At first glance, the Class 2A football championship game between No. 5 Eaton and No. 7 Lamar is an unexpected matchup.
At least to those who have never seen the teams play. Those that have will certainly argue that the potential for each squad to advance to the finals was thriving since Week 1 of the football season. And even all the way through the playoffs.
For Lamar (7-1 overall), the success of the season almost felt as if it would go the way of a broken down play when Zane Rankin is handling the ball. There could be cause for concern at any moment and even a scare where things look they’re going off the rails. But the result somehow ends up positive.
Rankin has been the unquestioned heart of the offense all season and has battled through even the toughest of times. He tossed three interceptions in a game twice, once in a win over Elizabeth and once in Lamar’s loss to Pagosa Springs, its only loss of the season.
But he’s also thrown for five touchdowns in a game when Lamar beat Trinidad. He also had three 100-yard rushing performances through the course of the year.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
He hasn’t been alone as both Damian Ramos and Jesus Reyes have also been essential to the team’s success, even when things looked at times like they weren’t going according to plan.
“How you overcome adversity, that’s what this team is all about,” Rankin said early in the season. “We can battle through adversity and push through, that’s why this team is so good.”
To claim a state title, Lamar will have to beat another good team and a team that did what not a lot of people thought could be done.
Eaton was never scared of Resurrection Christian despite the fact that the Cougars defense hadn’t surrendered a point in the regular season. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around in the semifinal clash, Eaton had scored 27.
While Ethan Florez had been the standout back for Eaton during the course of the regular season, it was Juan Maravilla stepping up against Rez. He rushed for 165 yards and a touchdown in the win. Short yardage situations were also beneficial considering that quarterback Scott Grable could hand the ball to a tank in Tanner True. True scored two touchdowns on Saturday to help Eaton punch its ticket to championship weekend.
“The look on the players’ faces, it’s classic. It just brings tears to your eyes. Excited for them, that their hard work is playing off. You just love to see that look on their faces,” Eaton coach Zac Lemon told the Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show on Saturday.
Eaton’s last state championship came in 2000 when the team beat Roosevelt 21-7 to capture the 2A crown. It’s been a bit longer for Eaton’s opponent. Lamar’s last football title came when it beat Delta for the AA title back in 1961. It last played in the title game in 1963 leaving the program with a prolonged absence when it comes to football success. And absence that the players hope will be erased come Friday.
There may not be two teams with more different styles heading into championship weekend than Loveland and Palmer Ridge.
The contenders for the Class 4A football title each grabbed impressive wins over tough opponents in their semifinal games and remain alive heading into the season’s final days of play. But their methods in getting there are vastly different from each other.
Coming off three straight 3A titles, the Bears (6-0) continue to play their brand of football that features a high-flying, pass-heavy offense and combine it with a physical, unrelenting brand of defense.
In just six games, quarterback Luke McAllister threw for over 1,600 yards and 23 touchdowns. He’s spoiled when it comes to target options as Kaden Dudley, Anthony Costanzo and Marcellus Reed have all proven to be top-notch talents this season.
(Paul Shepardson / Paul Shepardson Photography)
Cam Jones has been a big defensive presence as he leads the team in sacks with five and has even pulled down an interception. The team overall has forced 14 turnovers on the year which played a big factor in playoff wins over Pine Creek and Fountain-Fort Carson.
McAllister is trying to end his career the same way his predecessor Ty Evans did, but winning two state titles in a row and he knows that he has a group talented enough to get it done.
“I know my team has my back,” he said earlier this year. “I love this team and love the way they handle things.”
On the other side of the field, Loveland (8-0) may have the exact formula needed to slow down Palmer Ridge’s offense.
Loveland rushes for 340 yards per game and has a tendency to put together long sustained drives that end with points being scored. Zach Rakowsky leads the way, averaging 153 yards per game and he’s found the end zone 16 times.
It’s an old-school style of play that Loveland backs up with with a suffocating defense that has totaled nine sacks on the year and forced 20 turnovers in just eight games.
Loveland has been playing with postseason intensity since the final game of the year, a 27-26 overtime win against Skyline. The team rode its defense to a big win over Broomfield (the 2019 4A runner-up) in the quarterfinals before slowing down No. 1 Dakota Ridge – who had just put up 76 points a week earlier – to reach the state championship game.
