, and among his five non-fiction works are Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming, Third Down and a War to Go, and ’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age. Information is available on his web site, terryfrei.com. His woodypaige.com archive can be found here.
