Mackenzie Fidelak gave a verbal commitment to Stanford volleyball, Niwot Athletic Director Chase McBride said in an email to CHSAANow on Monday.
“It’s kind of always been my dream school,” Fidelak said. “My parents have always been really hard on me in school, so academics have always been a priority, and it’s a high level of volleyball. I think it’s the perfect place.”
Fidelak made second team all-state last year with 3.8 kills per set. She has a .329 career hit percentage, 774 kills and 536 digs.
“I always try and work as hard as I can and push those around me to get better,” Fidelak said. “When the people around you are getting better, you’re getting better.”
Fidelak is in the International Baccalaureate program at Niwot and has a 4.318 grade point average. She also runs track at the school.
“It’s hard,” Fidelak said on her balancing act. “There are definitely some nights where I think, ‘How late can I push this? How late can I stay up?’ But, you get through it, and at the end of the year, you look back like wow, I just did that.”
Stanford, the defending champion, is currently the No. 1 team in the nation and is tied for the most titles in Division I women’s volleyball with seven.
“In terms of leadership, it’s something that I’ve always worked on,” Fidelak said. “It’s not necessarily one of my natural abilities to tell people what to do or anything like that. I hope that a coach now, especially being a senior in this program, would say that my leadership has gotten better than it was.”
Fidelak and No. 6 Niwot start the 2017 campaign with a home game on Sept. 5 against Thompson Valley.
“I really want to make it past pool play at state,” Fidelak said. “I’ve been to state twice now, and both times we went 1-1 in pool play and didn’t quite make it through.”
GOLDEN — Golden senior Abby Garnett has verbally committed to play basketball at the University of Ohio.
As a junior, Abby Garnett led Golden to its first league title since 2008. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Garnett helped the Demons’ girls basketball team to a 22-4 record last season that included Golden winning the deep Class 4A Jeffco League that includes the past three 4A state champions — Valor Christian (2015 and 2016) and Evergreen (2017). It was Golden’s first girls basketball conference title since 2008.
As a junior, Garnett was the Demons leading scoring averaging nearly 17 points per game while grabbing almost 10 rebounds per game.
Golden’s season ended in the 4A state quarterfinals last season with a close loss to eventual state runner-up Pueblo South. The Demons should be in the mix again this coming winter season led by Garnett and the Prey sisters — Makena and Haley.
Listed at 6-foot-3, 280 pounds, Carette is set to begin his fourth year as a member of the varsity team.
According to 247sports.com, Carette also had offers from Northern Colorado, Idaho, Indiana State, Montana State, North Dakota, South Dakota and Weber State.
It’s not uncommon to see Colorado products head to Laramie. On its current roster, the Cowboys list 19 players from crossed over from the southern border.
Watts is entering his senior year at Windsor and has recorded 136 total tackles with eight sacks. He also has one touchdown, which came off an interception.
He has also recovered three fumbles in his career.
His strong sophomore season helped the Wizards beat Loveland to claim the Class 4A football title.
Palmer Ridge quarterback Ty Evans has committed to play college football at Arkansas.
“From the first time I visited Arkansas, I knew that this place is special,” Evans told CHSAANow on Tuesday. “I’ve been dreaming of playing college football my whole life, and it felt like this is where I want to commit. I’ve been planning it for a while in my own head. Today felt like the right day to pull the trigger.”
Evans announced his decision on Twitter on Tuesday morning:
One of the top in-state prospects from the Class of 2019, Evans had been drawing all kinds of national interest in recent weeks and months.
Evans visited Arkansas last month, and they had offered in May. According to HawgSports.com, Evans is the first recruit of Arkansas’ 2019 class. He is also the first local player from his class to commit.
“When I visited there, the whole atmosphere and the university itself clicked with me on a lot of levels, academically and socially,” Evans said. “The coaching staff and I have great relationships. Me and coach (Dan) Enos and coach Bielema really seem to be like-minded people. At the end of the day, it felt like home.”
Evans also had offers from Colorado, Colorado State, Kansas State and Northwestern.
“I talked to my family a lot about it, I talked to my coaching staff at Palmer Ridge, I talked to close friends,” Evans said. “The Sam M. Walton College of Business is one of the best places to go, I think, because of the connections that they have and the type of education that I get.”
Listed at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Evans is rated as a four-star prospect by Scout, and a three-star by Rivals.
Evans threw for 3,130 yards and 30 touchdowns as a sophomore last season in leading the Bears to an 8-3 record and an appearance in the Class 3A playoffs.
He is Palmer Ridge’s first Division I football recruit since 2016 grads Isaiah Sanders and George Silvanic both signed with Air Force.
“There’s no better place to play college football than the SEC,” Evans said. “I think I really fit in with the program. It’s the place for me.”
Which sport is the most effective at sending players to the next level? Which schools lead the state?
We broke down the 2017 commitment database from a few different angles, including looking at recruiting by sport and by school.
Note that this data is not complete, only what has been reported to us, but it is the most complete dataset that exists when it comes to college athletics signees from Colorado’s high schools.
Athletes heading to play college sports after high school is incredibly rare. As 9News detailed last month after breaking down CHSAANow.com’s data, just 3.4 percent of local athletes move on to the next level.
[divider]
By sport
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Football leads all sports with the most athletes (277) headed to play college sports, something that could be expected due to the number of athletes participating — 16,686 played in 2016, more than any other sport.