“To get that kind of experience, you get more from the last five minutes of those games,” Loveland coach Jeff Mauck said after the Skyline win. “So much of who you are as a person is tested in those moments.”
He’s hoping those moments have tested his boys enough to be ready for a state championship game. The last time Loveland played for a state title was 2018 and the result was every bit as good as they had hoped for. They took down Skyline 62-14 to claim the programs seventh state crown.
The 4A football championship game will kick at 6 p.m. on Friday and will follow the 2A title game between Lamar and Eaton.
If last year was any indication, this year’s 6-man football championship game is going to be a fun watch.
After heading to Stratton/Liberty last year, Fleming looks to defend its state championship against the same Knighted Eagles team it downed 28-27 on a sunny, but windy day last November.
The Wildcats (7-0 overall) have played out the season looking like the defending champions and continued that momentum into the 6-man playoffs which began two weeks ago.
To get the state title game, Fleming had to survive the passing attack from one of 6-man’s most prolific offenses. Granada’s Dominic Coleman hasn’t been afraid to put the ball in the air at any point this season and has been effective in doing so. When it came to keeping up with an offense that had scored fewer than 49 points just once all season, Coleman was happy to take on the challenge.
He completed 18-of-25 passes for 248 yards and two touchdowns. But he also threw two interceptions and found out very quickly that the defending champs meant business.
Fleming and Stratton/Liberty also met in the 2019 6-man title game. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Fleming’s offense was every bit as effective as it had been all season. Charles Hobbs showed off his big-play ability carrying the ball just four times for 148 yards and scoring three touchdowns. When a standout back is only tackled once all day, it tends to be a recipe for success.
The same could be said for Brady Kuntz. The senior caught three passes for 72 yards yards and scored twice.
With a fumble recovery and blocked field goal from Joel Muller, the Wildcats certainly have the personnel needed to grab another gold trophy this weekend.
But Stratton/Liberty (6-0) has to have revenge on its mind. The Knighted Eagles have to have the one-point loss in last year’s title game still fresh in its memory. The fact that it happened at home couldn’t have helped in the matter.
The rushing tandem of Alex Cruz and Riggin Williams is looking to provide every bit the threat that Hobbs will for the Wildcats. Cruz broke for 101 yards and two touchdowns in last week’s semifinal win over Cheyenne Wells. Williams rushed for just 66 yards but also scored twice for Stratton/Liberty.
Sophomore Logan Breyer made his presence felt defensively as he recorded three sacks. Cruz picked off one pass while Will Witzel had two interceptions to help the Knighted Eagles win the turnover battle.
This is Stratton/Liberty’s fourth straight appearance in the state title game and the team will be looking for its second title in that span. The Knighted Eagles beat Kit Carson 57-18 in 2018.
The 6-man championship game is the first of the seven state football championship games to be contested this week. The game is set for a 2 p.m. kick on Thursday.
For the last several years, the 8-man football championship game has felt more like a game show than anything else. The point of the contest? Seeing if anyone can stop Sedgwick County’s run of dominance in the championship game.
Come on down, Sanford. You’re the next contestant.
Since the 2015 season, the Cougars (8-0) have been nothing short of dominant and have rattled off five straight state championship in a row. In fact, in this entire six-year run, they’ve lost just two total games. Perkins County (Neb.) got them in 2016 and Merino got a 27-24 win during the 2018 regular season.
Other than that, Sedgwick County has rattled off win after win and that includes zero playoff losses in its last six tournament runs.
This year has shown to be no different.
Sedgwick County coach Chris Michel is trying to lead his team to a sixth straight state championship. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
The Cougars won their first three games by a combined score of 156-26. They finished the regular season strongly and then proceeded to win their first two playoff games by a 91-18 margin. And if history is any indicator, they have the experience needed in a state championship game to continue their historic run.
If the Cougars win this week, they’ll become just the second team in state history to claim six straight titles. Limon won six in a row from 1963-68. Valor Christian won five in a row from 2009-13.
If the 2020 postseason has done anything for Sanford, it has made the team battle-tested. The program was outscored its regular season opponents 244-46 before having to battle in the first two rounds of the 8-man tournament.
