(Kevin Keyser/KeyserImages.com)

All tickets for this weekend’s Class 5A state swimming meet have been allocated to schools for Friday’s preliminaries. It means the 5A swim meet, set for Feb. 14-15 in Thornton, is effectively sold out on Friday.

Parents of swimmers may obtain tickets to the prelims through their school. The general public may wait in line starting at 2:30 p.m. on Friday to buy tickets should they go unused by a school.

A limited number of general public tickets remain available for Saturday evening’s finals — that line opens at 12:30 p.m. Saturday — and a good amount of tickets are available for dive prelims on Saturday morning. These tickets will only be sold on Saturday.

Again, parents may go through their school to buy tickets to the finals.

Plenty of tickets are available both days for the 4A meet.

Both the 4A and 5A meets will be shown on the NFHS Network this weekend.

Find the pysch sheets for each meet here.

Pepsi Center set for two hockey games

Dakota Ridge is one of four teams playing at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Four teams will play at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday night, and are selling tickets that can be used to at an upcoming Avalanche game.

Battle Mountain and Dakota Ridge will face off at 5 p.m., followed by Mullen and Bishop Machebeuf at 7:30 p.m.

The teams are selling two tiers of tickets:

• $20 includes a ticket to the high school games, as well as an upper-level ticket to an Avs’ game, and a $5 donation to a high school hockey team of their choice.
• $45 includes a high school ticket, a lower-level Avs ticket and a $5 donation.

There are two options for Avalanche games with this package: Feb. 26 against the Los Angeles Kings, or March 10 against the Winnipeg Jets.

Find more information on this flyer.

Short stuff

• Rampart hired Rob Royer to be its new football coach late last month. The Rams sifted through 60 applicants before making the choice. Royer has been a head coach at Summit, and also served as an assistant at Southlake Carroll in Texas — a team that won that state’s 5A Division 1 title in 2011. Most recently, he was the offensive coordinator at Woodland Park for the past two seasons. He was introduced to the Rampart community on Monday night. Here’s a list of all of the coaching changes this offseason.
• A number of coaches were honored by the NFHS Coaches Association’s Awards Program. Colorado coaches of the year include: Gunnison’s Shana Benson (volleyball), Monarch’s Phil Bravo (football), Mountain Vista’s Theresa Echtermeyer (girls soccer), Sheridan’s Linda Elliott (spirit), Legacy’s Dawn Gaffin (softball), Discovery Canyon’s Michael Humphrey (boys tennis), Pueblo South’s Shannan Lane (girls basketball), Air Academy’s Scott Newell (boys swim), Thompson Valley’s Matt Norton (girls track), Eaglecrest’s John Olander (boys basketball), Paonia’s Andy Pipher (wrestling), Loveland’s Paul Quere (boys track), The Classical Academy’s Alan Versaw (girls cross country), ThunderRidge’s Joe White (baseball), and Alamosa’s Larry Zaragoza (boys cross country).
• The Colorado High School Coaches Association announced its 2014 class earlier this month. Included: Cheyenne Mountain’s Carl Fetters (football, basketball); Durango’s Ron Keller (track, cross country); Cheyenne Mountain and Palmer’s Mike Provenzano (hockey); Otis’ Bonnie Wallin-Kuntz (volleyball); and Poudre’s Randy Yaussi (cross country, track).

The state skiing championships will have custom gate panels for the first time in the history of the event next month.

The red and blue gate panels will be installed on the alpine course prior to the championships at Eldora Mountain Resort on Feb. 13-14. They each feature a white CHSAA flag logo as well as the phrase, “CHSAA STATE SKIING CHAMPIONSHIPS.”

The change was made because alpine competitors will now wear bibs featuring their school’s information rather than the standard state skiing championships bibs of prior years. (The nordic race will still wear CHSAA bibs.)

“We have always provided state championship bibs,” said assistant commissioner Bethany Brookens, who oversees skiing. “All season, they’ve been wearing their own bibs that say their team name. They’d get to state, and they’d wear CHSAA bibs, and people would have a hard time figuring out what school they were from.

“People wanted to represent their school,” Brookens said. “We really find that valuable and want to allow them to do that.”

But, Brookens added, “We still want to show that it’s a state championship event. So someone brought up the idea of, ‘How about we do gate panels?'”

Here’s what they’ll look like:

Monarch coach Gail Hook wins No. 400

Longtime Monarch girls basketball coach Gail Hook won the 400th game of her career on Thursday night. Her Coyotes beat Greeley West, 42-24, in Greeley.

“You’ve got to have players and you’ve got to have coaching staffs to keep you in it for as long as I’ve been in it,” Hook told BoCoPreps.com after the game. “Those are the reasons you do what you do, and I think I’ve been very fortunate to have kids that have worked hard and believe in what we’re doing.”

Hook, a 15-year coaching veteran, has also headed the programs at Centaurus and Smoky Hill. She is now 400-160 in her career, according to BoCoPreps.com.

Two teams headed to national baseball tournament

ThunderRidge and Regis Jesuit will both play in this year’s USA Baseball National High School Invitational on March 26-29 in North Carolina. The tournament, founded in 2012, routinely draws 16 of the top teams nationally.

This year, teams from North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, California, Tennessee, Alabama and Arizona will participate. The only previous Colorado team to play in the event was Highlands Ranch, in 2012. The Falcons went 1-2 that year.

