Fox, an attackman, scored 50 goals and had 36 assists for a team-high 86 points last season. He was a second team all-state selection in Class 5A.
Fox, who is 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds will be a junior this fall. He is the ninth known local boys lacrosse player from the Class of 2017 to commit to this point.
The 6-foot-4, 185-pound Sweeney helped the Bruins reach the Final 8 last season, and did most of the damage with his bat. He hit .339 with a home run and nine RBIs.
On the mound, Sweeney made three appearances, including one start, last season, and finished with a 7.88 ERA. He struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings.
Sweeney’s profile on PrepBaseballReport.com lists his fastball at 87-89 and touching 90 mph.
Former Legend star Bobby Dalbec is now one of Arizona’s best players, but figures to be drafted and gone by the time Sweeney arrives on campus.
Arizona just hired former Nevada coach Jay Johnson to replace the retiring Andy Lopez, who led the Wildcats to the 2012 NCAA Championship.
Sweeney is the ninth known local baseball player to commit from the Class of 2016.
Mueller, who will be a senior in the fall, helped the Grizzlies reach the Class 5A championship game last season, where they lost to Overland.
He told WyoSports.net that Wyoming “was the perfect mix of academics and athletics.”
“I knew what I was looking for in schools,” Mueller said, according to the site, “and Wyoming was the perfect fit for me.”
As a junior, he averaged 6.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. During the tournament, Mueller averaged 7.2 points and 5.2 rebounds.
Mueller will be the latest in a long line of Colorado products to join the Cowboys.
Last season, Wyoming featured four graduates of Colorado high schools: Boulder’s Riley Grabau, Chaparral’s Josh Adams, Widefield’s Alan Herndon and Ponderosa’s Jonathan Barnes.
All but Grabau (a senior) will return next season, and they’ll add Overland’s Austin Conway, a 2015 graduate who signed in November.
They’ll also add Hayden Dalton, a 2014 graduate of Chaparral who signed with the Cowboys last week from Central Wyoming College.
By the time Mueller arrives on campus, Herndon, Barnes, Conway and Dalton will all have eligibility remaining.
Mueller is part of a solid Class of 2016 boys basketball prospects, which includes Overland’s De’Ron Davis, a top national prospect, Colorado Academy’s Justin Bassey, a Harvard commit, as well as a host of others who will garner a lot of interest.
Ranson averaged 25.6 points per game last season, which led all scorers in the state regardless of class. That followed stellar sophomore (18.3 points) and freshman (15.0) seasons.
As a junior, Ranson scored more than 20 points in 21 of the 23 games he played in. His season high was 38 against Vista PEAK in December.
He helped Pueblo Central go 19-6 last season, and the Wildcats reached the Class 4A Sweet 16, where they lost to eventual state champion Air Academy.
Ranson will join UNC in the 2016-17 year, when fellow Colorado products Cameron Michael (Loveland) and Jon’te Dotson (Lincoln) will be seniors for the Bears.
A two-sport athlete, Ranson is also Pueblo Central’s quarterback. He threw for 1,291 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, and rushed for six more scores.
Carlo Kemp (55) is drawing a lot of recruiting attention nationally. (Pam Wagner/CHSAANow.com)
Fairview standout Carlo Kemp is shaping up to be the most sought-after prospect in Colorado’s Class of 2016 football players.
On Tuesday, the 6-foot-3, 250-pound Kemp added an offer from Notre Dame, according to Fairview coach Tom McCartney. It brings Kemp’s total to 13, with 10 of those from Power 5 conferences.
He had 61 tackles (19 for a loss) and a team-best eight sacks as a junior last season — along with causing five fumbles.
“I’ve had athletes go Division I, but none of them have been like this,” said McCartney, who has been at Fairview for 22 years. “Craig Ochs, when he did it, he had some really intriguing ones — he had Georgia, Arizona, CU. So he had some across the country a little bit. But his were kind of late, though. They started the summer of his senior year.
“For Carlo, sophomore year, he started getting (offers). And now, he’s got at least a dozen Power 5 type of schools interested.”
Among Kemp’s offers: Arizona State, Boise State, Michigan, Nebraska, UCLA, Washington and Wisconsin. Colorado and Colorado State have also offered.
Others remain interested, too. Ohio State, Oregon and Stanford have all been out to see him or been in contact “multiple times,” McCartney said, but have yet to offer.
“He’s been intrigued by those three to see if it comes to fruition,” McCartney said.
But Kemp isn’t only looking at out-of-state offers.
“The local ones are awesome,” McCartney said, “because he loves close to home, too.”
