Fort Morgan’s Toby McBride (32) evades a tackler during the 2014. (Photo courtesy of Toby McBride)
It’s been a long time since Fort Morgan High School could brag about a Division I football recruit. But Toby McBride changed all that Tuesday night when he announced his commitment to play Colorado State.
McBride, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound star for the Mustangs, became the first Division I commit out of the school since 2006. That’s not bad for a kid who had a legitimate choice between two sports.
On top of being a beast on the gridiron, McBride is a two-time state wrestling champion. He won the 220-pound division in Class 4A in 2015 and 2014. But when push came to shove, he decided that his sport of choice was football.
And he won’t be playing far from home either.
Less than 24 hours after announcing his commitment, he chatted with us about his choice to head to Fort Collins as well as what being a multi-sport star did for his ability to get recruited.
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McBride with new CSU coach Mike Bobo. (Photo courtesy of Toby McBride)
Q: Let’s start with the obvious one. Why did you choose Colorado State?
Toby McBride: I had been on the campus the most, compared to all the other colleges (that I visited). After camp and being coached by their coaches, I felt that they are what they say they are and that they’re going to stay for a while and be contending for a Mountain West (Conference) championship.
Q: Does your approach change now going into this season in the sense that now you’re officially a Division I player and now you have to live up to that expectation?
McBride: No, I’ve always felt that I’d be a Division I player someday and that it would come with hard work. More pressure has just been taken off of me knowing I don’t have to decide a college instead of trying to prove that I am good enough. I’m more concentrated on having a winning season and going to the playoffs with my team.
Q: Going into your senior year, has your approach been any different now that you can reflect on this being the last high school training camp you’re going into?
McBride: Yeah, it’s my senior year so I know what needs to be done. I’m going to be able to step up more for my teammates and lead them through my last season. Obviously I want it to be my best. I just need to know that this is the last chance to win a state title.
Q: You have a couple of individual state titles under your belt in wrestling, were you ever torn between wrestling and playing football in college?
McBride: Yeah. Being a good wrestler, my coaches told me that I should start looking into wrestling in college and maybe doing both. After I won (NHSCA) nationals, I started getting a lot of calls from big-time wrestling colleges that wanted to start recruiting me. I decided that football is what I enjoy doing more and see the most success in my future with so that’s what I’ve decided to do.
Q: There’s a lot talk these days that kids need to not specialize, that they need to diversify themselves in as many sports as possible. From your standpoint, having to make that choice, how challenging is that to have to choose one of two or three sports that you want to play in college?
McBride: I guess my parents made that choice for me when I was five-years-old. They wanted me to be able to earn a scholarship. With so many family members, it would be hard for them to pay for everyone going to college. One of our family friends told them that college coaches like to recruit players who are wrestlers over basketball players, baseball players, stuff like that. So that’s when they put me in pee wee wrestling and that’s what I’ve done since.
It wasn’t more as a sport that I like doing, but a sport that’s a perk. I tell college coaches I wrestle and I’m successful at it, so I’ll be a better football player and it compliments my game.
Q: How did the coaches react when you were telling them that?
McBride: They liked that I’m a wrestler. From all the college coaches I’ve talked to, they like recruiting wrestlers more than anything else. To hear that I’m a successful wrestler, the other thing I know is leverage and all that other kind of stuff.
Q: What’s been the best moment of your high school athletic career thus far?
McBride: Probably going to the playoffs with my football team last year. The whole playoff experience is the most fun I’ve had in high school sports.
McBride at CSU. (Photo courtesy of Toby McBride)
Q: Rivals said you are the first Division I commit from your school since 2006. What does that tell you about your abilities?
McBride: It’s big for my town. I’ve been doubted a lot by people in my town. It hasn’t happened much in Fort Morgan. It just drives me more to get better. But the people that are closest to me and my coaches, they’ve always believed I’ve been able (to go Division I) and that just helps me perform better.
Q: Do you feel that you have bragging rights now that you’ve proven those doubters wrong?