Sanford (7-0) beat Mancos 36-28 before edging Merino 16-14. Should Thursday’s state championship game remain close, Sanford is a team that has twice battled in close contests only to come away with the win, showing a high level of on-field maturity needed in that atmosphere.
The only catch is that the is the first football championship game that Sanford has ever played in. While their on-field composure has been clutch so far in the playoffs, the nerves that come with playing in a championship game is an entirely different beast and one the Cougars have been dealt with for six straight years now.
The 8-man championship game will the second state football title game to be played on Thursday and will follow Fleming vs. Stratton/Liberty in the 6-man game. Kick is scheduled for 6 p.m.
In the midst of an unprecedented season, Cheraw quarterback Cade Phillips is putting up unprecedented numbers.
The sophomore has been getting better with each week this season and has the Wolverines sitting at 4-1 heading into the final week of the regular season. Perhaps the unordinary part of his story is that he’s getting it done through the air, an unconventional method when it comes to the 6-man classification.
In five games, he’s thrown for 945 yards, 24 touchdowns and has yet to be intercepted by opposing defenses.
He ranks second in all of 6-man for total passing yards and first in touchdowns. In all, just three players have over 900 passing yards in the classification and just two have over 20 passing touchdowns. That honor goes to Phillips and Granada’s Dominic Coleman.
“It’s crazy, honestly,” Phillips said. “First off, I have to thank my blockers and receivers for catching the ball. You see a lot of 6-man teams rushing for big numbers and for Coleman and I to start turning the 6-man game to more of a passing game is crazy.”
As luck would have it, those two battled in what will go down as an all-time regular season 6-man classic. Phillips threw for 271 yards and Coleman bettered him with 294. But each threw seven touchdown passes which set a state record for combined touchdown throws in a game.
(Photo courtesy of Kendi Groves/Hanna Hansen)
Granada won the game 67-60 but it was a show that was well worth the price of admission.
“That was a fun game to be a part of on both sides,” Cheraw coach Brad Phillips said. “It was two fairly high-ranked teams going at it. It was amazing, even for 6-man, how quick both those teams were able to score at some point and both of them have good defenses.”
The next game, against Manzanola, he threw for seven touchdowns again. His 14 touchdowns in consecutive games is a 6-man record, and his 18 TDs in the past three games is also a 6-man record.
This is far from a one-man show. Both coach and quarterback, father and son, praise the effort of the team as a whole. Trey Pearce leads the receiving corps with 384 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns.
If there was any indication that the shootout was a one-off performance for Cade, that went out the window the very next week as he threw for 292 yards and seven more touchdowns in an 82-38 win over Manzanola. This time, however, he added 157 yards and a touchdown while running the ball.
It wasn’t really ideal to have to see those numbers again, but there came a level of comfort knowing that if Cade needs to take to the air, he’s more than capable of effectively slinging the ball around the yard.
“We were hoping he wouldn’t have to,” Brad said. “We were hoping our defense would slow Manzanola down a little more so we wouldn’t have to put up the kind of numbers we did. He has really good receivers and really good blocking and he’s capable of doing that on any evening that we need him to.”
It’s a fun way to play the game.
One of the greatest appeals of the 6-man game is the wide-open nature of the field which tends to allow for several exciting scoring plays in a game. Add in what a kid like Cade can do when he’s generating offense through the air while a teammate like Braeden Harris is balancing the attack on the ground and it makes for some of the most exciting football in the state.
“Our team can score 36 points in a quarter and come back from a 20-point deficit pretty fast,” Cade said. “It’s amazing what we can do when we’re clicking on all cylinders.”
Troy Ward has learned very quickly when that consistency is crucial when building a successful football program.
Ward is in his second year as head coach from Rampart after being on staff for five years before that as defensive coordinator. Royer’s departure led to Ward being name as the new coach and he’s been able to keep things consistent while putting his own twist on the program.
Ward started 1-4 as coach of the Rams but has gone 8-2 in his last 10 games. The only blemish for Rampart this year was an overtime loss to Vista Ridge but it was just last week that the Rams beat Class 4A RPI No. 1 Fountain-Fort Carson 17-14.
With such a signature win for his team, Ward earned this week’s distinction as the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Ward: I coach for the connection and impact that we can have on the kids. We strongly believe here at Rampart that we have to take advantage of every single day of the four years that we have with these kids so that we impact the next 40 years of their life.
