(Tim Bourke)

It’s not hard for Marc Johnson to reflect on this coaching at career at Cherry Creek. He’s been the man in charge of the program since 1973 and has built it into arguably the most prestigious baseball program in the state’s history.

A chapter was added to that prestige last week when the Bruins beat Grandview 6-5 (in extra innings) to get Johnson his 808th win, which became the most by a coach in the state’s history passing Eaton’s Jim Danley. At that moment, he was able to enjoy the accomplishment but he also couldn’t help but think of everything that led up to that moment.

“It means to me that I’ve been blessed with a lot of good players over the years,” Johnson said. “A lot of the kids have bought into the system I teach.”

It’s a system that has certainly worked. Since Johnson took over in 1973, Cherry Creek has claimed eight state baseball titles and played in a total of 14 state title games. To go with that, Creek players have been selected 51 times in the MLB Draft.

While success in the playoffs and the number of players drafted can certainly be measurements of a program’s success, it’s far from the only ones.

And they aren’t the ones that Johnson himself uses.

“It’s meant a lot to me that each team, I truly believe this, got better from the time that they started to the time that they finished,” Johnson said. “And on a personal basis, it’s that that these kids became great people.”

That a byproduct of the high school product, according to Johnson. He points to high school baseball (and high school athletics in general) as a crucial developmental piece for kids. He understands the value that can come with getting exposure outside of the high school setting, but doesn’t think that the life lessons associated with interscholastic athletics are prevalent during summer club seasons.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

“You don’t that community involvement,” Johnson said. “All that school involvement, the kids get so excited. You have your tournaments and you get your games but the high school experience is something that I don’t think a lot of kids ever forget.”

If there’s an authority on that subject, it would have to be Johnson.

At the conclusion of the game against Grandview, he started hearing from former players that had scattered themselves away from Colorado. He said he had received a phone call from Germany as well as players that had established themselves throughout the United States.

His phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.

“I had 253 messages,” he said.

Although the 808 (and counting) wins will be attributed to him, he knows this accomplishments is the result of the work of a lot people.

He couldn’t have done it without the players on his rosters and he couldn’t have done without the support of the athletic office at Cherry Creek as well as his coaching staffs.

And now that he’s broken the record, the only thing that will change is having a conversation leading into it. People have asked him if he’ll retire now that he’s the winningest coach in state history. He says no. He still enjoys coaching kids and being a part of their development into adults.

“I’ll leave when I’m no longer having an impact,” Johnson said.

With the record now in his hands, he’ll turn his attention to getting the 2021 Bruins through the season. The team is 5-1 on the year and looks like it could get Johnson his ninth state title ring as a head coach. When it’s all over, he’ll be able to look back at this season and how much that 808th win really means to him.

“I’d be lying if I said it meant nothing,” Johnson said. “I’d also be lying if I said it meant everything.”

In a lot of ways, it was just another game. And Johnson was reminded of that when Scott Burk, a member of Johnson’s first team in 1973, embraced his old coach after the game was over.

All the people in attendance got to witness history with Johnson claiming win No. 808. Burk couldn’t help but remind his old coach that he had been there for win No. 1.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Cory Archuleta will be the first man to admit that he’s not primarily a football coach. But coaching has been a vital part of his adult life. He served as the baseball coach for Manitou Springs for a few years before the football job came open.

Participation numbers were down and the program wasn’t the most attractive landing spot at the time, a far cry from the late 1980’s and early 90’s when the Mustangs were wining state championships.

Archuleta had a strong relationship with the Manitou athletes because of his time with the baseball team. He was the right guy to take the program over when he was hired in 2016. This season, everything is seeming to click for Manitou.

No longer running the single wing offense like the program had done for much of the last four decades, Archuleta credits his staff of (offensive coordinator) Brandon DeMatto, (defensive coordinator) Chad Hartinger and all-around assistant Stu Jeck of helping the Mustangs usher themselves into a new era.

Now the team is winning and winning big. After topping Manual on April 23 and earning a home playoff game, Archuleta has been named this week’s Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.

The Broncos coach of the week is selected in partnership with the Broncos. Find a complete list of winners on this page.

[divider]

(Photo courtesy of Angela Guido)

Cory Archuleta bio

Years as head coach: 5 (19-24)

Years at Manitou Springs: 5 (4-1 this season)

Previous stops: Manitou Springs assistant coach (2012-14); Manitou Springs head coach (2016-present)

[divider]

Question: Why do you coach?

Archuleta: Well, I got into coaching because I wanted to really give something back to the sports that I played growing up and try to help kids develop as athletes and young men. That’s probably the main reason I coach and then I really have kept coaching because of the relationships that I’ve built with other people on my coaching staffs and with the kids that I’ve coached these last 27 years.

Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?

Archuleta: I’m just not that prototypical football coach. I coach the kids the way that I coach them to be a quality young men and to treat other people with respect. They don’t need to be beat down. I’m just more of a simpler-type coach from the standpoint that I’m just not a yeller or a screamer. I’m more of a guy that wants to listen to kids and try to help them and help them develop both on and off the field.