McBride: I don’t think so. I don’t like to show off too much. I really don’t want to say that I’m better than anyone because of what I’m doing or anything like that.
Fairview’s Carlo Kemp, pictured at a practice on Thursday, is gearing up for his senior season. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
BOULDER — Even on the sideline, Carlo Kemp is active. Hands up, shouting instructions, and, moreover, involved.
Kemp, entering his senior season, is a standout football player at Fairview who is hoping to lead the Knights back to the Class 5A championship game, where they went in 2013 — his sophomore season. This is why he is so involved.
Kemp has fully embraced his role as the unquestioned leader of Fairview, a program which hasn’t lost in the regular season since 2012. And so, even when sitting out a play to take a breather, Kemp is roaming the sideline, making sure everyone on the defense is in the right spot.
Last season, Kemp played all over the field: defensive end, linebacker, tight end, offensive line, even fullback. He had five sacks, five fumble recoveries, five blocked field goals, an interception — and caused six fumbles. It made for an impressive highlight reel.
Kemp has started at Fairview since he was a freshman, and colleges have been after him since his sophomore season. Entering his senior year, Kemp now has 13 total offers, and is a consensus four-star prospect according to all themajorrecruitingservices. Suitors include Michigan, Notre Dame, Nebraska, UCLA, Wisconsin, as well as Colorado and Colorado State.
Football’s in his genes: Kemp is the grandson of Sam Pagano, who led Fairview to great success over 21 seasons through 1989, including three state titles. He is also the nephew of Indianapolis Colts coach Chuck Pagano, and San Diego Chargers defensive coordinator John Pagano — both Fairview grads who played for their dad, Sam.
Now, Kemp plays for Fairview coach Tom McCartney, a legend in his own right who has been at the school since 1993 and whose teams are 23-2 in the past two seasons.
We caught up with Kemp on Thursday.
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Kemp has started since he was a freshman, and is now highly sought after by colleges. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: It’s your senior year, and I know it’s got to feel a little bit different. Can you pinpoint it?
Carlo Kemp: It’s different. You know, you come in as a freshman, and you’re like, “Oh, I’ll never be a senior. That’s four years away.” You finally get there, and you’re like, “Wow. Where did it all go?”
Coming into this season, it’s just different, because it’s your year, you know? It’s your last year. I’m so thankful that I get to continue on with my journey in football, but I’m playing every game like it’s my last because you just never know.
It’s just different. You just want everything for your year, and everyone to rally around you — the underclassmen — like we did coming up. We played for the seniors. You’re finally at that spot, and you want them to give you that same respect, and we all just want to have a good year together.
Q: I know you’ve taken leadership roles in the past, but now it’s different. It seems like you’ve embraced that.
Kemp: Yeah, junior captain is a lot different than senior captain. Because even though you’re a junior, it’s kind of hard to motivate seniors that are older than you. Now, definitely, you’re the top guy, and everybody’s looking up to you guys.
It’s been fun, because they come up to you and you just want to give them the best to make sure our team’s the best. You want everyone playing the way you play. We’ve all just got to rally together for that same goal.
Q: This team has had a lot of success. Two years ago, the state title game; last year, deep in the playoffs again. What are those expectations like, and what are your goals for this year?
Kemp: We’re always looking to just get back to where we were. Everyone’s trying to get to that championship. You’ve got to know that. You can’t think you’re the only team that’s working hard. You’ve got to know that the other 100 schools in this state are working just as hard as you. So you’ve got to do that extra, and what can you bring to the table that’s different?
We’re all just trying to get back to that spot. We’ve really been working hard. That’s where we want to get to. We want to win a league, a city, a state championship. Those are our big goals we want to keep in the back of our head going into the season.
Q: So it’s incremental? It’s not just one thing and that’s it.
Kemp: Yeah. Definitely. Boulder, with that rivalry, that’s our city. Then the league we’re in. Then there’s Monarch, and we like to call it a “county championship” with them. And then, there’s state, of course. So it’s actually four.
Q: Are there any lessons you guys take away from the last couple of years?