Q: What do you think it’s like from their perspective to be coached by you?
Ward: I’m called grumpy a lot. So it’s good thing that have other coaches that are a lot nicer than I am. In all seriousness, the relationship that we build with our kids here, it’s one of mutual respect. They know the expectation is that they show up every day, work hard and get better. That is an expectation that we make clear to them from the time they come in as freshmen until they graduate and have their last practice as a senior.
And that builds a mutual respect between the coaches and the kids. They know that we’re not here just for wins and losses. We’re here to A.) see them walk across the (graduation) stage as a senior and B.) go on and be good members of society.
Q: Do you think the continuity part with you being on staff for so long and then being named head coach when Rob (Royer) left, helped with that relationship aspect?
Ward: Absolutely. None of the expectations changed. None of the overall system things changed. Obviously I put my own little spin on it, but the system that Rob helped install here and the program success that he had here definitely carried over.
The coaching staff didn’t change at all when he left other than the fact that he was gone. So, the continuity for the last seven years has been here. We all know and respect each other. We understand everything about the offense, defense and special team system.
Q: In a shortened season that a lot of people might have thought wasn’t going to happen, just how crucial can it be to a program to get the kind of win you did last Thursday, regardless of what happens for the rest of the season?
Ward: It’s incredibly important for the kids to build on that confidence and success that we had against Fountain-Fort Carson, but in reality that success started in the overtime loss to Vista Ridge. When we lost that game, our kids played incredibly well in that game. And it came down to a 2-point conversion and we came up one point short, but our kids came out of that game knowing that we can play with anybody and we can beat anybody.
So last week against Fountain-Fort Carson, it wasn’t a surprise to our program. Our kids show up every day, work hard and they get better. They’re not afraid to play anybody.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Q: Does it help when you have an established leader on the field like Cale Cormaney? How much does he mean to your program and how much does he help you as an on-field leader?
Ward: Cale is a great player. But even more than that, he is a great leader on this football team. But it’s not just Cale. We have a group of seniors that is providing us leadership, both in production and behind the scenes, guiding these young, younger guys in how to produce in our system and how to live up to our expectations.
Our leadership this year from our seniors has been better than we’ve had in the last four years.
Q: With COVID-19 just wreaking havoc on everyone’s life and especially high school football, what do you tell your kids for the rest of the season, whether you have them for one more week or whether you get them for three more weeks?
Ward: Since we were allowed to start in June, the message has been the same, enjoy every single day and treat it as if it’s our last day because you don’t know if it is every day. We come out here every day that any football team is allowed to practice, play a game, be together as a team. It is a gift right now. We do not take anything for granted. And honestly, we try to make every single day count.
Q: Everyone knows that kids are resilient, but what have you seen in the resiliency for your team specifically that has impressed you and your staff?
Ward: They have great attitudes. One phrase that they hear all the time from us is attitude and effort. It goes a long way. We had a possibility — it ended up not happening — two weeks ago of half of our team quarantined. And that happened during a practice where half of our team had to go home. It ended up not happening, the quarantine was was false.
But immediately, every kid that was out there after the other half of the team left, they were having fun. They were like, okay, let’s go. We’re playing Ironman football. So their attitude about day-to-day changes, being able to adapt and overcome, it has never wavered. They never lowered their heads. They never get upset. They just take it and move on.
Q: What are you going to tell future classes about what the kids had to endure this season and help them kind of maintain that attitude of enjoy every second and relish every moment when they may not be in a situation where that’s more of a reality than you would think?
Ward: We have to take this experience right now, but both as a coaching staff and as a program, as a whole and build off it. The lessons that our kids are learning right now as freshmen all the way through these seniors are things that they’re going to use for the rest of their lives on how to adapt to things that happen.
Life is tough and we are gifted in this high school that we have overall very good families, very good academics in the school, but our kids need to learn that life is not going to be easy. It’s not going to be kind to them.
So in the future, we’re just going to keep reminding them that anything can happen. You never know.
Durango quarterback Jordan Woolverton gets a lot of time to think to himself. After all, the six-hour drive from the southwest corner of the state to the Denver area where Woolverton receives a lot of his offseason training doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for anything else.
