When Mark Beranek looks back on his 16 seasons as boys’ basketball coach at Sierra, he thinks of all the firsts.

“The first game we lost a close one to Pueblo County at County, and our first win was at La Junta the next week,” he said. “You look at the first league championship in ’88. The first trip to state. The first state championship game in ’92 we lose in the last minute to Green Mountain. And the first state championship (1997).”

Beranek will experience another first Saturday, when he becomes the first Stallions coach inducted into the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Beranek, Thompson Valley wrestling coach Dan Juergensen, Cherry Creek football coach Mike Woolford, Steamboat Springs boys’ basketball coach Kelly Meek and Bayfield track and cross country coach Vernon Kimball will be honored at the Red Lion Hotel in Aurora.

His induction, like his successful coaching career, “wasn’t expected.”

“When we first started at Sierra, I think we just got together and worked hard,” he said. “And over the course of time, the ball started to roll, and when it rolled, it rolled in a lot of great ways for us.”

From 1984 – the year Sierra opened – to 2000, Beranek compiled a 257-111 record, qualified for the state quarterfinals 10 times, advanced to the title game four times and won two championships (1997, 2000).

But it’s the values he and his coaching staff passed on to 107 lettermen, Beranek said, that matter the most. And for that, Beranek credits his dad, Joe, who was the head custodian for the Boulder Valley School District for 28 years.

“I had a chance all my life to watch what my hero was all about,” said Beranek, who from age 4 on would often go to work with his dad. “He always demonstrated to me how to work hard and when you work hard, give your best effort and have pride in what you do.”

Beranek, a graduate of Centaurus High School and Adams State, in turn has passed on those lessons.

“One of the biggest things that has been instilled in all the guys … is the fact that basketball is a tool that you utilize in your life to do something to be successful later in life,” said Laumont Gadlin, who played and coached under Beranek.

K.K. Boyd, who played at Sierra from 1994-98, called Beranek a “role model” and “father figure” who taught him “to always to do things hard, to give 110 percent and just always stay positive.”

Boyd, now a junior varsity coach at Harrison, said Beranek giving him the opportunity to start as a freshman and putting “the team in my hands” has helped him “be a leader and take on things in life.”

Beranek followed his own advice and became an administrator after leaving Sierra in 2001. He is in his second year as assistant athletic director for District 11 after a six-year stint as AD at Mitchell.

But Beranek, 50, said he misses a lot of aspects of coaching and is looking forward to seeing all his coaches at his induction and reminiscing about all the firsts.

“I’ve always believed it’s not the destination, it’s the journey,” he said. “And my journey at Sierra was really nice.”

Former Sierra boys’ basketball coach Mark Beranek, now D-11 assistant athletic director, won 257 games and two state titles in 16 years. Photo by KEVIN KRECK, THE GAZETTE