Kemp: Yes. We haven’t lost in the regular season in a while. In my last two regular seasons, we’ve gone undefeated. I’ve only lost two games in two years. I think what we struggle with is when we finally get to those “elite” teams, I feel like we kind of lose sight of maybe who we are. We forget that we’re just as good as [the other] team. Then we kind of go into it as the underdogs in our mind, and then it shows on the field.
We were playing Valor (in the 2013 title game), of course, and Ralston Valley (in the quarterfinals) last year — who are both excellent teams. We gave them respect, but I think we lost some respect for who we are. We were both 12-0 in the (2013) state championship, 11-0 in [2014], and I’m just really trying to get our guys this year to believe in ourselves. Always respect your opponent, but sometimes we lose sight of who we are inside.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: Why do you wear No. 5?
Kemp: Five’s just an awesome number. Five is an awesome number. I do it to honor my uncle Chuck (who wore No. 5 at Wyoming), and also my uncle John — he had 54, but I’m trying to keep that 5 spirit alive. And my grandpa just loves this number. It just looks beautiful on a jersey.
Q: Have you been wearing that ever since you were young?
Kemp: You know what? I was No. 2 all the way until I got to high school. I just like single numbers, solid numbers. For me, it’s cool to see a solid number on a defensive guy.
Q: The recruiting process for you has got to be insane. It started when you were a sophomore. What is that like?
Kemp: I’ve just been very lucky, and blessed, that I’ve gotten that attention so early on in my career. Sophomore year is I think when it all started to kick off. I’m just lucky, because that usually doesn’t start until coming into this season. That’s normally when schools start looking at you. I’ve had to deal with it three years here.
It’s just been good. It’s just been trials and tribulations, learning how to do it and get it right, not being stressed about it. Because this is not a stressful situation. This is the best situation a 17- and 18-year-old kid could ever have. You have the pick of schools that you’re going to go play for. I’ve had to figure that out, because coming into it, I was everywhere. I was nervous, I was stressed out. I’ve just really had to sit back and be like, “What am I stressed out for?” This is awesome, I’ve worked hard for this. It’s finally here, and I should just relax.
Q: The fact that you do have the option to almost go pretty much anywhere you want to go, does that make the decision easier, or does it almost make it tougher?
Kemp: Yeah, that’s where we’re at. I have a lot of options, and it’s like, how do I know which one is the right one for me? That’s the thing. So you do research and you dig and see if they have the majors you like, and how good they are coming up.
There’s just so much stuff you’ve got to look at, because it’s a big decision. I was worried, like, “Can I go wrong?” You know? I just want to get it right. And I’m not in a rush to do it just to get it off. When I make it, I want to make the right decision.
Q: It sounds like you are OK with just taking your time, and you don’t have a timetable to put on it.
Kemp: Yep. I’m taking my five [official visits] during the season. My commitment to my school won’t probably be early on, maybe halfway through the season after I’ve seen two or three schools. But it’s not going to be before the season. I understand when people try to just kind of get it out of the way. But for me, I just need more time to make sure I see enough schools to know that this is the right one for me.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: Away from recruiting, I noticed something today. It’s not even official practice, just summer workouts, yet you’re into it and you’re on the sidelines making sure the guys know the defensive calls. Is that just who you are as a player?
Kemp: Yes. I just want to make sure everyone knows that they’re going to play. I want everyone to stay in the program. Because at some point, we’re all going to play, we’re all going to get in. And we’ve all got to know it. Because you don’t want to go out on the field and not know what you’re doing.
I just want everyone to know that we’re all loved and we’re all important here. Even though you may not be starting, you’re second or third string, you’re just as important as the people that start. I just want people to know that. And when they go on the field, I just want them to get in there and not be nervous, and having 100 percent confidence that they know what they’re going to do.
Q: What’s it like playing for Coach Mac?
Kemp: Oh my God, it’s the best thing ever. He gets you fired up, he coaches you up. You talk about a guy that knows football, Mac knows football. He knows how to do it well and he does it his way. He’s been doing it the same way for, I think this is his 23rd year. So he’s got his system and it works.
