Boys basketball: Centaurus tabs grad to lead Warriors

Centaurus’ new head basketball coach Tyler Oliver speaks to the Warriors as an assistant. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Oliver)

Broomfield High teacher Tyler Oliver, the 2009 Centaurus grad who recently landed the boys’ basketball head coaching job at his alma mater, can’t get far outside his classroom without running into an opportunity to discuss basketball.

Not long ago, the 33-year-old convinced the Warriors and athletic director Karl Buck that he was ready to take the step up from high school assistant. It added to a support system he can feel from the Lafayette community his parents still reside in, all the way to his workplace at Broomfield, which currently looks like a who’s who of decorated local basketball coaches.

“Super lucky that every day I get to have conversations with some of the best coaches around,” the history teacher said.

Working alongside him in Broomfield’s social studies department is longtime Eagles boys’ basketball coach Terrence Dunn, his former boss who became the program’s wins leader last season — now with 243 — as well as ex-Fairview headman Patrick Burke.

Then there’s Travis Maron, Oliver’s predecessor. Maron stepped down after leading the Warriors for the past nine years and is set to become a physical education teacher at the school this fall.

Brandon Pitzer, meanwhile, previously ahead of the boys’ program at Arvada, teaches special education.

“I’m lucky in that I have a lot of really good coaches who are good dudes,” Oliver said. “They’d help me out even if I had to coach against them.”

Oliver’s first chance to run a high school program comes after 14 years of coaching youth basketball.

He said he’s taught at the club level around town since he was 19. Jokingly, he tells people his “claim to fame” was coaching Owen Koonce in middle school. Koonce, of course, became a star at Centaurus, then played at CU-Boulder before transferring to Colorado Mesa.

He worked with the Colorado Titans, run by his dad’s longtime friend, Rick Jimenez. And most recently, he was an assistant on the staff of Maron and Dunn.

He praised them for his development as a leader on the court, saying he is taking what he learned from each as tries to put his own stamp on Centaurus.

As he sees his new role — and how he believed his predecessors led — is helping kids grow into young men.

“He was really impressive in his interview,” Buck said. “The entire committee was really impressed by his energy, his enthusiasm, and just being a part of coach Maron’s staff for a few years and working alongside him. Travis, for nine years, was one of the better coaches in the area. But (Oliver), on his own accord, really impressed us with his plan and vision of where he wants to take the program.”

Sandwiched around four seasons working under Dunn, Oliver coached two years with Maron. Last winter, he was on his staff when they went 6-17.

In taking over Centaurus, he’s in charge of a program that had three straight seasons (outside of the pandemic year) with 18 or more wins — including a 2022 campaign that saw 20 wins and a Class 4A quarterfinals appearance.

Since then, however, they’ve won just 14 games the past two years.

“My big thing is we play with heart,” he said. “There’s an award for students and players at Centaurus called ‘Heart of a Warrior.’ And to me, that’s what Centaurus basketball means. It’s easy to kind of shy away from putting your full effort and heart into things, because what if you fail? And that’s even tougher for kids nowadays. So that’s what we want to do, is help kids put their full effort and passion into things on and off the court.”