Q: From your players’ perspective, what do you think it’s like to be coached by you?

Archuleta: I’m hoping that they know that we are as a coaching staff and myself are going to give them everything we’ve have to try to help them become the best players they can possibly be and to squeeze out all the ability that they have, and to make the most of their high school experiences. And I also think that those kids know that I’m not just their coach. I’m a guy that wants to listen to them and understand them and know that they can come and talk to me, not just about athletics, but life problems or anything like that.

Q: Since dropping your first game, the team has played outstanding football. What’s been the spark behind the last four wins?

Archuleta: It’s just that we’ve gotten better as a team. And I think that coach DeMatto, our offensive coordinator, and coach Hartinger, our defensive coordinator, have made adjustments to the talent that we have. So we didn’t really have an identity in that first game because we knew we had been missing some kids. We had some talented kids that played in that game, but I think we needed our collective group of kids as a whole; our 31 kids to be able to mesh and to improve as a football team.

Q: The last couple of years have been a struggle. Is this the kind of season, even if it’s in the spring, that can reignite passion in football at a school like Manitou?

Archuleta: Absolutely. I’m a Colorado Springs kid, so I’ve grown up in this since birth. I remember when I was in high school, that Manitou when coach (George) Rykovich was here, when coach (Rob) Quarry was with him, I remember Manitou was the football school in our city. I mean, you had guys like (former Denver Bronco) Justin Armour walking the hallways and now we’ve got his kid (Joah) playing for us.

I never thought that the day would come that the interest would kind of die down a little bit with football at Manitou. I always thought there will always be football at Manitou because it was always such a football school. And then the last couple of years, with the way that things have kind of evolved and football’s kind of been in the headlines with injuries and other things, I never thought the numbers would dwindle down into the high-teens, low-twenties like we had a couple of years ago.

So I think that seeing all this, this big senior group of kids finally playing, having the middle school kids watch the games that we’ve played in, having the elementary school kids watch how we’ve this season, I really think that we’ve gotten over that hump. And I think at Manitou, football and the interest in it is going to really going to come back strong.

Q: For years, Manitou was known as that school that ran a single wing offense and you guys have very much gotten away from that this year. Can it be a new era is the team establishing a new identity on the field?

Archuleta: Absolutely. And to be honest with you, everything I know about coaching high school football has come from coach Rykovich and coach Quarry. I’m such a protegé of Rykovich and the single wing. That’s what he’s taught me these last six, seven years that I’ve been coaching that I’ve really kind of come to know the single wing.

But Coach DeMatto and Coach Jeck wanted to switch it up a little bit and spark an interest. I think the excitement level of kind of putting the single wing to rest and bringing in something new and exciting really drew the senior group of kids that wanted to have something that was fun, wide open and something that they could really thrive in. And I think that the middle school kids, they’re running the single wing one last year this year, but I think the middle school kids see what we’ve had and how successful we’ve been. It’s been crazy. But yeah, I I think the excitement’s there.

Q: You head into the playoffs this week against the team you finished the regular season against, is there concern or relief in having to go right into a rematch with Manual?

Archuleta: There’s always a concern. I know that the pros say it, the college teams say it all the time, but it’s hard to beat somebody twice, especially in back-to-back weeks and especially against a talented group of athletes like Manual has. It’s going to be hard to beat those guys twice in a seven-day span. But I like our chances. I like the kids that we have. I like the scheme and the things that we do. And I’m really confident moving forward and going into this one.

Q: You have a lot of kids who don’t have a lot of football experience, but those basketball players are coming off a run to the state semifinals. Do you think that’ll help fight off any nerves between now and whenever the season ends?

Archuleta: Absolutely. But I also believe that we just have a group of competitive kids, whether they played basketball or they wrestled. We have a couple of wrestlers. We have kids that have given us quality minutes and quality plays this season. We wouldn’t be anywhere without the basketball kids, but the wrestling kids and kids that played other sports. We have a talented group of kids. I’m just happy and blessed to be able to coach those guys.

(Wendll’s White River Roasters)

As a freshman, Emma Luce put up some impressive numbers on the volleyball court. Her 266 kills had Meeker just one match away from reaching the Class 2A semifinals last year.

Now, she has ambitions of taking her team further and her style of play is helping to make the entire team better across the board.

The 2A No. 3 Cowboys have looked strong all season as they’ve built a 10-0 heading into the final weekend of the regular season. After finishing 80th in the state in total kills last year, Luce sits atop the leaderboard across all classifications in 2021.

She’s put the ball down 245 times and she could get it down another 245 times this year and the feeling will never get old for her.

“It does not,” Luce said. “I wish I could have that (feeling) with every set. It’s a great feeling.”

And it has been such a vital part of the team’s success. Volleyball is far from a one-player sport and there are so many qualities that make up a championship team. But there is no denying that having a player like Luce on the roster, whether it be in a match or just in practice, has made Meeker a better team throughout the season.

“Since last summer she a grown as a player and it has made us all better,” coach Greg Cravens said. “Just the other night, I had her hitting against the varsity girls. They were telling me that they’re getting better because they can dig what Emma is hitting at them.”