If you buy into it, and believe in it, it takes you to very special places. You’ve got to give him the respect that he gives you. Because once you are committed to him, it’s green light from there.
Q: You easily could say, “I only want to play defense.” But you play both sides. Why is that important to you?
Kemp: I just want to do it for the team. I could just go one way and focus on something, but I just like going both ways. Last year, I played [offensive line] because we didn’t have any O-linemen. And I hadn’t played O-line since Little League football — since I was a double patch kid. I just wanted to do it so we could get to where we got last year. It sucks, but it’s really fun in games. Any of the O-linemen know: Practice sucks, but when you play in games, I’ve never had that much fun.
Yeah, I just like doing it for the team. It’s not about me, it’s about the team and how far we can get and what we can accomplish together. There’s nothing better than accomplishing it all together. You don’t want to be alone in all this, you want to do it as a team. Because everyone puts in all this work. You come here at 7 a.m. to lift, and you come here at 8 a.m. to run, and you always want to do it together.
But the departure of the Class 4A player of the year, Alexa Smith, and a first-team all-state outside hitter, Nicole Montgomery, will give the Rangers a significantly different look in 2015.
Still, with four Division I prospects on the roster, the expectations are high.
Head coach Susan Odenbaugh took time to talk about the team’s mindset going into the season and how the players want to continue to uphold the program’s winning tradition.
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Q: In the time since last season has ended, have you had time to really take in what you and your team accomplished?
Susan Odenbaugh: In all honesty, no. The awards kept coming, even into late June and I think with us all — and Alexa included with all the awards she got — it still seems really surreal. We just went out and worked very hard as a team and we had some goals that we established and to get all the awards we got was so unexpected.
Q: With everything coming in as late as you’re saying, have you been able to focus on the upcoming season as much as you would like?
Odenbaugh: Yeah, I think the focus for the girls is still to prove that they’re a solid contender even with Alexa and Nicole being gone. They’re really excited to uphold the tradition. We haven’t been able to do a lot of stuff this summer because kids have been doing club stuff and visiting camps and everything.
We’re gearing up for a team camp that we have Aug. 3 and that’ll be the first time that I’ll have had all the kids together. We’re really excited to see what this next season holds.
Q: With all the awards and accomplishments from last year, is there an almost unfair set of expectations on this upcoming year, at least from an outsider’s perspective?
Odenbaugh: I really think that’s true. There’s such a strong tradition at LP that anytime you talk to anybody, they talk about a third-straight championship. Honestly, with the girls and myself, that’s not even going to be our focus. We just want to go out and work hard and be unified as a team. You just take it one game at a time because to win a state championship, it takes a lot of luck. You have to be injury free and all the pieces have to fall together.
We’re not going to gauge our success next year by any means, by winning the state championship. We just want to get better every single game and keep working hard and play to our potential.
Q: You said after your state title last year that your internal goal was to go undefeated. Is it safe to say this year that you’re resetting things with Alexa and Nicole gone?
Odenbaugh: When we talked about that goal last year, of going undefeated, it was said at the beginning of the year, kind of in a team building meeting that we had. Really, that was the only time that we mentioned it. We talked about how we thought this team had the ability to go undefeated, but to do that we were going to have to work really hard and we did.
Most of our practices were going to be more intense and more difficult than any match we played in. We’re going to have that same focus this year to go out and play hard and take everything one match at a time.
Lewis-Palmer players celebrate winning the 4A championship last season. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: Between you, Cheyenne Mountain, Rampart, Pine Creek and Manitou Springs, it seems like Colorado Springs has a really competitive nature when it comes to volleyball, probably more so than a lot of other sports. From your standpoint, why do you think that is?
Odenbaugh: I think there’s a lot of reasons. A lot of the schools that you mentioned are teams that have had the experience of going to state year after year and established a long tradition. So when kids play for those schools, kids want to uphold that tradition.