Baseball will send 159 to college, the second-most of any sport, closely followed by girls soccer (150). Softball (105) and volleyball (94) round out the top five.
It’s girls soccer which continues to churn out the most Division I talent of any sport. This season, 70 will head to the top level in college athletics. Last season, 69 girls soccer players went D-I.
Football is second with 45 Division I players, and boys lacrosse (31) is next.
We’ve broken down the 2017 class by division and Division I:
All Divisions
Rank
Sport
Number
Last Year’s Rank
1
Football
277
1
2
Baseball
159
3
3
Girls Soccer
150
2
4
Softball
105
4
5
Volleyball
94
5
6
Boys Lacrosse
61
7
7
Boys Soccer
52
12
T8
Girls Basketball
49
9
T8
Girls Track/Cross Country
49
6
10
Wrestling
35
8
Division I
Rank
Sport
Number
Last Year’s Rank
1
Girls Soccer
70
1
2
Football
45
2
3
Boys Lacrosse
31
6
4
Volleyball
27
5
5
Baseball
26
3
6
Boys Soccer
20
12
T7
Girls Track/Cross Country
17
4
T7
Softball
17
11
9
Boys Track/Cross Country
15
8
10
Wrestling
12
13
[divider]
By School
(Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
We also broke down college commitments by school, including all divisions, Division I, and a per capita figure, which looks at the number of college athletes a school produces compared to its enrollment.
By School (All Divisions)
Rank
School
Number
Last Year’s Rank
1
Valor Christian
41
3
2
Cherry Creek
35
1
T3
Mountain Vista
30
8
T3
Ralston Valley
30
6
T5
Pine Creek
28
12
T5
Rock Canyon
28
19
7
Cherokee Trail
27
28
8
Regis Jesuit
26
4
T9
Broomfield
25
39
T9
Eaglecrest
25
46
By School (Division I)
Rank
School
Number
Last Year’s Rank
1
Valor Christian
20
3
2
Regis Jesuit
18
2
3
Mountain Vista
17
6
4
Cherry Creek
16
1
5
Broomfield
13
20
6
Rock Canyon
11
26
T7
Mullen
10
18
T7
Pine Creek
10
13
T7
Ralston Valley
10
25
10
Lewis-Palmer
8
33
By School (Per capita)
Rank
School
Number
Enrollment
1
Valor Christian
41
934
2
Fleming
2
56
3
Heritage Christian
3
87
4
Mullen
24
802
5
Lake City Commuity
1
40
6
Hoehne
2
105
7
Pine Creek
28
1,481
8
Lyons
4
231
9
Lewis-Palmer
17
996
10
Ralston Valley
30
1,828
[divider]
Looking at football
(Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
This season, 277 athletes are headed to play college football after completing their high school careers in Colorado. This is the most in the four-year history of the CHSAANow recruiting database, something that can most likely be attributed to the fact that we get better at gathering data each year. (The total has risen each year.)
Included in that total is 57 athletes headed to play Division I football, 45 on scholarship and 12 as walk-ons. The largest group is headed to play Division II (156, including four walk-ons), with 16 going D-III, 39 to the NAIA and nine to junior colleges.
We have data on Division I players which dates back to 2008, and the most that have ever gone D-I was 51. The 45 scholarship players from the 2017 class are the third-most in that time period.
Here is the complete dataset from this year’s group of football seniors:
Cherry Creek’s Dimitri Stanley has found a football home for his post-high school career.
The Bruins’ athletic receiver made an exclusive announcement on 9News that he will become a member of Darrin Chiaverini’s Black Out Boys at the University of Colorado.
He later took to Twitter to announce the move to anyone who did not watch his commitment as it aired.
After much prayer and discussion, I am pleased to announce that I will be continuing my football career and furthering my education at… pic.twitter.com/R5HAAfHNW5
This is the third in-state recruit from the class of 2018 to commit to the Buffs. Highlands Ranch safety Ray Robinson committed back in October and Valor Christian quarterback Blake Stenstrom chose the Buffs in December.
Stanley is a three-sport athlete at Cherry Creek, but his talents on the football field are hard to ignore.
Injuries plagued the Bruins at quarterback in 2016, but of the 1,975 passing yard amassed, Stanley was on the receiving end of 970 of them.
He also hauled in 13 touchdown catches.
Stanley’s father, Walter, also played for CU in the early 1980’s.
According to his Scout.com recruiting profile, Stanley fielded offers from 13 Division I schools, including Colorado State, Arizona State, Nebraska and Utah.
Scout.com also lists him as the No. 1-ranked athlete in the state of Colorado.
Cherry Creek opens the 2017 season on Sept. 1 when it hosts Regis Jesuit.
Max Borghi, the star running back from Pomona, announced late Thursday night that he had changed his college commitment from the University of Colorado to Washington State:
Borghi, who will be a senior this fall, wrote that he was “grateful for the opportunity Colorado offered me, and want to thank Coach (Mike) MacIntyre, and the whole CU staff.”
He also thanked Washington State head coach Mike Leach and running backs coach Jim Mastro “for this great opportunity and truly believing in my skill set.”
He is one of the state’s most electric athletes, and rushed for 824 yards and 15 touchdowns last season. He also caught 31 passes for 495 yards and five touchdowns.
Because of that, he misses the state track meet in the spring, but was a qualifier as a freshman and sophomore, and helped Pomona win the 4×100-meter relay while also finishing second in the 100 and 4×200, and third in the 200.