(Wendll’s White River Roasters)

And that number shows up on the stat sheet as well. When it comes to the kills, Luce does the bulk of the work as her 245 make up more than 68 percent of the team’s total number.

She also leads the team in digs with 192, but receives so much support from the rest of the rotation. Lea Knapp has 120, Sarah Kracht has 99 and Aspen Merrifield has 94.

In fact, Luce only accounts for 29 percent of the Cowboys’ total digs on the year. And in 27 fewer sets played so far this year, she has already has nearly three times as many digs as she totaled as a freshman.

Since the end of last fall, she’s done everything she can think of to grow as a volleyball player.

“My offseason consisted of being in the weight room and playing a lot of beach volleyball,” she said. “I’m always getting touches and I’m always in the gym and I think that helps me a lot.”

And although there was no track season last year, she does run track. Being a multi-sport athlete has been beneficial to her development in her sport of choice.

“Learning form and being able to stay athletic in any sport really helps you out,” she said. “That’s having leg strength, always being in the gym and getting reps running and that includes high jump. High jump helps your vertical so much. And every sport also helps you remain disciplined.”

All those attributes have been essential in her development. Even though she is just a sophomore, she has grown into solid all-around volleyball player and a dominant hitter.

And in the coming weeks, she’s going to put that ability on display in the girls volleyball playoffs.

(Wendll’s White River Roasters)

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

COLORADO SPRINGS — In some ways, Abby Robbins has the easiest job in the Tri-Peaks League. The Lamar setter has her choice of weapons to feed and the results are usually exactly what everyone is hoping for.

Both Fernanda Merancio and Sydney Dunning provide the volleyball equivalent of a long touchdown pass or a second-deck home run.

They’re hitters in every sense of the word.

“When our team is on, it’s hard to defend,” Merancio said. “When Abby gets us a perfect set, it’s almost unstoppable.”

That was certainly the case as Lamar, the Class 3A No. 6-ranked girls volleyball team, took down league foe No. 9 Colorado Springs Christian School 25-9, 25-8, 25-21 on Thursday night.

The win came the same way all of them have this year, big hits and overall great production from the front row. It’s a combination that could serve Lamar (6-0 overall, 6-0 Tri-Peaks) well when the postseason rolls around.

“It’s nice to have one of the two of them in the front row the whole time,” coach Dave Tecklenburg said.

Heading into Thursday’s contest, the duo had combined for 130 kills on the year. The team as a whole had 170. The Lamar volleyball team has yet to drop a set all year before the CSCS match, 45 percent of the team’s points had come from kills.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

And these aren’t cross-court attempts aimed avoiding an attempted double block. These are precise, savage attacks coming from either Merancio or Dunning’s right arm.

“When my team gets a perfect pass and our setter, Abby Robbins puts me or Fernanda in position, it’s a done deal,” Dunning said. “We will put it down 100 percent.”

It’s a formula that has made the team look strong through the first half of the season. In half of their wins so far this season, Lamar has held teams to single digits in two of the three sets. They’re doing everything that would normally draw the attention of onlookers from outside the southeast corner of the state, but with Lutheran and Eaton seemingly back on the rise, Tecklenburg is happy to keep a low profile.

“I don’t want to be known,” he says. “When you are, everyone scouts you more and prepares for you more. The less people know about you the better.”

Dunning and Merancio are a secret that can’t be kept forever, especially when the aftershocks of their kills are strong enough to be felt on the Front Range.

Lamar is eying a league championship in its short-term future but also has an eye on the ultimate prize. The girls want to win a state championship.

“We’re setting boundaries,” Dunning said. “We want to win league first and we want to take everything one step at a time.”

They’re aware that of all the state championships in Lamar’s storied athletic history, a volleyball crown is noticeably absent. This team wants to be the first to bring a title home.

And the plan to do it is to swing for the fences.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Pomona coach Tracey Boychuk led the Panthers’ gymnastics team to history when the Panthers claimed its fifth consecutive Class 5A team title during the Fall 2019 season. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

ARVADA — It might seem like an eternity ago when Pomona’s gymnastics team celebrated its record breaking fifth consecutive Class 5A team state title on Nov. 7, 2019 at Thornton High School.

The Panthers became the first large-school classification gymnastics program to win five straight team state titles, not to mention outgoing Wheat Ridge senior Kaylie Berens claiming her second individual all-around title competing for the Panthers to finish out her impressive high school career.

A lot has happened world-wide since Pomona posed for pictures with that state title in hand.

Teagan Watkins is one of six seniors for Pomona’s gymnastics squad this season. Coach Tracey Boychuk has focused of giving her seniors the best experience possible during this delayed and shorted gymnastics season. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

“It’s been kind of weird. I’m not going to lie,” said Wheat Ridge senior Teagan Watkins, who competes for Pomona. “It has been good. I’m glad we had a season because we’ve all been working hard not even knowing if we would have a season. The unknown is so stressful at times.”

Tradition Fall sports — gymnastics, boys soccer, volleyball and field hockey — all were pushed back to the current Season C due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The gymnastics season began with official practices on March 8 and are scheduled to wrap up on April 24 at Thornton High School with the final day of the state meet.