I think the club program in the Springs is really strong and that helps and supports the development of our high school teams. You just have a lot of qualified, experienced coaches. I think all of those factors contribute.
Q: How much of a rivalry situation does that create between the schools in this area?
Odenbaugh: I think it’s really strong. There’s always a rivalry with the big schools like Rampart and Pine Creek because we want to be able to prove that we can play up a level. You don’t have to say anything about the rivalry with Cheyenne Mountain. It’s a healthy rivalry.
I think when you talk to the athletes and coaches, when we walk away from those matches, it doesn’t matter who won and lost, our focus is that it was good, solid, fun volleyball to play. The kids always get up to play for those rivalry games.
Q: Do you see that dynamic changing this year kind of like with team expectations with Alexa and Nicole leaving?
Odenbaugh: No, I think the rivalries will stay in place. The times that we’ve had with our players in open gym, we’re still pretty solid. This year, we’re pretty solid all the way around the front row and I think we’ll be just as competitive because we’ll be able to run an offense where it’s going to be difficult to block us. We’re going to have so many equal players front row that can terminate the ball.
I’m probably stronger back row than I’ve ever been. I think the one weakness that’ll we have in stepping up without Alexa and Nicole is when Alexa was servicing. She was just so solid. If we’re going to struggle with anything this year, it’s going to be our servicing.
Q: From a community standpoint, I don’t know if I went to any Lewis-Palmer game this year where I either didn’t see you from afar or bump into you. How important is it for you to remain involved with all the athletic teams the same way they come out to support your girls?
Odenbaugh: The support that we get from the different teams, the football team, the boys’ basketball team, is very important and it’s really important for me to be there and support those kids as well. I work. I sell tickets at the football games, I’m the game manager for the basketball games.
I think we’re not just one program, I think the kids and coaches alike, if we can go out and support the whole program, it’s going to contribute to the success of our school.
Q: When you travel, do you see the same involvement from other schools?
Odenbaugh: Yeah. To a certain extent, I think there are some programs where you know you’re going to step into that gym and there’s going to be a big crowd. They call it ‘the sixth man’ in basketball, I don’t know if you’d call it ‘the seventh man’ in volleyball but I think there’s a lot of schools, you step into Pine Creek’s gym, you step into Rampart’s gym, Cheyenne Mountain, the crowd is there to try and take the players our of their game and help their respective teams win.
I don’t think that’s exclusive to Lewis-Palmer, but I think sometimes it’s more consistent at Lewis-Palmer because our kids are there for all our matches, not just the big ones.
Q: What’s been the most intense or memorable moment that you have faced during the last two years as you have won two state championships?
Odenbaugh: Probably the state championship against Ponderosa last year. I didn’t think that anybody expected that we would be able to only drop five sets (on the year).
When we dropped that second set to Ponderosa, honestly they ran a faster offense than we had seen all year, as a coach and as players we had confidence that we could come back and compete and rebound after that second set loss. You looked up in the stands and it seemed as though there was a look of panic among the fans.
I think another one which was a turning factor for us is when we played Grandview in the championship game at the Cheyenne Mountain Invitational. They took us to five and that fifth set was 15-13 and that was a pivotal point for us as well. Grandview is a very good team so that gave us confidence to carry over into state.
Q: How much are you looking forward to that first set at home when your students get to come back and cheer you on as a two-time defending state champion?
Odenbaugh: It’ll be nice. Again, I love our home games because of the crowds that we get. Our kids, unfortunately, talk about how we need to lay for ourselves and have internal motivation, but it’s fun to see them rise to the occasion and play for their home team.
CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico, pictured in his office. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
AURORA — Paul Angelico, now entering his sixth school year as the commissioner of the Colorado High School Activities Association, has his eyes facing forward.
During his leadership, CHSAA has been a pioneer in things like the NFHS Network, and its partnership with You Can Play! — a national organization which seeks eradicate homophobia in sports.
We caught up with Angelico this week to talk everything from goals for the upcoming school year to the transfer rule — and also took some questions from Twitter.
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Q: Has your perspective changed sitting behind the big desk?
