Important information and documents from the 2013 All School Summit:
Month: August 2013
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Windsor’s Zach Peck a finalist for Pro Football Hall of Fame award
Zach Peck, a senior defensive and offensive lineman at Windsor, is a finalist for a national award given out by the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the U.S. Army.
The Award for Excellence “highlights the achievements in and out of the classroom of student-athletes across the country,” according to a release sent by the Hall of Fame.
Peck is one of ten finalists for the award, and the lone representative from Colorado. He had 65 total tackles (eight for a loss) and three sacks last season.
The winner is set to be announced during the U.S. Army All-American Bowl’s awards ceremony next January. Peck and the other finalists will travel to the All-American Bowl.
For more information, visit profootballhof.com/Army.
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Colorado High School Activities Association joins NFHS Network
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) is one of 28 members of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) that has joined the NFHS Network, the new all-digital network devoted to coverage of high school sports and performing arts through the Internet at www.NFHSnetwork.com.
The NFHS, in association with PlayOn! Sports (PlayOn), announced the official launch of the NFHS Network on August 1. With coverage of boys and girls sports and activities initially in at least 28 states during the 2013-14 school year, the NFHS Network becomes the largest aggregated destination for coverage of high school sports in the country. Through a subscription-based digital service available at www.NFHSnetwork.com, more students, parents and fans will be able to watch high school sports than ever before.
In addition to the CHSAA, NFHS member associations in the following states have finalized agreements and will be a part of the NFHS Network as the 2013-14 season begins: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
In addition, member associations in a number of other states are close to completing agreements and are expected to join the NFHS Network soon.
“We believe this is one of the greatest opportunities in the 94-year history of the NFHS as we are able to take advantage of new technology and showcase high school sports and performing arts on a national scale,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. “We are excited to provide viewership opportunities for fans of high school sports that have never existed before. The NFHS Network will help showcase our primary mission of expanding participation and opportunities for involvement in education-based interscholastic sports and performing arts activities.”
“Colorado is excited to be in on the initial launch of this national initiative. We believe it has great potential to showcase all of high school activities, not just those that have garnered the lion’s share of attention in the past,” CHSAA Commissioner Paul Angelico said. “This new network meshes nicely with what we have done the past three years with CHSAA.tv. It’s a new world in television and we are pleased to be a part of it.”
Postseason games in all sports sponsored by the CHSAA will be available online on the Network, except for select championship events for which the CHSAA has existing television contracts with other media partners. Viewing opportunities for NFHS Network events will be posted in the coming months at www.NFHSnetwork.com.
The NFHS Network will build on the past success of PlayOn’s high-quality coverage of high school sports at the state level. PlayOn currently streams nearly 30,000 events per school year and has worked with 32 state associations and sections in 26 states.
“Teaming up with the NFHS is a natural progression to build a truly national high school sports platform while honoring the local communities that support them,” said David Rudolph, PlayOn! Sports chief executive officer. “Our mission is to serve the current and future generations of student-athletes, support and encourage their participation and make their performances accessible to their friends, family and fans on every media platform they use.”
The NFHS Network is a joint venture between the NFHS and PlayOn! Sports and will be governed and overseen by a combination of NFHS and PlayOn executives.
“Ultimately, we want to make the NFHS Network the most treasured and trusted source for high school athletics,” Gardner said.
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2013-14 season arrives as boys golf teams open practice
Boys golf practice opened on Monday. It means the 2013-14 season is officially here.
While the rest of the sports open practice next Monday, boys golfers can actually begin contests on Thursday.
Kyle Dunkle, a Douglas County senior, is the only returning individual champion. He captured Class 5A last season.
Defending team champions are Regis Jesuit (5A), Pueblo South (4A) and Kent Denver (3A).
Here’s how the rest of the calendar breaks down:
- Softball teams can begin scrimmaging next Monday, the same day practice opens. They can start games on Aug. 16.
- Boys tennis teams can scrimmage and/or begin matches on Aug. 15.
- Everything else — cross country, field hockey, football, gymnastics, boys soccer, spirit and volleyball — can begin scrimmages on Aug. 22, and contests on Aug. 29.
- Football teams may schedule a Zero Week game on Aug. 23.
- Boys golf will kick off postseason play as well, with regionals finishing by Sept. 20. Its state meets are Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
- Other state finals or meets: Boys tennis (Oct. 10-12), softball (Oct. 18-19), cross country (Oct. 26), field hockey (Oct. 28), gymnastics (Nov. 1-2), volleyball (Nov. 8-9), boys soccer (Nov. 9) and spirit (Dec. 6-7).
- The majority of football begins its playoffs on Nov. 2. Classes 3A and 4A begin the postseason on Nov. 9. Championship dates: Nov. 16 (6-man), Nov. 23 (8-man, 1A, 2A), Nov. 30 (3A, 4A, 5A).
- Winter practices begin Nov. 13.
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Photo gallery: Denver East’s campus, facilities and history
A look inside Denver East High School — its facilities as well as its history.
