Memo to University of Denver lacrosse fans: Don’t beat yourselves up if you’ve realized you subconsciously rooted for Air Force on Saturday.

It will be hard not to.

Regardless of the outcome, the Air Force lacrosse team will walk out of Barton Lacrosse Stadium knowing it had played in the NCAA Tournament three times in a four-year stretch — highly impressive for far-flung program that hadn’t previously played in the national tournament since 1988. And ninth-year coach Eric Seremet deserves much of the praise, but in a cruel way; his personal grief has seemingly led to the program’s rapid ascent.

That cruelty is why the DU faithful might pull for the Falcons in Saturday’s 3 p.m. first-ever, all-Colorado NCAA Tournament game. Well, at least for Serement.

Seremet’s success curve at Air Force skyrocketed following the death of his wife, Sonia. During a family day-trip to the mountains Oct. 5, 2013, Sonia Seremet was killed in a single-car accident on Colorado Highway 9 near Hartsel. She was 37. Eric Seremet was the driver. He lost control of the car, survived along with the couple’s two daughters, Anabel and Emelia, who were 2 and 4 at the time.

And the cruel irony is that Eric Seremet wasn’t originally supposed to be in Colorado that day. He was supposed to be with his team in a fall tournament on the East Coast, but the infamous Oct. 1-16 government shutdown that year prohibited him from having anything to do with his players.

“We couldn’t even volunteer our time,” Eric said. “Couldn’t go on campus, go to our office.”

So he took his family for a Saturday drive.

“My wife and I were not ones to sit around. We drove a lot,” Eric said. “We toured the state and loved being outside and getting into the mountains. We said, ‘Let’s go for a drive and maybe we can see the leaves.’ So we hop in the car, drove to Woodland Park first and my girls were playing on the playground at one of the schools there. We continued to drive west and search for that famous hot dog place on 285 (Coney Island Hot Dog Stand in Aspen Park, since relocated to Bailey). Didn’t make it that far. We were on Route 9, and that’s when it all happened.”

“I swerved into the gravel on the shoulder, and when I caught myself I probably over-corrected,” Eric said. “I think I had the cruise (control) on too. I wasn’t speeding. We were in no hurry. I just over-corrected. I’ve thought, obviously, a lot about it. I think the cruise kicked in. I just remember shifting hard to the left, to the right, to the left and then we were on the other side of the road, and had flipped.”

His wife was ejected from the car.

The tragedy ultimately deepened Eric’s love of coaching, because his players — particularly those from the senior class of 2014 — were among the biggest influences in his healing.

“The ’14 guys really took care of my girls, and me, for sure,” Eric said. “It was probably the year I did the least amount of coaching. I showed up. I had good chemistry with those guys. And I’m proud of them because they had a great year and that was kind of the start of our recent success.”

That senior class led Air Force to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, ending a 25-year drought for the program. This year’s seniors were freshmen then and will play in their third national tournament Saturday.

“It brought us all a lot closer,” senior midfielder Austin Smith said of Sonia’s death and Eric’s grief. “The team really relied on each other through that tough time and definitely built our team character. We’re a resilient group. We always talk about facing adversity and having each other’s back. That’s what it’s all about. I’m definitely proud of Coach, proud of the team.”

And Anabel and Emelia, now 5 and 7, are doing well, with 40 big brothers and a military academy looking out for them.

“We talk about mom all the time,” Eric said of the girls. “Emelia has a little more memory of mom than my little one. But we have pictures, slide shows, movies and clips. For a lack of better words, we have embraced our reality and plugging away.”