“It’s been strange obviously, but it’s been good because for both coaches and athletes we’ve learned how to be really flexible,” Pomona coach Tracey Boychuk said.

Boychuk has focused on giving her six seniors all the opportunities they can get to compete during this shortened season.

“When I make the line-up I put my seniors in there first. I put them in the events that they are ready on,” Boychuk said. “We’ve got four seniors who can do the all-around so I’ve been putting them in there first and filling in from there. None of them will be competing in college, so I want to give them as much competition time as I can.”

When it comes to winning that sixth straight championship, Boychuk is hopeful but realistic when it comes to extending Pomona’s championship dynasty.

“If it was the Fall, I would say absolutely,” Boychuk said of Pomona’s chances of winning a sixth straight team title. “When you have your top four girls out because of injures — broken foot, meniscus, COVID and a back — there isn’t much you can do.”

Mia Tims is one of those injured gymnasts that hurts Pomona’s depth. Tims placed second in the all-around behind Berens last school year as a junior. Still, never say never to this tradition rich program.

“A lot of us have never not won the state title. You want to strive to that spot,” Watkins said. “We also have realistic expectations too. We are just going to do our best and put out who is ready.”

Pomona closes out its regular season with the Jeffco League Championships on Friday, April 9. It will be different looking conference championship meet. Instead of one site, the nine Jeffco programs will split up to three different sites — Arvada West, Bear Creek and Evergreen — with all three triangular meets set to start at 5:30 p.m.

The regional meets will take place next week. The 5A state meet is currently scheduled for April 22 and 24 at Thornton High School.

“It’s been crazy and a whirlwind,” is how Ralston Valley senior Caroline Glaze described the gymnastics season. “It has been super fast and obviously with COVID everything is different, but it has been fun to be back out here together and being able to do what we love to do.”

No matter what happens in the last few weeks of Season C, getting back on the mats, vault, beams and bars has clearly been what is most important.

“I’m so grateful we had a season even if it didn’t go the way we exactly thought it would go,” Watkins said. “Personally, I got the opportunities this year as a senior to still get to compete. That has been special.”

Glaze agreed with her fellow senior.

“The main focus has been having fun and being together for our last few weeks of our last semester of high school,” Glaze said. “This is our last final ride together. We are soaking in every moment.”

There isn’t a perspective of football that Tyson Vigil hasn’t seen. Growing up, he played both 8-man and 6-man in high school before heading to Cornell College in Iowa where he got next-level taste of the 11-man game.

Since graduating, he has become an official and a volunteer assistant at Las Animas before taking the head job a year ago.

This spring, the Trojans have seen early success on the gridiron which has been difficult to come by in recent years. When their season got moved to Season C, a hunger and desire to play Brough renewed love of the the game back to the small town sandwiched between La Junta and Lamar.

Las Animas is the No. 4 team in the CHSAANow.com rankings and Vigil has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.

The Broncos coach of the week is selected in partnership with the Broncos. Find a complete list of winners on this page.

[divider]

(Photo courtesy of Las Animas High School)

Tyson Vigil bio

Years as head coach: 2 (3-9)

Years at Las Animas: 2 (2-1 this season)

Previous stops: Las Animas assistant (2015-18); Las Animas head coach (2019-present)

[divider]

Question: Why do you coach?

Vigil: Well, I got into coaching because I love the sport; well, sports in general, but I’m loving now because I’ve started to understand the connections that I’m making with the players and the lessons that I’m hoping I’m teaching them can carry on for their lives later on. And that makes me reflect back on my own personal athletic career and all the lessons I learned. I started just for love of sports, and now it’s more like a personal connection to the athletes that I’m working with.

Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?

Vigil: I pretty much coach the way I was coached growing up. I was real fortunate to play for a family of coaches in the Lovato’s when I played at Cheraw High School and they were a very caring, very nurturing, but stern set of coaches and they got the most out of their athletes that they could.

I just modeled myself after them, as well as my dad. He was always a coach for me growing up and he was a lot of the same and it becomes more of a character building thing than it is a wins and losses kind of thing. At least whenever I was an athlete. I just tried to kind of pass that along and pay it forward to the kids that I’m coaching now.

Q: What do you think it’s like to be coached by you?

Vigil: Well, that might depend on who you ask. I think the kids like me and they appreciate the effort that I put forward, but then on the flip side of it one of my best players, my quarterback, is my son.

I wonder, but I don’t think so, but at times there might be a little friction there. Not really, I just worry about it because it’s hard to be coaching an be dad at the same time. He seems so much like me that there’s really not that much conflict involved. If I would put myself in a player’s shoes, I would think that they would look at me like someone who cares about them as a person and as students, more so than just a football player.

Q: One of the, one of the odd benefits I’m seeing with some of the schools playing in Season C this year is that it’s almost like there’s a spark that’s reigniting interest in some programs. Has that been the case at Las Animas?