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Related: Loaded with history, Denver East among state’s most intriguing high schools
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NFHS and PlayOn! launch NFHS Network
INDIANAPOLIS, IN — The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and PlayOn! Sports (PlayOn) today announce the official launch of the NFHS Network, an all-digital network that will expand coverage of high school sports and performing arts events through the Internet at NFHSnetwork.com.
With coverage of boys and girls sports and activities initially in at least 28 states during the 2013-14 school year, the NFHS Network becomes the largest aggregated destination for coverage of high school sports in the country. Through a subscription-based digital service available at NFHSnetwork.com, more students, parents and fans will be able to watch high school sports than ever before.
NFHS member associations in the following states have finalized agreements and will be a part of the NFHS Network as the 2013-14 season begins: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
In addition, member associations in a number of other states are close to completing agreements and are expected to join the NFHS Network soon.
“We believe this is one of the greatest opportunities in the 94-year history of the NFHS as we are able to take advantage of new technology and showcase high school sports and performing arts on a national scale,” said Bob Gardner, NFHS executive director. “We are excited to provide viewership opportunities for fans of high school sports that have never existed before. The NFHS Network will help showcase our primary mission of expanding participation and opportunities for involvement in education-based interscholastic sports and performing arts activities.”
Postseason games in all sports sponsored by states in the NFHS Network will be available online on the Network, except for select championship events for which state associations have existing television contracts with other media partners. Viewing opportunities for NFHS Network events will be posted in the coming months at NFHSnetwork.com.
The NFHS Network will build on the past success of PlayOn’s high-quality coverage of high school sports at the state level. PlayOn currently streams nearly 30,000 events per school year and has worked with 32 state associations and sections in 26 states.
“Teaming up with the NFHS is a natural progression to build a truly national high school sports platform while honoring the local communities that support them,” said David Rudolph, PlayOn! Sports chief executive officer. “Our mission is to serve the current and future generations of student-athletes, support and encourage their participation and make their performances accessible to their friends, family and fans on every media platform they use.”
The NFHS Network is a joint venture between the NFHS and PlayOn! Sports and will be governed and overseen by a combination of NFHS and PlayOn executives.
“Ultimately, we want to make the NFHS Network the most treasured and trusted source for high school athletics,” Gardner said.
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Six classification proposal discussed at All-School Summit
Windsor athletic director Mark Kanagy speaks during the All-School Summit. (Jenn Roberts-Uhlig/CHSAANow.com) DENVER — A sixth classification may well be in CHSAA’s future, but it won’t be coming in the next two-year cycle.
Mark Kanagy, the athletic director at Windsor, presented the possibility of adding a classification to his peers gathered at the association’s All-School Summit on Thursday. His 16-person committee, tasked with exploring the future of classification structure, is set to present recommendations to CHSAA’s Classification and League Organizing Committee (CLOC) soon.
Any change to the state’s classification structure would need to come from CLOC and then be voted upon by the membership.
While Kanagy stressed multiple times that “there is no way we go to six classifications in the next cycle,” he did say that an additional class could be added with the two-year cycle which starts in 2016-17. Still, Kanagy’s committee is only exploratory, seeking to determine if a move to six classes should be made.
“We’re planning for growth,” Kanagy told the meeting.
CHSAA last has a sixth classification with Class 6A from 1990-93. Since then, more than 100 new schools have joined the association.
Over the past year and a half, Kanagy’s committee has looked at a number of factors, including:
- Socioeconomic status
- Rural vs. metro
- Finances
- Participation
- Win/loss percentage
- A school’s entry or selection process
It is possible that a sixth class is added in 2016-17, but the move is more likely to happen when the association reaches 384 member schools. Currently, 346 schools are part of CHSAA. At 384 schools, six classifications could be evenly divided into 64.
CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico said that if a move to six classes were to take place, “there aren’t more than maybe two sports that would have six classes.”
Football, of course, already has seven classifications, including 8-man and 6-man.
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CHSAANow.com launches new era in high school sports information
New site designed for broader promotion of prep activities and athletics
AURORA – There’s a new authoritative voice and central hub for all things Colorado high School athletics and activities as the Colorado High School Activities Association has launched a new website designed to provide broader promotion of high school activities, CHSAA Commissioner Paul Angelico announced. Official launch of the site is August 1.
The website – CHSAANow.com – will host features stories, game stories, scores, statistics, rankings and video clips, It will also have a running scores feature of regular season and playoff games, in conjunction with a CHSAA partner MaxPreps.com.
“CHSAANow.com is a product of our new technological world. It is designed to support and supplement those media and promotional activities already in place and add depth and breadth to what they are already doing. We believe that CHSAANow.com will appeal to students, parents, general high school sports fans and media alike because it will be an all-encompassing site for all this high school in Colorado,” Angelico said.
Former The Denver Post sportswriter and online preps editor Ryan Casey joins the CHSAA staff as Director of Web Services and will be responsible for gathering the content on the site. Among the major attractions to the new site is an RSS feed to traditional media stories from across the state. It will help fans keep up with activities in all corners of the state.