McCartney said Kemp is considering graduating a semester early to enroll in college in January 2016 so that he can participate in spring practice — wherever that may be.
Bassey, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard, led his Colorado Academy squad to a second-consecutive appearance in the Class 3A title game earlier this month, where the Mustangs lost to Colorado Springs Christian by three.
The 2016 graduate averaged 23.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game last season. The 23 points per game were fifth in the state regardless of classification, and led 3A.
He also had offers from Air Force, Wyoming and Weber State, according to his Scout and Rivals profiles.
Harvard went 22-8 this season in reaching the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. The Crimson have reached the postseason six straight years, including an NIT trip in 2011, and a trip to the CIT in 2010.
Claire Stemper has committed to Michigan. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
Claire Stemper, a member of CHSAANow.com’s all-state field hockey team each of the pasttwo seasons, recently committed to Michigan.
The Class of 2016 graduate was 7-8-1 last season, and allowed just 21 goals in 16 games. She had a save percentage of .900.
Stemper’s commitment came along with the news that 2015 Raiders’ graduate Katie Lechner, a midfielder, had committed to Mercyhurst, a Division II program in Pennsylvania.
Both commitments were reported by the team’s official Twitter account:
CENTENNIAL — In the space where Matt McChesney spends his time screaming and swearing at high school football players, the owner and operator of Six Zero Strength and Fitness took the time to praise the efforts of a senior class that had just finished a day of signing National Letters of Intent.
That was always the plan. For both McChesney and the players sitting down and listening to him speak of the hard work that had just paid off.
Wednesday night, 26 football players gathered to celebrate their commitments to play football in college. Some went Division I (FBS). Some went Division II. Some went the junior college route.
But regardless of level, they have all succeeded.
“If you look at the NFL, the league is 40 percent underrated kids from small schools,” McChesney said. “It doesn’t matter how you get there in the NFL and it doesn’t matter how you get there are the college football level either.”
A former CU Buff and Denver Bronco, McChesney’s Denver ties are strong. He first opened Six Zero Strength and Fitness with the sole intent of giving high school athletes a fighting chance of continuing to play the sports they love at a higher level. He preaches technique, endurance and most of all, mental toughness.
“There have been some times where I’ve (lost my lunch) and thought about rethinking my life when I’m here,” said Arapahoe wide receiver Alex Tennant, who signed with Montana State. “But when you look at the wall and you see pictures of all the guys that have made it to the next level, you just tell yourself it’s all worth it.”
The commits that made that made their way through McChesney’s program all took part of their school organized signing day activities, then converged to what’s affectionately known as “The Dungeon” to celebrate with each other.
Matt McChesney (left) poses with CU commit Frank Umu Thursday night. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
As McChesney stood in front of his players and their families, he preached about the drive he has to commit to them. When they come to the gym at 5 a.m. to grind, it gives McChesney the motivation to continue his work and help as many kids and families as possible, regardless of their talent level.
“You can give me the worst athlete in the room and if he wants it, I can turn him into a player,” McChesney said. “That’s what good coaches do. You give me a shell; I’ll give you a football player.”
With signing a letter of intent being the ultimate goal for the athletes that walk through his door, for McChesney, he wants to build quality human beings first and football players second.
“The first three things I ask for when kids walk through my door are height, weight and grade-point average,” he says.
If a player comes in with anything under a 3.0, he’ll find them the help they need to boost it. If a player under his watch falls below a 3.2, they’re not welcome back until it gets back above that level.
Once they have all the due diligence in place, McChesney turns to his director of recruiting and quarterbacks coach Warren McCarty and the two start to open doors on the recruiting front.
“We utilize relationships,” McCarty said. “Contrary to popular belief, recruiting is about relationships. There are thousands of good football players. Getting a player looked at and truly evaluated and considered often comes down to relationships and trust.”
Looking across a room full of future college football players, it’s hard for one to argue that those relationships don’t pay off in the long run. In the gym at their schools, the players get to celebrate with their classmates and coaches. Wednesday night, they got to stand together, as a Dungeon Family, and enjoy the fruits of their labor.
“This is probably the biggest day of my life in the 18 years I’ve been here,” said University of Colorado commit Frank Umu of Heritage. “I get to celebrate with other people who have the same goals and have gone through the same experiences and that’s special.”
National Signing Day is upon us. If you or someone you know is signing a national letter of intent, use the form below to upload your photo from the event.
Be sure to include the athlete’s name, school, and sport.
Additionally, browse our Class of 2015 recruiting database to ensure we have the commitment listed. If your commitment is not listed, email rcasey@chsaa.org with the athlete’s name, position, sport and college choice.
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