Vigil: I took over our program last year and I think a fresh change was a start in the right direction. But the fact that we didn’t get to play in the fall was a disappointment, but at the same time, a blessing. The kids realized how much they really cherish participation and competition. We did our best to satisfy that during the fall when we didn’t have football by having workouts.

By the time the actual season rolled around, the guys were hungry and they were ready to compete. And it had been so long, it was just like quenching of the thirst for them. They’re playing the best ball that Las Animas has seen in years right now. I really think it’s a lot of factors involved, but that big, long layoff of no football made them want it and appreciate it that much more. That goes for me too. I find myself rejuvenated as a coach being thatvI was away from the game for so long.

I was fortunate enough, I’m also an official, so I was able to kind of satisfy my hunger back in the fall. In fact, I was fortunate enough to officiate in the 8-man state championship game during the fall season. And I even got to do that with my dad and he and I got to work together. It was little weird to be just officiating and not coaching at the time, but at the same time, I was really missing football as a coach. I think the players felt same way.

Q: Officials tend to get so much grief, does that help your perspective from a coaching standpoint to be able to see both sides of the game?

Vigil: Actually, at times I think that it kind of works against me. As an official, and I’ve been an official a lot longer than I’ve been a coach, I sympathize and empathize with the officials. There are times where maybe I should fight a little bit more for a call that goes against us, but there have been so many times and I’ve had my rear end chewed that I don’t want to be that coach and that guy that I don’t like to deal with.

But at the same time, it also helps me to play my cards right. I know what an official wants to hear and I know what they don’t want to hear. I try to avoid those things that they don’t want to hear. And I try to say the things that will help me. It’s kind of a catch-22 at times but I think all in all having both having seen both sides of the coin, it works to my benefit.

Q: Going back to the resurgence in programs that can happen with this spring season, how do you instill that culture into a team so that hopefully that momentum carries over into the fall?

Vigil: It’s kind of a nice thing, the fact that we’re getting two football seasons out of one year. We don’t have a long layoff with different sports being being played and then, again, having that long wayoff. So we’re going to get through this season hopefully successfully, and we won’t have a very long break before we’re back at it again. My returning players next year will be pretty fresh in terms of both physical conditioning and mental conditioning. I see it being a pretty good thing, really.

Q: We’re asking kids to battle through so much adversity at this point in our lives, how have your boys handled it and what do you think is the biggest lesson that they’ve learned through high school athletics?

Vigil: This has been the craziest year of any kind of sporting or academic year that I’ve been a part of. I think that’s paying off on the field because they’ve had to fight through not being in school and once we did get back in school it looked a lot different than it did back in what I would call regular time. And so they’re having to learn to adapt to life and that pays off on the football field because they can adapt to adversity on the field.
Whenever something goes wrong on the field, they can change things and move forward and do whatever it takes to be successful.

So in some ways, it’s been a bad experience with COVID changing the whole landscape of life, but it’s also providing the student-athletes with the opportunity to be able to adapt, to change and be able to accept the fact that there are some things that are out of your control, but they have to move past those and, and move forward.

Q: Do you think that it helps grow their appreciation of high school sports at the same time?

Vigil: Oh, absolutely. Like I was saying, the fact that these guys were unable to do anything during the entire fall, they realized how much it means to them and how much they get out of it. And myself included, being away from coaching was really difficult, but whenever this season rolled around the season, I really got to soak it in. I really got to make the most of it. And I really got to appreciate the opportunities I’ve been given. And I think the kids have the same mindset.

Putting things into perspective has been the bulk of Ryan Bishop’s work this year. The COVID-19 pandemic alone has brought a new light on how seemingly simple something like playing a football game can be.

Then just over a week ago, tragedy struck in Boulder. The Kings Soopers shooting caught national attention but it was the Boulder community that has been rocked to its core. Somewhere in the midst of all this, the Boulder Panthers had to prepare for a football game.

They took the field for their season opener on March 29 and beat Mountain Range 24-14. For the kids, it was an emotional roller coaster in which they felt pain, grief and joy all in the span of 48 minutes of regulation.

After getting perhaps the most emotional win any team this year has experienced, Bishop has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.

The Broncos coach of the week is selected in partnership with the Broncos. Find a complete list of winners on this page.

[divider]

(Steve Oathout)

Ryan Bishop bio

Years as head coach: 3 (8-13)

Years at Boulder: 3 (1-0 this season)

Previous stops: Pomona assistant 2005-06); Columbine assistant (2007); Boulder assistant (2008-14, 2017); Boulder head coach (2018-present).

[divider]

Question: Why do you coach?

Bishop: For the love of the game and to teach these young men just how important it is through the life lessons that athletics teaches us.

Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?

Bishop: It stems from my coaches starting with my dad who’s been a coach for 30 plus years. Then it goes to my college coaches that were great role models and inspirations. I kind of consider myself the younger, old school coach. Love them up while you’re yelling at them. Once they know you care, they’re going to play hard for you. And no matter what your coaching style is, they’re going to accept it.

Q: What do you think it’s like from your players’ perspective to be coached by you?

