Broomfield's returning starters, from left, Katie Calderwood, Chaundra Sewell, Anna Prins, Sophia Rhodes and Caitlan Stem, have set their sights high this season.

Katie Calderwood and Caitlan Stem helped Broomfield to the Final Four when they were only sophomores. The potential for a state title in their career was tantalizing.

It wasn't only because those two were coming back. The players coming in created just as much excitement. The Broomfield basketball factory was delivering another batch of talented freshmen.

This year's Eagles — led by the two seniors — have delivered on their potential by making it to the Final Four, where they will play Berthoud at the Coors Events Center on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. It's the program's fifth Final Four this decade. That's no coincidence. This year's deep, talented team is like all the others that were bred into Broomfield blue at an early age.

"We have great feeder programs at Broomfield, and they do a great job of preparing the kids for years before we get them," Broomfield coach Mike Croell said. "That way, when we get them, they are ready to go. They get interested in the program and they come and sit and cheer right behind the bench."

Saturdays are usually busy at the Broomfield High gym. Youth programs in and around Broomfield shuffle kids through the gym all day. They play between the blue bleachers. They look at the blue championship banners. They gaze at the massive, fierce eagle painted on the wall behind the north basket.

So, by the time they're ready to become Eagles, they've been ready for a while. And when they become Eagles they become stars to the young girls who also want to be Eagles.

"There are kids camps, and those are the kids who want to be a player here," said 6-6 sophomore Anna Prins. "I like it. I like hearing them say they got to go out there and say, 'I talked to this (player) or I talked to this (player).'"

Prins was one of the players who made the future so bright at Broomfield after Calderwood's and Stem's sophomore year. The sophomore center has stunning agility for a girl her size and age. Her classmates — 5-11 Chaundra Sewell and 5-10 Sophia Rhodes — were starters as freshmen as well. And that was after the Eagles went to the Final Four in 2005.

That has created not only the most talented Class 4A team this season, but arguably the deepest. Juniors Ashley Snow and Deborah Davies, along with sophomore Alex Biegner, are the Eagles' key reserves. They could be stars on most other teams, not just start on them.

Depth like that obscures off nights. A few of the starters may have a terrible shooting night. One of the post players may get in foul trouble. When that happens, someone simply fills in and keeps the big, blue powerhouse going.

The Eagles have won 24 straight games, with an average margin of victory of 28.3 points. Their only loss was by three points to Class 5A Horizon, which is also in the Final Four.

"On any given night we can have someone play a perfect game," Croell said. "Now if we can just get two or three them to play a perfect game on the same night ..."

The tons of talent at Broomfield is an aberration. The Eagles won't always have a starting lineup of players with Division I potential. The three sophomores are already being recruited, Calderwood will play at Washington State and Stem could play basketball if she hadn't already decided to play softball at Colorado State.

This may be their best chance at a title. Despite all its late-season success, Broomfield has never won a girls basketball title. But the team is a heavy favorite this season, and the cultivation of its talent began long before this season.

"We had great coaches before we got here, both Katie and I, and they pushed us past our limits," Stem said. "By the time we got up here, it was just a matter of adding a few more tricks."

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