Paul Angelico: Probably. But I don’t know that I could define to you how, though. Every year is a different year, and based on what the issues of that year are, my perspective changes.
I always knew that when it boils right down to the bottom line, all we have to go by is our constitution and our policies. The membership doesn’t want the commissioner making decision based on what he wants or desires. I think every year that becomes a stronger reality to me.
On a purely technical level, sitting there, you realize, “I can’t just do what I want.” The constitution and policies, they work for us well, and I can’t stray from those. In eductation, a school’s principal is able to go, “Here’s the rule, but here’s Johnny, and here’s another thing.” He can use the rule as the guideline. I’m not able to do that.
Q: Let’s talk 2015-16. Goals, hopes, aspirations as an Association?
Angelico: I think we’ve established that this year will be the year of the coach. We want to make sure that we are trying to reemphasize the educational basis of what we’re doing — that coaches are teaching their kids how to be good citizens. And that’s how they’re going to become better teams.
Q: So, even beyond coaching, sportsmanship is a focus.
Angelico: Right. It’s about team, it’s about community. It’s about school. The whole concept of why we’re playing the game, why we’re offering the activities. Why do we spend millions of dollars on this activity? It’s not because we want to give somebody a trophy.
Q: Often, there’s that hypothetical question, “If you were commissioner for a day, what would you do?” Well, you are commissioner. Let’s say there wasn’t the process of a Legislative Council or a Board (of Directors): What do you change?
Angelico: I would require that coaches must be charged in educationally-based activities to ensure that what coaches are doing on the playing field is educationally sound and appropriate with high school kids. That’s not to say that many of them are not already, but then we could say to the public, “Here’s what happens in every program.”
Q: A big thing this year that’s going to go into effect in 2016-17 are the changes to CLOC. Can you sum it up? And what are the advantages of the new system?
Angelico: The new system was designed to do all we can to create equality among classifications, that approximately the same number of schools are playing in the same classification. We’re trying to level the playing field by saying there are the same number of kids in 5A or 4A or 3A competing for the title.
Q: Will there be some headaches in setting it up this fall?
Angelico: (Laughs) It’s going to be complex. There are a lot of variables, and every individual sport has to be determined individually. It’s going to take a couple of days to get it done.
Q: There are a number of different ways sports quality for the postseason. Is there an advantage to having similar criteria across the board?
Angelico: If we have the same criteria, or similar criteria, in every sport, at least schools would know what to expect and why they qualified or how to qualify. Whether that’s volleyball or baseball or any sport. The downside to me is that every sport might need to be a little bit different based on the nuances of the sport, how many teams are involved, geography, whatever. I think schools believe they want them all the same or similar.
Q: You chair the holding company of the NFHS Network. What does the future of that network look like?
Angelico: The future is inevitable. For any endeavor like (CHSAA), it’s got to be tied to emerging technology — visually, sites like CHSAANow, radio, all that stuff. It’s moving faster that we had thought it would. I believe what that means is it will be one of the reasons sports can continue at the rate is has been for the past 20 years.
In order to stay up with society, we need this technology to keep us relevant. If we don’t have CHSAANow, the NFHS Network, or whatever else it takes to keep us in front of the public, we would slowly wither and become secondary.
Angelico: The reason we got involved was because one of our basic tenets was that when you’re in sport, because you now have a platform, you have to use it for good things. The LGBT community is one of the most prejudiced against. And no one should be bullying any kind of kid.
So you start from the most bullied, and work your way back: You can’t bully LGBT, you can’t bully someone because they’re fat, you can’t bully because they’re dumb, you can’t bully because they’re bald. You take the most extreme and you start there, and you say, “That’s not OK,” because then everything else falls into place.
We had an opportunity fall in our laps that gave us an opportunity to make a statement that we needed to be making anyway. It wasn’t about pride in doing this for ourselves, being the first to partner with them. We were thankful that the opportunity was there so we could make that statement. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had the vehicle to make that statement.
