'It's been an emotional day': Colfax girls basketball dedicates season to late coach Jordan Duran

Colfax High School girls basketball coach Rexanne Simpton cried the entire drive to campus Monday afternoon for her team's game against Whitney. She said it was one of the most emotional games of her life, as the Lady Falcons dedicated the season to their former coach, Jordan Duran. Duran was also one of Simpton's former players, and although her time with the Lady Falcons was brief, her impact was immeasurable. Duran was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in October 2021. She passed away Sept. 29, one day after her 33rd birthday. "I cried so much in the car driving up here trying to figure out how the heck I'm going to make it through this speech for her, her family and the community," Simpton said. "I honestly said, 'Lord, just give me the strength to get through this tonight, for her family, for our players, for the community, for her athletes from Union Hill.' Two basketball teams were here from her middle school. I was just relying on my faith and just trying to be strong for my athletes and my girls." Duran was more than a coach. She was a mentor, a beacon in the community, a student of the game, a teacher, a wife and a friend. She was a coach her players could rely on, and the way she kept coaching for three years as she fought cancer served as an inspiration to her players. She was a standout player at Nevada Union High School, earning first-team all-league. In addition to coaching at Colfax, she had a stint as an assistant at Nevada Union and coached and taught at Union Hill School in Grass Valley. "It was special to have her as a part of us for the short amount of time that we had her," Simpton said. "I think just the impact that she has as a teacher and a coach for female athletes was huge. She's just a special, special person. You can tell with our athletes, just in the two years that she was with us." "She meant so much, not even just our team but our whole community," Colfax senior captain Kaia Diederichs said. "Every day, no matter how hard she was fighting, she came in here with a smile on her face and ready to practice. She practiced with us some days. It didn't matter how she was feeling. She was always here for the team, and she was always so positive. I never heard a single negative thing from her." Duran's motto during her fight was to live her life like she didn't have cancer. She made sure it didn't define who she was and through the good days and bad, she fought with courage and led by example for her students, athletes and family. "She wanted to be known for her hard work and who she was to students. That's her legacy as a teacher and coach," Simpton said. "I think the girls see that, and I think they realize that their problems that they have are just so small compared to the fight she had." Colfax honored Duran with a pregame ceremony Monday night. They gave her husband and mother flowers and a banner of her. The entire crowd was decked out in teal, the official color of ovarian cancer awareness, to pay tribute to their coach. The team debuted new teal uniforms, which they will wear four more times this season in her memory. Whitney also paid tribute to Duran. Each player presented Colfax players with a single white rose before the game. Colfax players were visibly shaken following an emotional pregame ceremony. Several shared hugs with their teammates or held blank stares, and most choked back tears during the national anthem and announcement of the starting lineups. "This happened in September. We're not even two months out and the girls just saw her for the last year and a half, just showing up and putting a smile on her face," Simpton said. "We were there during the rough days, too." As for the game, Colfax handled its business with a convincing 66-29 victory over the Wildcats for its first win of the season. Simpton said she knew it would be tough to play the game after the ceremony but praised her team for fighting through the emotions and playing to honor their coach. "You could tell for sure. Juliette (James) and Laurlyn (Massick) were pretty choked up. You could see all over their faces. I think it took the team a little bit to get through that," Simpton said. "It took us a little bit to kind of get going and get settled and able to breathe. It's hard when you've been crying and you're upset. It was definitely an emotional game." Simpton said she was proud of her team's ability to overcome their grief and work as a team, noting Duran would have been proud. Said Simpton, "Our goal was going to be to just fight for Jordan tonight, because she would want us to do that. It's been an emotional day." Diederichs echoed her coach's statement, saying, "I think tonight we used the emotions to push us to play harder. I think a lot of that was for her."