ThunderRidge, the defending Class 5A champion, features three Division I-bound seniors: shortstop Brody Westmoreland (San Diego State) and pitchers A.J. Jones (BYU) and Tyler Loptein (San Diego State).

Regis Jesuit has five D-I seniors: pitchers Zach Heath (Northern Colorado), David Peterson (Oregon) and Regan Todd (Arizona State); second baseman Max George (Oregon State); and third baseman Juston Thaxton (Pacific).

Here is a promo video for the event:

With the recent wet weather, causing high levels of humidity, dampness and the reality of a growing mosquito population, the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Sport Medicine Advisory Committee is recommending the use of mosquito repellent as a deterrent to the West Nile Virus.

Football helmets: heat and cold acclimation

During the high heat, the CHSAA Sports Medicine Advisory Committee is recommending that football players remove their helmets during all breaks in the practice or game action to help keep body temperatures regulated.

In cold weather, it is recommended that players keep their helmets on to maintain a proper core temperature and help the headwear retain its proper fit and function.

Basketball rules changes: Uniforms/electronic devices

Among the NFHS Basketball Rules changes for 2013-14 are two that may impact planning for the upcoming season.

A rule change approved by the committee for the 2013-14 season will permit a single, visible manufacturer’s logo/trademark/reference on the team jersey, not to exceed 2¼ square inches with no dimension more than 2¼ inches.

The manufacturer’s logo may be located no more than 5 inches below the shoulder seam on the front of the jersey, or 2 inches from the neckline on the back of the jersey, or in either side insert. This change will bring basketball in agreement with other NFHS sports rules and allow the use of a single manufacturer’s logo on the jersey of the playing uniform.

Another rule change approved the use of electronic devices during the game in certain instances. Rule 1-19 now will allow a coach to take advantage of electronic devices for use in coaching and gathering statistics. Teams, however, cannot use electronic equipment for voice communication

Silver Creek, the defending 3A champion, opens Colorado’s high school football schedule. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

The casual high school football observer might think that scheduling football games is an easy process. After all, a school has a specified number of conference games and, then fill in with non-conference opponents.

Well, for some schools, it’s not that easy. There be an odd number of schools in their conference, creating a “bye” that might be much later in the season than the usual bye week. Or, the team may not be able to match up with any other school for a variety of reasons, including competitive level, classification or geography.

The CHSAA tackled that issue a number of years ago and may allow teams to play a “zero week” game when those teams can provide enough information to show that after an exhaustive search, the school was unable to find an opponent during the established 10-week period.

The school then requests permission for the “zero week” games from CHSAA Assistant Commissioner Harry Waterman. Once approval is given, the schools playing that “zero week” game give up one of their two allowable scrimmages in order to play that week. This year, “zero week” falls on August 22-24.

This year, there are 29 “zero week” games scheduled, including Valor Christian’s nationally televised game (ESPN2) against Fresno, Calif., Central East High School in Highlands Ranch. The complete list of “zero week” games includes:

August 22

3A Silver Creek @ Poinciana, Fla. – 7:30 p.m.

August 23

2A Bishop Machebeuf @ 2A Manual – 7:00 p.m.

2A Bennett @ 2A Faith Christian – 7:00 p.m.

2A Eaton @ 2A The Academy – 7:00 p.m.

2A Basalt @ 1A Paonia – 7:00 p.m.

3A Coronado @ 3A Pueblo County – 7:00 p.m.

3A Battle Mountain @ 3A Glenwood Springs – 7:00 p.m.

3A Lutheran @ Faith Lutheran, NV – 7:00 p.m.

3A Weld Central @ 3A Evergreen – 7:00 p.m.

3A Vista Peak @ 5A Hinkley – 6:00 p.m.

1A Cedaredge @ 3A Eagle Valley – 7:00 p.m.

4A Littleton @ 4A Standley Lake – 7:00 p.m. (NAAC)

4A Vista Ridge @ 4A Montrose – 7:00 p.m.

5A Ralston Valley @ 5A Mullen – 7:00 p.m.

5A Grand Junction @ 5A Prairie View – 7:00 p.m.

5A Fruita Monument @ 5A Adams City – 7:00 p.m.

A8 Dayspring Academy @ A8 Kiowa – 7:00 p.m.

A8 Sargent @ A8 Fowler – 7:00 p.m.

3A Mitchell at 3A La Junta – 7:00 p.m.

3A Discovery Canyon at 3A Pueblo Central – 7:00 p.m.

August 24

1A Jefferson @ 2A Pinnacle – 7:00 p.m. (5 Star Stadium)

1A Cornerstone Christian @ 1A Nederland – 1:00 p.m.

2A Middle Park @ 3A Sierra – 1:00 p.m.

3A Lewis-Palmer @ 3A Pueblo East – 7:00 p.m.

Fresno, Calif., Central East @ 5A Valor Christian – 8:00 p.m.

A8 Dove Creek @ A8 Simla – 3:00 p.m.

A8 Gilpin County @ A8 Miami-Yoder – 1:00 p.m.

A8 Rocky Mountain Lutheran @ A8 Antonito – 1:00 p.m.

A8 Holly @ A8 Sangre de Cristo – 1:00 (@Hoehne)