Woolverton isn’t from anywhere on the I-25 corridor, yet is one of the most promising quarterback prospects in the entire state. He’s a walking example that talent isn’t exclusive to convenient locations.
“People think it’s going to be tough to find a guy who can play at the D-I level that’s going to be down here in Durango,” Woolverton said. “I’d say the biggest challenge, especially living down here, is recruitment.”
He has a slew of Division II offers, among them are Colorado State University-Pueblo, but the Division I schools certainly know who he is. Should he decide to head that way, Woolverton will get his chance to join a D-I roster at the University of Colorado.
All he needs is a chance to showcase his ability on the field. And his ability on the field is worth the price of admission. He’s thrown for 527 yards and five touchdowns while adding 149 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. He might be defined as a typical “dual-threat” quarterback, but that label fits him more than perhaps anyone else in Colorado this season.
Adding to all that is his toughness. For those not wearing the same uniform as him, he can be annoyingly tough.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
He injured his throwing shoulder early as the Class 3A No. 3 Demons grabbed a 49-21 win over Pueblo County on Oct. 24. But he stayed in the game long enough to help his team build a 21-7 lead at halftime. He scored his lone rushing touchdown of that game late in the second quarter but was clearly in discomfort after the play.
He was removed for the game but wasn’t going to allow himself to sit at all the very next week against Evergreen.
“That first practice that Monday, I sat out of that practice and even sitting out of a practice just kills me,” Woolverton said. “I hate being on the sideline practice, games, it kills me. I couldn’t practice with the guys but I’m not letting this keep me out of this next game coming up. I knew that I was going get in the PT and work hard to get it just healthy enough to where I was able to play.”
And play he did. He threw for 170 yards and ran for 82 on six carries, which included a touchdown. Banged up shoulder and all, Woolverton and his coaches were always going to find a way to make sure he was effective, but also safe.
“I wouldn’t say it adjusted the way I want to play the game,” Woolverton said. “I would say it adjusted our game plan, definitely a bit for how we game-planned against Evergreen. With it being on my right shoulder, my throwing shoulder, there were some throws that I wasn’t able to make as powerful or as on-time as we would need them to be. So we had to limit those kinds of passing plays and focused more on really a short, quick passing attack against them.”
With just two regular season games remaining, the Demons have begun to shift their mentality from grateful for being able to play to closing out a special season with a state championship run.
With Durango off the beaten path, Woolverton and his teammates are trying to accomplish something so special that the Demons are seen as a viable threat on the field and not just an opponent that requires a trip over Wolf Creek Pass to face.
“We don’t want Durango to fall off the map anytime soon,” Woolverton said. “We’re really trying to lead the way for these younger guys and showing them, this is what a brotherhood looks like, this is what everything like in this program looks like. We need to focus on being able to compete with these guys up in the Front Range.”
With three wins already coming against opponents based on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, this specific Durango team won’t be forgotten anymore than they’ll be overlooked for the remainder of the season.
Ask virtually any high school football coach across the state of Colorado why they coach, and they’ll tell you football is about more than the wins and the losses, the accolades, or even the championships.
Football, as a game, is about teaching life lessons: Teamwork, hard work, resilience.
It’s been true since the early 1900s.
Now, in the midst of a global pandemic that’s affecting counties and communities across Colorado, it rings more true than ever.
This sentiment has echoed across the airwaves each Friday night since the season started in early October, when Kevin Shaffer’s Colorado Preps Scoreboard Show beams into homes, cars and team buses in all corners of the state. Shaffer’s show, the cornerstone of prep football coverage in the state, interviews dozens of coaches each year after major matchups on Friday nights.
In a typical year, the interviews are focused on Xs and Os, standout performances, key plays, and context in terms of what the games mean in the larger picture of the season. This season, that context has taken a new meaning. Shaffer has ventured more into process, asking coaches how they feel to be playing, what practice is like, and what football means to them and their players.
“It’s such an unusual year — coaches, players, and fans have been through such a rollercoaster of emotions,” Shaffer said this week. “I think the positive thing about this COVID pandemic is that all involved appreciate the chance to play much more than in the past.
“I also want our listeners to understand just how much work it takes just to get a game in this year. And that coaches are not just concerned about winning games — they have the future of their players in mind and teaching them how to deal with adversity on and off the field.”