Q: The transfer rule. There are always proposals ranging from, “Let everyone play wherever they want, whenever they want,” to “Make them sit out a year, no matter what.” Will this debate ever go away, and is this a better transfer rule out there?
Angelico: We always look at every other state and what they’re doing. We have one of two options: We make it totally non-subjective, where if (a transfer) meets this criteria, you don’t play; if you meet this criteria, you do play, and there’s no ability to make any human choices in that. Or we continue to do what we’re doing where we have some ability to make exceptions for an existing rule.
Nobody will ever be happy with what we do. Normally that’s based on some controversial decision that just happened, and whoever’s upset with the rule doesn’t know all the stuff behind the scenes as to why a decision was made. There’s no way to not have controversy with a transfer rule.
Q: Do you think it would help if everyone did know all the behind-the-scenes stuff?
Angelico: It would really be helpful, but more often than not, we can’t make it public. Based on HIPPA, based on privacy, based on the fact that they’re minors, and most of the reason we make decisions would be personal issues that the parents would not want us to make public. So, no, we can’t do that. But, yeah, it would help. (Laughs) It would help a lot.
Q: Let’s take some questions from Twitter. From @2CuriousGeorge, “Do the Broncos give CHSAA any discounts at Mile High?” The question seems to be on ticket prices.
Angelico: The Broncos have been good to us, through outside organizations. The Denver Outlaws and the Hall of Fame, which are connected to the Broncos, actually get the rental on that stadium for us, and ensure that we make our needed profit. We don’t work directly with the Broncos, we work through third-person agencies, which, without the Broncos’ cooperation, we couldn’t do.
On ticket prices, you’re going to pay more to go to Sports Authority than you are to All-City Stadium. But we don’t set them.
Q: Another from @2CuriousGeorge, “When will CHSAA let teachers into playoff games for free?”
Angelico: As soon as the membership, which owns CHSAA, makes the decision. If the budget committee would like to go that route, they have that ability any time they want.
Q: From @thewhipshow, “Any hope of adding extra baseball games and starting the season around April 1?”
Angelico: We’ve asked the question, and we’ll continue to ask the question. But, again, the schools will have to make that decision. And, frankly, I think many of our high school baseball coaches that also coach summer teams are not in favor of that, because, frankly, we would be stepping on their toes in the summer league if we change the dates.
Q: From @big_bigote, “Why do teams from the same conference play each other early in the playoffs?”
Angelico: We always go so far as to say that the same league won’t play in the first round. Beyond that, it’s out of anybody’s control. If you were to consider second round and beyond, you wouldn’t have a true bracket. You’re going to affect lots of other teams who are playing wrongly-seeded teams in the first round.
Q: From @nhaas, “Will the basketball officials finally learn the block/charge call for this upcoming season?”
Angelico: Since that’s been a question for the last 40-plus years, I have no reason to believe that anything will change. My question is, “Will the public ever figure out what a block/charge is?” Starting with me, because I always question those calls. I think it becomes just as much an education problem with us fans as it is for the officials.
Q: Any big thoughts about the year?
Angelico: I’m looking forward to this year, because I think our numbers have been up, our ticket sales have been up a bit. I think the programs that we’re offering through the Broncos and through You Can Play! and Why We Play, we have an opportunity to educate the public on what high school sports really are centered about, not what society is pushing them to try to be.
St. Mary’s football field. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — Change isn’t always easy, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be embraced.
After 13 years at the helm of the Mitchell football program, Archie Malloy stepped down to assess what path he wanted his career to take in the future.
With summer workouts underway, Malloy sat down to talk about coaching for a new team and the challenges he’s embracing while doing so.
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Q: How soon after you left Mitchell did you know you wanted to get back into coaching?
Malloy: There’s that lament period where you kind of sit back and reflect on a career that you’ve had and you kind of wonder going forward what you want to do next for the next phase of your life.
I’d say about two or three months afterwards is when I came to the realization that I’m a coach for life. It’s something that’s in me and has been bred into me and it’s just absolutely what I love doing.
Q: Were there any other openings that you looked at besides St. Mary’s or was that just the one that stood out to you?
