One of the strengths this season of Denair’s boys basketball team has been its balance. The Coyotes haven’t relied on any one player to carry them. The sum of all the parts has been better than any individual.

That changed Friday night, when senior center Jacob Kuharski stepped up when most of his teammates were struggling with by far his best game of the season. The 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior dominated, scoring 20 points and  grabbing 17 rebounds to propel Denair to a 61-51 victory over Buckingham Charter of Vacaville in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V playoffs.

“If we don’t have him, we don’t win the game,” summed up Denair Coach R.J. Henderson.

The Coyotes (26-2) – playing in front of nearly 600 people, their largest and most boisterous home crowd in Henderson’s eight seasons as coach – were uncommonly tight for much of the game.

• Denair had its worst quarter of the season to start the game, scoring just five points to trail 12-5
• It missed 17 of its 27 free throws, including two air balls from the foul line
• It made only five of its 19 3-point attempts, well under its average

To the rescue rode Kuharski, a transfer from Pitman High who had to sit out the first 13 games. Since he joined the starting lineup in January, he has averaged 10.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. Then came Friday, when he had his way in the middle against mostly smaller defenders.

“Jacob had his best game in our program,” Henderson said. “He was timely and consistent. The motor was finally there. He’s by far the highest skilled big I’ve coached here.”

Other than Jordan Smith-Spires – who added 13 points and 11 rebounds – the rest of the Coyotes were not themselves in their first playoff game this year.

“Collectively, everyone played tight,” Henderson said. “I told them after the first quarter that I was still waiting for the Denair basketball team to show up.”

The line begins forming about 3 o’clock every afternoon, just a few minutes after school lets out across the Denair Unified School District. One by one, thirsty middle school and high school students add to the queue, which snakes a dozen or more teenagers deep just outside the district office.

It’s time to caffeinate. And there is no better place than the Coyote Cups of Kindness coffee cart, operated by 13 special education students who are part of the Project Life program at Denair High School.

The Project Life curriculum was developed in 2007 in Ohio and has been proven across the country. Denair brought it to the district last year as part of a new approach to special education. The goal is to teach important life skills to students with intellectual or developmental disabilities who often are dismissed as unemployable.

The coffee cart – which debuted in November 2018 – has become a big part of Project Life and, in many ways, the face of the program.

“We joke around that we’re famous,” said Renee Hall, the lead special education teacher at Denair High. “I was signing up my son for Little League in Turlock and a woman asked me, ‘Aren’t you the one who runs Project Life?’ ”

How popular is the Coyote Cups of Kindness coffee cart? It has its own Facebook page with 542 likes and an Instagram page with 973 followers. On a typical day, the students make more than 100 drinks during the afternoon rush alone. In the morning, parents dropping off their children have become regular customers. An app developed this year allows teachers and other staff members to place orders remotely; students then deliver them at the times requested.

A 25-2 regular-season record didn’t earn the Denair boys basketball team as much respect as some might think. Will that add some fuel to the Coyotes’ fire when the playoffs begin this week? Possibly.

Still, when they gathered Saturday afternoon to watch together as the Sac-Joaquin Section Division V bracket was revealed, the Coyotes came away partially satisfied. They were awarded a No. 3 seed in the 13-team tournament – and importantly – a first-round bye as well as home game in the second round.

Compare that with the past two seasons, when Denair was the No. 11 seed both years and had to go on the road. It lost in the first round in 2018 but managed to win one game last year before being eliminated.

Expectations are much higher this season after the Coyotes marched through the Southern League unscathed, winning all 12 games. Their only losses were 56-38 to Riverbank on Dec. 6 and 76-72 in Natomas on Jan. 20. Riverbank finished 15-12 overall and sneaked into the Division IV playoffs as the 17^th seed; Natomas (12-14) missed the playoffs entirely.

The relative weakness of the Southern League as well as losses to two schools that didn’t finish as strong as they would have hoped worked against Denair when it came time to seed the Division V bracket.

Brookside Christian (20-8) – which won the tougher Central California Athletic Association – was seeded first. Bradshaw Christian (16-12) – the fourth-place team in the rugged Sierra Valley Conference – was seeded second ahead of Denair, setting up a potential playoff rematch between the Pride and Coyotes next Tuesday in Sacramento in the third round. Last year, Denair upset sixth-seeded Bradshaw in the second round.

“Brookside and Bradshaw play tougher non-league schedules than we do and their leagues both are considered by being better than ours,” explained Denair Coach R.J. Henderson.

Ultimately, the outcomes will be decided on the court, regardless of which team is seeded where.

What can athletes at Denair High School learn from Navy SEALs and Olympic athletes? Simple. That the dangers of drinking, drugs, vaping, lack of sleep and poor nutrition are real and their impacts on performance can be measured.

Student-athletes who want to reach their potential in any sport must commit to avoiding behavior that compromises their training, doesn’t live up to agreed-upon expectations and serves as a poor model for their peers.

That’s the thrust behind the Committed Coyote program, which was unveiled publicly Thursday night to the Denair Unified School District Board of Trustees.

Eleven high school athletes dressed in purple or white T-shirts, plus some of their coaches and three officials from the Stanislaus County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services Agency, appeared before the board.

The back of each T-shirt sported the Committed Coyote creed, which also was shared aloud by the students in a video they produced:

“I am a Denair Coyote, I live to a higher standard than most, I am expected to be a role model for those around me. I exceed the higher standards that I am held to and show what our community is about. We are leaders and show integrity. We inspire the youth while aspiring to be great. We are more than a team, we are family, we work together, we strive together. We empower each other to success on and off the field, with tenacity and dedication, we motivate the people around us.”

The audience clapped at the end of the video.

Teacher Darrin Allen, the adviser to the group, said the 20 students currently in the program wrote the creed themselves. “This is from the kids,” he said.

Denair becomes the fourth Stanislaus County high school to adopt the program, joining Waterford, Hughson and Patterson. The program is available in all 50 states and mandatory at high schools in four of them – New York, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Illinois.

Submitted by Denair High School:

Even as the Denair boys basketball team checks off its goals one by one, Coach R.J. Henderson and his players know the biggest objectives still are on the horizon – a high playoff seeding and a chance to compete for a Sac-Joaquin Section title.

First things first, though.

Last Friday, the Coyotes got to celebrate something that they haven’t accomplished since 2004 – earn a Southern League championship. Denair’s 74-38 romp over Delhi left the Coyotes at 10-0 in league play with only Wednesday’s home game with Le Grand and Friday’s contest at Waterford left. A victory in either would assure Denair of an outright championship since second-place Orestimba (9-2) already has lost twice to the Coyotes.

Earlier last week, Denair achieved another milestone – it won at Mariposa for the first time in nine years.