GREENWOOD VILLAGE — On the final snap of the high school football season, Mike Morean was about to make a tackle. It was nothing new; Cherry Creek’s senior safety had been in on more than 100 tackles this year. On this play, he had Valor Christian star Eric Lee Jr., who had caught a short pass, within his sights.
But Lee quickly lateraled the ball, and a Cherry Creek player picked it off — ending the Eagles’ desperate attempt to reach the end zone. Cherry Creek had secured its first state championship in 18 years with a 25-24 victory, and Morean had capped his schoolboy career in style.
Morean is The Denver Post’s 64th Gold Helmet Award winner as the state’s top senior football player, scholar and citizen. Whether he has played his last down of football is yet to be determined. Morean was informed last week that he has been accepted to Princeton, which has recruited him to play lacrosse. But his sparkling senior season has resulted in college football suitors showing more interest.
Ah, to be 18, a state champion and full of options.
“I don’t know,” Morean said when asked about his future. “I’m just going through the process, seeing where I’m at.”
A 6-foot-1, 190-pounder, Morean played tough. He was named all-Centennial League; and The Denver Post placed him on its Class 5A all-state team as well as on its All-Colorado team. It was a convincing and gratifying season for someone who, before this fall, had drawn more attention for his lacrosse exploits. He was named a high school All-American last spring by US Lacrosse.
“I loved him,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said after Morean made 19 tackles against his Panthers. “Everybody knew about No. 11.”
Known as a hitter who embraced contact as well as being able to shadow tight ends and wide receivers in pass coverage, Morean helped hold together the back line of a punishing Bruins defense. He made 127 tackles, had three interceptions, broke up six passes and registered a sack.
“He can run, he’s physical and he’s smart. Those are three pretty good qualities for a safety,” said Cherry Creek coach Dave Logan. “He’s a good tackler, a sure tackler, but also a physical tackler. Sometimes you just get guys on the ground or you make a statement. And he could do both.”
Regis Jesuit coach Mark Nolan said Morean “always seemed to be around the ball.” Nolan should know. His Raiders lost just twice all season, both times at home, to Cherry Creek.
Morean said he doesn’t play favorites with football and lacrosse.
“I like the physical nature of both games,” he said. “Growing up, I liked the team games; I never would have liked swimming or tennis. I liked the team aspect, being a part of something.”
Cherry Creek’s thrilling victory over Valor Christian — the winning points came on a two-point conversion with 5:09 to play — in the Class 5A title game was the Bruins’ second victory of the season over the five-time defending state champion.
Morean and the Bruins won a state championship by one point; his father’s 1980 Bruins (Rich was a linebacker) lost by one point to Thomas Jefferson. “I buried that (memory) a couple of weeks ago at (Sports Authority Field at Mile High),” Rich said.
A star student too
Morean isn’t sure when the epiphany occurred, but he remembers that it hit him in the same manner in which he popped ball carriers.
“At first,” he said, “I just kind of never really liked to not try my best, and school was part of that. I didn’t want to slack off at school. I worked my hardest, and I saw I could get good grades.
“And once I realized good grades could get you somewhere … I knew this could be a thing that could get me somewhere in life.”
He’s on his way.
Morean has a 4.33 cumulative grade-point average, and a 4.44 heading into the end of the first semester of his senior year, good enough to rank 25th in a class of 845. His course loads have included AP calculus, AP micro-economics, Spanish IV, advanced mathematics, honors geometry, advanced English and award winners, which studies new book releases.
Morean has received only two B’s in high school — in his first two years — and turned them into A’s by year’s end. But he knows not to obsess about perfection. “I didn’t get angry about them,” he said.
Instead, he just kept learning.
Morean scored 29 (of a possible 36) on the ACT and 1,880 (of a possible 2,400) on the SAT, substantial enough scores to qualify for elite schools by a student who admits he’s not thrilled taking standardized tests.
“I never had a problem getting my work done in school, and learning is a big part of that,” he said.
Morean said he probably will study business in college.
“You can do a lot with a business degree … at least, that’s what I’ve heard,” he said.
“Now I can give back”
When he isn’t competing in a sport, he often is working out. There’s also homework and projects, in addition to community service.
“I’m not anti-having fun, but I’m not a crazy partyer,” Morean said. “I definitely restrain myself from certain things. I’m smart about what I do.”
He is a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which meets regularly with school administrators to offer input on issues in addition to raising money from sports teams for families that can’t afford Thanksgiving meals.
Morean participated in the Race for the Cure. He worked with the Rocky Mountain Food Bank and the Ronald McDonald House. There also was a trip to a Navajo Reservation in Arizona to help set up daycare and paint houses.
“I’ve grown up in a good house and family, and been given a lot,” Morean said. “I’ve had success and been fortunate. Now I can give back, and you feel like you owe something because you were given so much.”
That notion was tested half a dozen years ago, when older brother Christopher, then a senior at Cherry Creek, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Mike was worried about his brother and had to grow up … quickly.
“It was a learning process for him,” said his father, Rich.
Mike said Christopher “went through the process better than anyone, like a stud. He didn’t feel bad for himself. He used to teach me that things could be worse in life. … He lived like a normal kid.”
Morean wrote essays about his brother’s battle. “It taught me a lot,” he said.
His brother has been declared free of cancer, and Morean couldn’t be happier.
The team that counts most to him had a great victory, as good as any state championship.
“Mike’s a super kid,” said Logan, who also coached the 1997 Gold Helmet Award winner, Jason Lucas of Arvada West. “As good as I’ve been around.”
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or twitter.com/neildevlin