Malloy: No, there were a couple of openings that were appealing to me. That again is what kind of prompted me to realize that I’m a coach and I’m in this thing for life. St. Mary’s was just a natural marriage and it just seemed right and things just kind of fell into place for that for me.
Q: What are the challenges that you see from going to a bigger public school to a smaller private one?
Malloy: I think there are more similarities than there are differences. You’re working with student-athletes nonetheless.
Some of the challenges, though, that you face are numbers. You’re always dealing with the numbers game. That’s becoming an issue nationwide as far as, not just football, but high school athletics as a whole and just getting kids out there and getting them involved to enhance their high school experience. The biggest one I would say is the numbers game, but there are a lot more similarities, I would say, than differences.
Q: What are some of the similarities that you’re talking about?
Malloy: You’re working with student-athletes. You’re working with young men who are obviously committed to the game of football and the experience that it provides for them and going forward in their post-high school lives.
The things that football helps them build as far as character goes, as far as commitment, as far as team building, as far as being a part of something bigger than yourself and becoming selfless. It’s almost as if you’ve changed the school, but you’re looking at the same young men.
Q: Do you have any specific philosophies or beliefs that you’ll take with you regardless of where you coach?
Malloy: My philosophy has always been that you earn the right to win. Earning the right to win doesn’t guarantee victory, but what it does is gives your student athletes the opportunity to be disciplined and well prepared to face adverse situations without panic.
Q: How about on the field? Are there things you want to continue to do or are you going to have to adjust a bit?
Malloy: I think the game of football is always evolving and there are things that we’ll do. We’ll run a pro-style offense. That’s what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years. It’s what I came up in, it’s what I ran collegiately as well.
There are different aspects of it that you obviously have to change depending on your personnel and who you have. We’re going to run the football, we’re going to throw the football around, we’re going to be hard-nosed, we’re going to be tough, we’re going to be a physical team.
Q: St. Mary’s lost in the first round of the playoffs last year. They lost a bunch a seniors and now they have a new coach. What’s an ideal situation for you this year in terms of goals?
Malloy: Ideal goals would be to have the kids buy in not just to myself, but to each other. Buy into the team concept, buy into the fact that they are representing one of the most prestigious high schools in Colorado Springs and going forward and doing that on a week-in and week-out basis, and inspiring both them and myself to play to the best of our ability.
They had a wonderful season last year and they lost 17 seniors off of that team so once again it becomes the numbers game. How do we recoup that? How do we replenish that? How do we get the numbers back to where they need to be?
Q: Coming into a new program, you adopt the traditions and rivalries that come with it. How much of that have you heard just in your summer workouts?
Malloy: You’re exactly right. The very first thing that just popped out to me was as you walk into the gymnasium and into the weight room there’s a huge cutout jersey of Rudy of Notre Dame fame. That just sends chills up and down your spine.
If you’ve ever watched the movie Rudy, you know the adversity that young man went through and how his teammates committed to him and to the University of Notre Dame. It’s just traditions like that. When you think catholic schools, you think Notre Dame.
In the equipment room they also have stakes with numbers on them and when they get their jerseys, they take their stakes home and they put them in their yard and they stay there all season long. It gets the neighborhood and everyone who drives by know that this is a St. Mary’s High School football player.
Q: Coming into a season, everyone is aiming for a state championship. As a coach, how do you balance lofty goals with the patience needed to build a winning program?
Malloy: It’s funny that you ask that because as I was sitting this morning, I was listening to a couple of the NFL coaches talk about how they approach each season. At that level, it’s championship or bust. At our level, it’s a week-in and week-out thing.
If you set your sights going into the season at the one goal, the only goal is to win a state championship, you need to realize that in each classification there’s only one team that walks away having achieved that as their ultimate goal.
You have to be careful when you make that your only goal because if something goes wrong along the way, what do you have to commit to? What do you have to sell the kids in your program to continue to work hard on a week-in and week-out basis? The goal is to be prepared. The goal is to earn the right to win.