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(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
[dropcap size=big]S[/dropcap]haffer’s varied approach has helped to draw out some thoughtful answers from coaches.
“It’s so fun to be back,” Montrose coach Brett Mertens told Shaffer after a Week 1 win over Chatfield. “When you’re not sure, and you get football taken away from you — the ups and downs, and the emotions of it — it was so awesome to see kids be able to be themselves and kind of be back to normal for a night.”
Said Doug Johnson to the show, after Week 2: “We’re all just so grateful to be out there.”
Following a Week 3 win, Windsor’s Chris Jones said, “Like anybody else in this state and across the world, we’ve got kids where their family members are struggling with the illness, and they’re able to get a release at practice, and we get to have these games.”
In an interview for this story, Pine Creek’s Todd Miller said: “We have been turned on and off so many times that when we did start my gut feeling was this is not going to happen. But here we are at Week 4 and I am very grateful for that opportunity for our athletes to participate, our coaches to coach, and our parents to enjoy watching their sons play a great team game.”
Douglas County coach Eric Rice and his team sat on the sidelines for the first two weeks: The first because of a quarantine within their team, and the second because of a quarantining opponent.
“Playing the game itself is more important than wins and losses right now,” he told CHSAANow. “Just getting that opportunity that we’re lucky to have at this point in time.”
Coach Ryan Goddard and his Pueblo South Colts also missed the first two weeks of the season due to a quarantine. When they finally got to step on the field in Week 3, things felt different.
“Once we got to playing the game, it was about the most normal two hours I think all of us have had in the past eight months,” Goddard said on Tuesday. “The kids have really had a lot of things just eliminated during this whole thing. So anytime that we can get those opportunities to do things safely and let them be kids, it’s just so important for their social and emotional health.”
Mead coach Jason Klatt is a usual fixture on the Scoreboard Show, given that his team is often highly ranked, involved in big games, and on the winning side of many of those games. Last night Friday, he offered a wonderful synopsis of what it’s like to coach high school football in the age of COVID-19.
“It’s one of the most difficult and challenging things that I’ve ever dealt with,” Klatt said. “You literally, hour-to-hour, do not know what’s going to happen. You don’t know what kids are going to come through the door, you don’t know what kids are going to be sick.
“We stopped practice plans,” Klatt added. “We just have kind of a shell of what we think we’re going to do, and then based on the kids we have out there, then we will go ahead and run it.
“It’s just being flexible and being able to understand that the reason why we’re out there is to help kids with their lives and to give them an outlet right now, and to teach them some things that are going to help them with the next five years,” the coach continued. “That’s the reason why we’re out there. It’s not to win football games.”
• • •
[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap]round the state teams, coaches and players are grateful to be playing, period.
(Lance Wendt/LanceWendt.com)
“With our guys, it’s kind of set in — especially dealing with the first two weeks — just how special the opportunity is to be a part of something, and especially a football team,” Goddard said, reflecting on his team’s quarantine. “What I saw with our guys during that time, is that in the face of adversity, we don’t want to run away from each other, we run toward each other.
“That’s a life lesson,” he continued. “How to be resilient, and how to be with your teammates. Maybe if you can’t do it physically, you’re still with your teammates. We’re all going through the same thing. We’re all still trying to find ways to get better, and maybe not necessarily be around each other, but have those meaningful relationships that are so meaningful to a team.”
Of being a high school football coach right now, Douglas County’s Rice said, “In a word? Challenging. Is it more stressful? Yeah. Because what you’re worried about is: Am I following all the right protocols and procedures, am I giving my kids the best chance to be safe on the field, but yet still being able to play the game the right way?
“But it’s still very rewarding, because I love coaching football,” Rice continued. “I love being around our kids, because they’re an extension of our family. Every day we get to it, we count it as a blessing right now.”
Things as routine as planning a practice have become complex.
“Some days it feels normal and other days it feels like what in the wide, wide, world of sports are we doing?” Pine Creek’s Miller said. “When we started the season, we had 127 players; we now have 90. Eligibility and going to school two days a week have crushed our numbers. Teams meetings are OK, but it does not help me tackle or block. When life gets real in the A gap, virtual meetings go out the window.