Bishop: When we’re on the field, I think they think I’m a little bit crazy, that at times the apple has fallen very far from the sanity tree. At the end of the day, as soon as we walk off that field that they know they can call me anytime they can text me anytime we can talk about anything and they know no matter what, I have their backs. Even if they don’t like it at that moment, they’ll understand it. So I tell them all the time, you’ll understand why we do what we do and the way that we do things 10 years from now.

Q: We are asking kids to be unreasonably resilient in the last year. How resilient did you find your kids being not only after starting a spring football season and all the emotions that went into that, but especially after what happened in Boulder last week?

Bishop: To be honest, they put things into perspective for me. The level of resiliency that they have and determination and desire and want to and their integrity, it makes you take a step back and look at what you’re doing and not so much looking at the record that I have, but what these young adults are learning. They’re teaching us daily and I can’t say enough how proud I am of our senior leadership, our coaches leadership and the flexibility that everybody has to show up ready to work.

When we’ve been quarantined and now, we obviously had the tragedy happened, they don’t skip a beat. We talk about it, we understand it. We refuse to use it as an excuse.

Our thing this year is we have to stand out. We have to be better than everybody else. We have to be better in our community, be better in our building, do better in our houses. Just because something happens, we can’t use it as an excuse. We have use it as a learning opportunity and we have to stand out because of it.

Q: Sports have a weird way of becoming this method of healing. You saw it after 9/11, you see it during the pandemic when teams finally restarted returning the fields. Usually it’s something that you, me, your players are usually observing. What did you feel and what do you think your guys felt having to be that source of healing in that community?

Bishop: As soon as the lights are turned on and the ball is kicked off, it gives you the opportunity to be in a completely different world for those four quarters. For everybody involved, no matter what’s going on in your life, the tragedy to what’s going on at home to what’s going on at school, you get four quarters to live in a different world. To compete. We talk about all the time about how students want to have fun. Well it’s so much fun when you just get to compete.

And I saw it in our kids last night for four quarters, we got to forget what happened down the street. We got to forget what happened on Monday. And as soon as the game’s over, we get reflect on what we were able to do and how important this game is to our lives.

Every coach says play it like it’s your last play. And you never know with COVID, with the tragedy, with everything when that is true. I just thought with our kids last night, that for four quarters we have pay our respects to those that weren’t able to play this game. And so it was important to our kids. The, the moment of silence was great. We took our time, we took our tears. It was very emotional and it has affected every kid differently. It has affected everyone in this community differently.

Our students know that it’s an open door policy for all our coaches, for administration, for our school, that if you need to talk, let’s talk. During the game, different players play for different reasons and had different tributes during the game. It was nice to be able to kind of be in a different world for four quarters.

Q: How much do you think they’re going to savor that opportunity 10 years down the road when they think back to this year and they’re reading in the history books about COVID and then obviously about the tragedy up the road?

Bishop: I can remember when I was a junior during the Columbine massacre, and you reflect now on just how it affected our entire community. I grew up in Arvada and that was down a Littleton. One of my best friends was a student at Columbine and you reflect back on just how lucky we truly are and how, how blessed are to be able to play any game or wake up every morning and be able to go hug our parents, to be able to call our friends on the phone.

And I think in 10 years, they’re going to look back and know that they paid their respects. A lot of them don’t know how to grieve or how to deal with this. We as coaches, have had the model that we all grieve in different ways and we all need different supports.

And at the end of the day, there’s always going to be somebody, one of these coaches, an administrator or a friend that’s there for you. All you have to do is pick up the phone. And I think they’ve learned that through this last couple of weeks, really through the last year with everything.

It’s that time, folks! #MileHighMadness has arrived and after our COVID-shortened season the postseason in our big school Class 5A boys hoops has not let us down in terms of excitement.

Down to our Great 8, our four quadrants are boasting three undefeated squads, rematches, and some who will see each other for the third time. Familiarity will breed some great games and memories, we’re sure!

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Quadrant 1

(Steve Abeyta)

They always say it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season but that’s exactly what our overall No. 1 seed Cherry Creek Bruins will try to day when they host Eaglecrest. In their first match up the Bruins jumped out to a 22-8 first quarter advantage that led to a 9-point home win. The Raptors didn’t allow that fast of a start in the second tilt but still lost to the Bruins at home by seven.

This game is littered with two sport studs and the 16-0 Bruins rely heavily on their back court tandem of Myles Purchase and Julian Hammond.

Purchase, affectionately known as THE HEARTBEAT of 2021 in our camp, is the defensive heart and engine of the Bruins while Hammond is as slick and smooth of a scorer as you will find anywhere averaging 23 points per game.

Another D1-bound athlete, Arden Walker, controls the paint and leads the Bruins in rebounding.

The Raptors have a “freakish” athlete of their own in Ty Robinson who is worth the price of admission for his above-the-rim action and averaging 16 points per game on the season himself. It will take a supreme effort from Robinson and crew to knock off No. 1 in their house.

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Quadrant 2

(Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)

In a year where we’ve gotten used to saying, “that seems weird,” it feels very much that way that Chaparral and ThunderRidge haven’t faced each other this year. With Chap finishing league play with one loss and the Grizzlies undefeated in league play they’ll get to settle the Continental clash in true elimination fashion.

