Blair Hubbard had to laugh when he heard about the latest "spygate" circling the New England Patriots this week.
Just last week, preparing his Broomfield High School Eagles for the Class 4A Colorado state championship game, Hubbard’s team encountered a spy in the sky at their practice.
“There was someone parked in an advantageous spot. Our stadium is kind of built down in a hill a little bit, so they were sitting up above looking down at us,” said Hubbard, who is a 1987 graduate of Princeton High School.
A coach's wife/football mom drove into the parking lot and caught the spy red-handed with a camera in his hands. She alerted the coaches, and Hubbard moved the team to a different spot out of sight. By the time the coaches went to investigate, their uninvited guest high-tailed it out.
While Broomfield has a pretty good idea the spy was talking to others in the Colorado football community, Hubbard said their opponent can just blame it on a rogue parent.
Hubbard guided Broomfield to its second 4A state finals appearance in four years. Both times, the Eagles faced Pine Creek from Colorado Springs, a powerhouse in the Colorado football ranks.
Pine Creek beat Broomfield in 2016, Hubbard’s first year and again last week, 34-3.
“I think they’ve played for three of the last four state championships, winning two of them against us, unfortunately. It’s kind of everybody’s thing, ‘Who’s going to beat Pine Creek this year?’”
Broomfield battled to a 7-3 deficit at halftime, before Pine Creek flexed its muscle in the second half, scoring 27 answered points.
Ironically, the player who did the most damage to Broomfield, quarterback Gavin Herberg, had Princeton ties. He lived in Princeton before moving away at age 3.
Hubbard said the Eagles game-planned to stop Pine Creek’s 2,500-yard rusher, which allowed Herberg to get some good looks on zone reads and have a big rushing game, Hubbard said.
Hubbard and Herberg, the MVP of the game, chatted about their Princeton ties after the game.
The 4A and 5A state championship games (there are 5 classes in Colorado) are both held at Mile High, the home of the Broncos. Hubbard said it makes it exciting for the team, fans, parents and school.
“The Broncos do a great job of hosting it,” he said. “They do a press conference on Tuesday before the game. You can bring in all your and starters and seniors just so they get the oohs and awes out of way ahead of time. That really helps the kids. When they came back Saturday, they can just focus on football.”
The Eagles opened the playoffs with a 35-9 win over No. 15 Grand Junction and beat No. 7 Chatfield 27-3. They got a last-second field goal to beat No. 6 Dakota Ridge 17-15 in the semifinals to make state.
Hubbard was pleased to see his senior class be rewarded the opportunity to play for it all.
“They were my first freshman class when I took over here four years ago,” he said. “We had a pretty good idea, if they worked hard in the off-season they would possibly have a chance to get back here again. They were kind of a scout team when we went in 2016, my first year, Good character kids, hard workers.”
The game marked the sixth state championship appearance for Hubbard, who won three of four trips with 2A Faith Christian.
He also coached two years (2014-15) at 3A Lutheran High School in Parker, on the south side of Denver, before going to Broomfield.
Hubbard, who has inquired about openings back at Princeton over the years, talks football about once a month with fellow Princeton native Chris Waca (’91), head coach at Falcon, Colo. Waca’s team will make the move from 3A to 4A next year, Hubbard said.
For a coach with such a winning pedigree, one would think Hubbard had a rich background coming up in the game. That’s not the case for Hubbard. He played football only as a freshman at PHS, considering himself much more of a baseball guy.
“I thought I’d always coach baseball coming out of college,” Hubbard said. "They (Faith) needed someone on staff, and I needed some extra money. I was an assistant for three years and when the head coach was leaving, they offered me the job. I was in the right place, right time.”
Hubbard, the father of two girls, Anna and Emma, has found a good fit at Broomfield, a northwest suburb of Denver, where he teaches strength and conditioning in the morning and is the dean of attendance in the afternoon.
“I like Broomfield a lot. It’s kind of a small town that the urban crawl kind of grew around. It has the feel of small town even though it's a suburban area,” he said. “There’s an element of blue collar, of hard-working kids and families that are really fun to work with."
When I spoke to Hubbard Wednesday morning, he was prepping to collect equipment. It’s his least favorite day of the year.
“For one, I don’t like dealing with equipment. But also, it’s another layer of saying goodbye to the seniors,” he said.