Peyton girls embrace "Be Your Best" mantra in search of first state title

Feb. 28—The road to Peyton girls' basketball's 21-0 record this season and top seed in the 3A regional and state bracket is paved with years of dedication.

It's the dedication of junior leading scorers A.J. Mannering and Abbie Nickell, who have played together since third grade, battling injuries along the way. It's the dedication of coach Brian Green, who is in his fourth year as head coach but coached the boys team 2006-2013 and was a state runner-up in 2009.

It's the dedication of fans who work district events, attend games, and travel to regionals and state. Lastly, it's the dedication of former players who have played big postseason games, reaching out to Nickell via Instagram and other social media telling her how proud they are of the team.

Green said Peyton is a basketball community, where the games bring people together. But despite numerous successful, winning seasons, that ultimate prize of a state title has remained elusive.

Mannering's dad makes the goal simple.

"Put Peyton on the map," her father tells her.

A junior guard, leading the team in points per game at 21.8, Mannering tore her ACL her freshman year and spent sophomore season slowly getting back into the groove of playing basketball. This season marks the first full year that her and friend and teammate Nickell, who averages 15 points a game, have been able to play the majority of the season together for their high school much in the same manner they spent summers playing club ball with Rockies basketball.

The result has been great to watch for Peyton fans. Despite moving up a classification from 2A to 3A, the Panthers have looked dominant throughout the season, scoring more than 1,300 points and allowing just under 600 while capturing a district title last weekend.

It's not about records or seeding for Green, however; those are simply the product of the work and process the team began at the start of the season with a senior retreat.

"Each year, we take our seniors and we do a senior leadership retreat. We try to come up with something that helps inspire us," Green said. "And so this year they came up with "Be your best," and so when you walk out of our locker room, it's the first thing you see (in) big letters is 'be your best.' And so that's been our mantra all season."

The seniors' leadership trickles down to the rest of the team, Nickell said.

"We have especially two very good seniors, even though one of them may not see the court as much but very good leaders," she said. "Even though we are captains, our seniors they just lead our way a lot."

That confidence extends to younger players, including Nickell's sister Sammie, who plays on varsity as a freshman.

The Panthers are hoping that confidence will be the difference maker this postseason after a pair of first-round exits the past two years at state. Peyton lost to Sedgwick County in the first round in 2020. Peyton beat Sedgwick County to claim regionals last season before being eliminated by Limon in the 2A state bracket, played at Budweiser Events Center in Loveland.

Nickell said she heard doubts about Peyton's ability to knock off Sedgwick County to advance to the state tournament, but the experience has primed them for this season.

"I think we surprised a lot of people and so I think that boosted our confidence, because I don't know how many of us actually talked like, 'We're going to get to state,'" Nickell said of the team's postseason run last year. "Even though we ended with Limon in the first round ... that was our exit. But I think just that for this year was huge — just getting to play in a massive arena and a huge stage it's just something that I think last year, though obviously wasn't our year, that was our setting point for this year."

Coach Green sees his 2008-2009 boys team in this group he coaches currently, in the same way that they work hard and play for each other. Green's team fell short in 2009 against Faith Christian and, shortly thereafter, he made the tough decision to leave the program to watch his son, who played at Peyton, play his final two seasons at Colorado School of Mines.

He returned to the Panthers in 2019 as the girls coach with some unfinished business.

Green just wants the girls to focus on being good enough in the big playoff moments.

He is not the only Peyton coach who has long been in search of a title. Nickell's father, Kelly, has been the school's baseball coach for more than two decades, Green said. Kelly's Panthers captured Peyton's first baseball title in 2019 and was the state's runner-up in 2021.

Nickell wants to bring a similar moment to girls' basketball.

"It's been years and years since Peyton girls basketball has been on a big stage like this," he said.

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