The Wolverines lead man is junior big man Joel Speckman who is almost averaging a double-double on the season with 15 points and 9 rebounds per outing, while the Grizzlies tout strong senior leadership behind assist machine Garrett Arnold at point guard with fellow senior Nolan Marold who is not afraid to bang with the best of them on the inside.

For adding scoring punch, keep an eye on guard Luke Williams from Chap and senior Jason Simental for T-Ridge. Both can score in bunches and make a difference down the stretch!

The Grizzlies boast 4 players who average in double figures and 70 points per game vs. Chap’s 59. The question here will be can Chap match the pace and scoring.

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Quadrant 3

(Austin Hogan-McCool)

This Great 8 Match up doesn’t bring a ton of familiarity and no head to head match up to draw on but it’s one of the most intriguing “public vs private” “city vs suburb” match that could go right down to the wire. 14-1 Regis will host George Washington in an early 4:30 pm start on Tuesday.

This should be a fun pace with GW averaging 77 points per game and the Raiders not too far behind at 70.

The Patriots have felt disrespected by the polls and rankings all season and this is their chance to make a huge statement for themselves and the city regarding the attention they feel they earned this season.

The Patriots earned impressive mid-season wins over Chaparral and ThunderRidge, teams that join them in the Great 8, although T-Ridge did balance that loss with a tight 3-point win in a March rematch. Nonetheless, the Patriots enter the game with extreme confidence behind Jarmell Johnson (19 points per game) and Trey Edmonds (11 points and 8 rebounds).

The wildcard here for the Patriots could be another senior, Kendale Johnson, who has the ability to step up when it counts.

The Raiders don’t boast as many seniors as the Patriots but do have four scoring in double figures on the season led by Michael Wolf and Blakely Stoughton’s 18 points per game each.

The floor general dishing assists all season has been Alonzo Paul who scores in double figures along with dishing out 5 assists each night.

The first game of the day may just be the best!

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Quadrant 4

(Steve Abeyta/steveabeytaphotography.com)

Might have spoken too soon about Regis/GW maybe being game of the night. Back on February 1, Rock Canyon gave our state’s team with the longest winning streak a true scare in a 46-44 thriller that unbeaten Rangeview pulled off late.

The Raiders are veteran heavy and an extremely poised team down the stretch which has led them to winning four games with a margin of four points or less this season. They have been tested but find a way to pull it out in the end.

Got to see them in person when they were down 18-12 to a talented Fountain Fort Carson squad Sweet 16 and they simply didn’t panic, just stuck to the game plan and their strengths.

Speaking of strength, it is simply amazing the late run the RC Jags are on late season and doing it without their leading scorer/rebounder DeAngelo Horn (electrifying two sport stud!!). The Jags blew us all away beating a well-coached perennial Ball Fever favorite in Overland by 31 points in round 1 with 17 points from senior Nick Fallin and if that wasn’t enough senior PG Fallin followed that performance up with a 35 point explosion at Fossil Ridge — one of our best, senior heavy teams in the state.

There’s no doubt the Jags are for real but they’ll have to deal with the savvy guards of Rangeview in Cade Palmer, Demajio Merritt, and Chris Watkins. A tough trio on the perimeter and a mainstay Raider down low in Jayden Foster doing all the dirty work!

Palmer paces the crew in scoring at 16 points per night and he’ll look to push the Raiders to a faster pace than that 46-44 win back in February.

That pace and heavy weight “sluggin” favors the Jags, can’t wait to see if the Raiders can speed this up and continue “The Streak”!

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

PUEBLO — In June, a mountain biker stumbled across a gruesome scene and frantically dialed 911 hoping help could arrive in time. A dirt bike accident left Paonia senior Anthony Miller bleeding, broken and on the brink of death.

Nine months later, after having to relearn to walk and even after fighting off a COVID-19 infection, Miller stood at the top of the podium at the Southwest Motors Event Center. He’s a state wrestling champion at a time that he’s simply happy to be alive.

“The first thing I remember is waking up in the hospital,” Miller said. “It felt like I was dreaming. That’s what I asked my mom if it was a dream, because I had been in it forever.”

It wasn’t a dream. It was a coma.

The frightening reality of what happened started sinking in. While on his dirt bike, Miller crashed. He doesn’t know how and he doesn’t know how long he was on the ground unconscious before he was found and put on Flight for Life bound for Children’s Hospital in Aurora.

He had two brain bleeds and six broken bones. There was doubt that he would live and even if he did, it was a near certainty that his days of competing in high school sports were over.

The first piece of new he received on that front was that playing football for Paonia was not an option. But as his rehab progressed, he got the green light to go out for wrestling.

“They told me I could wrestle and I didn’t ask any questions,” Miller said. “It sounded good to me.”

Still learning to walk, he started hitting the weight room. Once he got his footing, he started running every morning. He was going into his senior wrestling season with a brand new lease on life. If a near deadly motorcycle accident wasn’t going to stop him from competing, nothing would.

“I actually gained about 35 pounds since August training for this season,” Miller said.