“On the flip side of that, it has made us be more efficient regarding time management, and attention to detail,” added Miller. “When we got hit with a positive test, we were taught a lesson in control and humility.”
Practice itself not only involves teaching football, but things like keeping players in smaller groups, limiting contact, and ensuring all safety protocols are followed.
Teams didn’t have much of an opportunity for summer camps, and no scrimmages were allowed this season. So fundamentals have been an on-going process for some.
“We’ve obviously eased on the contact part of it, but we really still try to find ways to teach — the techniques, especially the tackling techniques where it’s the safety of the player,” Goddard said.
“We’re still learning how to line up, we’re still learning how to run routes,” he added. “From that perspective we’re still a little bit behind — but so is everyone else.”
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(Barry Smith)
[dropcap size=big]W[/dropcap]hile it may not be their purpose, or why they coach, make no mistake: Coaches do want to win games.
Teams are only scheduled to play six games during the shortened regular season. Combined with a condensed playoff field — only eight teams per class will advance to the postseason — it does seem to have added an emphasis to the regular season for some teams.
“What we’re preaching to our team is we have a nine-game playoff. That’s what it is,” Wray coach Levi Kramer said on the Scoreboard Show after Week 1. “Hey you know, every game is a playoff game for us. … I think that’s how you have to look at it. These are all playoff games.”
Added Longmont’s Johnson: “It feels like a lot of pressure. You don’t have that feeling out period that a team usually has. We’ve had 1-3 teams get into the Final 4 and state championship. It’s nice to have that when you have young kids, but that’s not available this year.”
“I like it, to be honest,” Montrose’s Mertens told the Scoreboard Show. “We only get six games guaranteed, so I’d just as soon play all good teams. Every game on our schedule is a big game, whether it be a big rivalry game out west, or a top-10 matchup. Every single one is a big matchup for us. In a year where you don’t have very many opportunities, it’s awesome to be able to play big-time games each and every week.”
Said Pine Creek’s Miller: “Every game is so important, not only for the chance to move on, but to look in the mirror and be honest with oneself as a player and coach that I did my best. If you are like me, the answer is always no. I can always do better: during practice, more focus, more passion, more love, more empathy. I am doing the things to make my father proud. That has not changed. What has is the now, enjoying this team, this practice, this game, and giving thanks for that opportunity.”
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(Lance Wendt/Wendt5280.com)
[dropcap size=big]B[/dropcap]y and large, games across the state are being played as scheduled. But some game matchups are changing weekly, even daily, due to quarantines affecting schools. At various point in time, Evergreen had three different opponents in Week 4.
Though his team didn’t have to quarantine, Klatt and Mead had a week like that leading up to their Week 3 game, with individuals who were forced to stay away from practice for various reasons.
“So I literally looked at a coach, and I said: ‘I’m going to throw my phone in the trash, because I don’t want to look at it anymore because something’s changing,’” Klatt said. “But it’s just kind of day and age in which we live right now.
“We’re going to make it out of this, we’re going to make it through this,” Klatt added. “We’re just trying to be the sounding voices to help kids with their life right now, and help them see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The stadium on the campus of Englewood High School has been renamed Randy Penn Stadium, after the legendary former coach, teacher and mayor who passed away unexpectedly last month.
Penn “was a pillar of the Englewood community,” Englewood Schools superintendent Wendy Rubin wrote in a letter last month.
Penn started in Englewood School as a teacher in 1981, and at various times, he coached football, wrestling, cross country, track and girls swimming until 2008. He was Englewood’s mayor from 2011-15, and recently retired as the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.
Randy Penn. (Courtesy of Englewood Schools)
“Randy’s legacy in our schools and community is boundless,” Rubin wrote.
After Penn’s unexpected passing, many members of the community reached out to Rubin, Englewood athletic director Nate Smith, and Englewood principal Ryan West about the possibility of naming the stadium after him.
“Randy’s teaching and coaching career touched the lives of so many people in Englewood, and his continued involvement with the community after he retired from EHS was an example of how much he cared about Englewood,” Smith said.
The stadium recently completed a major renovation, and is now among the best facilities in the state.
On Tuesday night, the Englewood Schools Board of Education approved a proposal to rename the stadium after Penn.
