SEVERANCE — In finding someone to build its baseball program into a championship team from scratch in the rapid span of four years, no one can accuse Severance High of bringing in a coaching ringer.
Because that ringer was here all along.
Lifelong Severance resident Kevin Johnson, who still lives in his childhood home on a 400-acre farm just a few miles from the school, coached the Silver Knights to the Class 4A championship this spring. The feat of leading Severance to the school’s first team title in only the program’s third true season earned “KJ” the honor of 2023 Denver Post All-Colorado coach of the year.
“It still doesn’t quite feel like something that’s actually happened,” Johnson said. “But it did, and it all comes back to culture, and I owe a lot of that to these kids. The coach can talk about culture all he wants. But our kids were determined to make this program good, quickly, and they did.”
Johnson certainly had talent to work with.
The Silver Knights were headlined by a pair of All-Colorado players in senior center fielder/right-hander Mason Bright (Northern Colorado) and senior third baseman/right-hander Nolan Hertzke (Kansas City Kansas Community College). The duo pitched Severance past Discovery Canyon and Thomas Jefferson in close games in regionals before carrying the team to a 4-0 record in the state tournament.
Severance (23-6, Longs Peak League champions) had five other future college athletes while finishing the season on a 12-game winning streak and beating Golden in a 1-0 title-game thriller on June 3 in Pueblo.
Bright threw a complete-game shutout to lift Severance to the championship at Rawlings Field, an instant classic that ended on a double play. After Bright gave up a leadoff triple in the seventh, he struck the next batter out. Then Golden’s Daine Hart hit a fly ball to left that appeared adequate enough to bring the runner at third home via sacrifice fly and force extra innings.
“(The triple) was the best swing they put on Mason all day,” Johnson said. “I went out to talk to him and Mason was so casual. He said, ‘I got this.’ He struck out the next kid on three straight sliders. Then, the first pitch (Hart) hits to left field, I’m thinking they’ll tie it up and we’ll go to the eighth. I pretty much mentally conceded that run.”
But Severance senior Brycen Farris, who will play golf at South Dakota School of Mines, had other ideas. He caught the ball and gunned it to relay man Hertzke — who else? — who fired “an absolute dart to home plate. It took a perfect throw to to get the runner.”
“It took a second to sink in that was the third out, because of the double-play,” Johnson recalled with a laugh. “Like, it was a moment before (the coaches) realized that we had just won the championship.”
Going forward, the former Thompson Valley and Windsor boss will have to work his magic to keep the magic going at SHS, where the 51-year-old also teaches. Severance graduated eight seniors, most notably workhorses Bright and Hertzke, though the coach believes the Silver Knights have adequate young talent to reload next year.
In the meantime, Johnson will stay busy on his farm, where he grows corn and alfalfa, looking forward to the next season — which is always “bound to get a little crazy.”
“Spring gets interesting for me, because we have practice and then I come home and get straight on the tractor and plant corn,” Johnson said. “Then we’ll play on Saturday afternoon, and I’ll go home, sit on the tractor some more and plant 100 more acres of corn. But it’s actually very de-stressing for me to come out and work on the farm, and get out there and remember what life’s really about.”
Coach of the Year Finalists
Travis Cruz, Valor Christian — After spending a decade as an Eagles assistant, Cruz led VCHS to the program’s first Class 5A title as his team got red-hot at the right time en route to going 4-0 in the state tournament with a plus-29 run differential.
Jackie McBroom, Golden — The Demons’ boss led his team to the doorstep of the program’s first title since 2003 before falling to buzzsaw Severance; pressed all the right buttons to get to the championship from the consolation side of the bracket.
Jonathan DiGiorgio, Cherokee Trail — DiGiorgio had the Cougars peaking at the perfect time as No. 25-seed Cherokee Trail upset its way through the Class 5A state tournament all the way into the championship before finally falling to Valor Christian.