Miller wrestled at 195 as a junior in 2020. He took sixth in the bracket, always having dreams of coming back to win a state title. But he couldn’t even begin to imagine the road that he had to go through.

Shortly after the 2020 state tournament, the COVID-19 pandemic began impacting high school sports. Then came the accident.

Just as he was getting healthy and recovering from that, he got hit by COVID.

“I had to miss the first two weeks of wrestling,” he said. “I was glad I caught it because that meant I couldn’t miss this for any reason.”

He took advantage of the opportunity. He advanced to the championship match by pinning his first two opponents. Taking the gold wasn’t going to be as easy as he and Wray’s Harrison Wade were tied after three periods.

It just came down to who wanted it more, and when the final whistle blew, the kid that wanted it more was the kid who battled back from a near fatal accident.

“It didn’t feel real,” Miller said. “They gave me two (points) and blew the whistle and I couldn’t believe it. Did I really just do that?”

He did. And to make it all the more impactful, his match is the last championship wrestling match for Paonia High School as it’s getting consolidated with Hotchkiss next year.

Paonia’s last champion is also the state’s least-likely champion. There couldn’t be a better ending to a wrestling story for both champion and school.

(Thomas Trotman/CHSAANow.com)

Last season, Gateway boys basketball finished 10-13, but a new energy and excitement can be felt around this program and a lot of this is due to first year Coach Ibn Shabazz.

Headed into this week, the Olympians are 7-3 overall and 4-1 in league play. We have verified that the Olympians 6-0 start to this season is their best start in 15 years, and possibly the best start any Gateway boys hoops squad has experienced.

Coach Shabazz has an extremely veteran squad and that’s an excellent situation for a first-year coach to walk into. Shabazz is familiar with the community and the program after being part of the staff the last three years after experiencing success in a smaller classification as a coach at DSST: Green Valley Ranch.

Trying to instill a new “culture” in the basketball program is one of Shabazz’s main goals: “We want to instill confidence, play free, and have an identity,” he said.

Players knowing who they are on and off the court is something Coach hopes his young men know is important to him, and what he strives to help them explore on a daily basis. Enthusiasm and excitement clearly come through as Coach Shabazz speaks of his team and that positive energy is certainly carrying over to the players.

Erick “EZE” Covington is one of the twelve seniors — and he’s a Team Captain — the Olympians have on their roster who can speak to this resurgence. He’s a true “hard nose” multi-sport stud who has been part of the program for four years and has embraced Coach Shabazz’s new culture.

“Playing for Coach Ib is great,” Covington said. “He knows our team strengths and builds around them and is quick to call us out on our mistakes. Coach isn’t one to draw up a bunch of plays and have us run them, but more of a coach that trusts his players and lets us just hoop with his pointers and ways to beat opposing schemes.”

Covington is a “stat-stuffin” coaches’ dream, as he averages 8 points, 4 assists, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals through 10 games. Covington credits Coach Shabazz’s energy and new “culture” he’s brought to a group that was already very close and Shabazz won’t let the Oly’s back down from adversity.

That adversity was on display last Wednesday as Gateway was upset by Bear Creek at home after surrendering a 10-point first half lead. What was impressive was that whether this team was up or down the enthusiasm (especially during a pandemic with few in the stands) and energy from the players and staff on the bench never ceased until the final seconds.

Instead of beating themselves up about the loss, Coach Shabazz and Covington both assessed the mistakes the team made and it was all about how will they respond.

The Olympians’ other senior captain and statistical leader, Andres Arellano Jr., did just that, responding in the very next game with 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 steals to help break the three-game losing streak the Oly’s were certainly not used to this season.

The 6’5 senior wing is new to Gateway, but noticed players talking about a different “feel” to the season right away.

“A rough and disappointing start to my senior season but after listening to and being under Coach Ibn I started to turn it around and it’s been a pretty amazing experience,” Arellano said.

Once again those words: energy, culture, and attitude exude when Arellano speaks of the program overall.

“I’ve heard so much how the culture of Gateway basketball has changed under Coach Ibn this year,” he said. “We react a lot according to Coach, he brings us energy every day in practice and in games. We feed off that energy and it’s our job to keep the energy high and play to the best of our ability.”

Coach Shabazz noted that the home loss to Bear Creek was a tough one but all he wanted to see was how his team respond to adversity. They did that with a 10-point team win at Brighton Friday night.

Speaking of a challenge! The toughest test of the season comes tomorrow when CHSAANow.com’s No. 3-ranked 5A team with the state’s longest winning streak, Rangeview, visits Gateway on Wednesday.

“With 12 proud seniors from Aurora, a lot of these boys have known each other for years and I’ll push my guys,” said coach Shabazz. Once again, another opportunity to see how his squad responds to adversity with a new energy and culture!

Hard to come away from this Ball Fever Special Assignment and not feel that the Gateway Basketball Program is in good hands for what could be many years to come.

Coach Shabazz has put in work in the community, youth basketball, mentoring, and Gateway is fulling understanding what many in the Northeast Denver and Aurora communities already knew!

(Thomas Trotman/CHSAANow.com)