“Live coverage of events will be a major focus of the site. This new site will showcase Colorado’s student athletes in photos and stories, as well as providing a link to the history of the Association,” Casey said. The site will feature links to state records, past results, along with special alumni features and features on the rules and history of the CHSAA, Casey said.
A major component of CHSAANow.com will be the inclusion of schools and their students as major contributors to the site. There will links to all CHSAA-member schools on the site and CHSAANow.com will solicit information from student journalists as a means to provide additional opportunities for student participation.
The CHSAANow.com site goes active officially August 1.
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Loaded with history, Denver East among state’s most intriguing high schools
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he room sits quiet and dark under the iconic clock tower. A switch in the corner is flipped, and the lights flicker. They shine on history.
There are photos noting the ’00 and ’01 athletic teams. That’s 1900 and 1901. Follow the wall and watch the decades pass. There’s a picture of the girls basketball squad from 1914. They’re wearing dresses. Further down, a band uniform from the 1940s.
It’s only a room—small, somewhat cramped, with a low ceiling—tucked above the fourth floor at Denver East High School. Yet, in moments, this museum tells a story that nearly everyone else has trouble putting into words: History is palpable here, perhaps like no other high school in Colorado. And it pulls you in.
The History Room, filled with old memorabilia from past East sports teams, underneath the clock tower at Denver East. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com). Denver East—known as Arapahoe School, Denver Eastside or East Denver through the years—has won 96 state championships in 16 sports. Yes, Cherry Creek has won more than 200 titles, but these Angels have athletic success dating to 1895. For perspective, the Colorado High School Activities Association wasn’t formed until 1921.
The school itself was founded in 1876, and has known three homes: 19th and Arapahoe (hence, Arapahoe School) until 1889; 20th and Stout (known as “Old East” to alumni) until the spring of 1925; and the current campus just off of Colfax Avenue near York Street.
The current building was part of Mayor Robert Speer’s City Beautiful program in the early-to-mid 1900s. It opened, along with the current campuses for Denver South and Denver West high schools, in the fall of 1925. South was placed at Washington Park, West at Sunken Gardens Park. East was built adjacent to City Park.
East’s clock tower, 162-feet high, can be seen for blocks around and is the lasting image visitors carry with them.
“A lot of people have fond memories of high school. Not too many people say, ‘Oh, boy, I love my building,’ ” Dick Nelson, a longtime English teacher at East and historian of Denver Public Schools, said recently. “It’s usually some program or some kids or some teachers that you remember. You don’t remember the building. But I think East kids remember the building.
“It kind of rises out of the ground,” Nelson said. “It’s amazing architecture, and made possible the fact that it was built before the depression.”
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Denver East High School’s Panek Gym. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com) The school’s old gym was state-of-the-art when it was built in 1925, and hosted the state wrestling tournament three times in the 1930s. East won its only wrestling championship one of those years, in 1937. But that old gym, which features seating above the floor, isn’t quite suited for today’s basketball games and so another one was built in 1982.
The baseball field butts up against 17th Avenue, and across the street the tennis teams have a grandfathered permit to use City Park’s courts. There’s a field turf facility across City Park Esplanade for soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and football, as well as a track outlining the field.
East’s location—smack in the middle of a major American city—makes it unique. An open campus policy during lunch sends many of its nearly 2,500 students flooding out to Colfax each weekday afternoon.
“There’s a real sense of pride, and (the students) feel pride of going on Colfax for lunch,” said Michelle Topf, an English teacher and girls tennis coach. “Even though they make fun of it, they’re very proud of being in the inner-city, they’re very proud of their neighborhood.”
Said Aspen Miles, East’s dean of students and a graduate of the school, “It’s so diverse. Our campus is a good picture of what the world’s going to be like when you get out there. You meet a little bit of everyone doing everything.”
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A staggering number of notable alumni have passed under the clock tower through windowed doors to attend class. Widely known Olympians, actors, professional athletes, governors, musicians, writers and professors are Angels. There’s even a First Lady (Mamie Eisenhower, Dwight’s wife), and an astronaut (Jack Swigert, of Apollo 13 fame).
Nearly every one of them participated in some form of school activity—athletic or otherwise. T.J. Miller, the comedian, co-star of Cloverfield, and lead in Fox’s new series The Goodwin Games, played lacrosse. Swigert, a 1949 grad, played football.
These alums, and their feats, are never far from the minds of today’s students.
“Our halls are filled with it,” said Miles, one of those notable alumni, herself an Olympic-level runner whose state record in the 200-meter dash stood until Regis Jesuit’s Ana Holland broke it in April.
A team photo of the 1901 East High track team. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com) Heritage Hall, on the third floor, spotlights the best of East’s alumni. East’s clock tower room, home to the museum, sits above classrooms, up a short stairway. There’s also an athletic Hall of Fame outside of the school’s gym. It’s dedicated to Nelson for his tireless work in preserving the history of the school.
It all leads to an expectation of excellence at East—a tradition that, as Miles put it, rests on a “history of excellence that we’ve had for a hundred years.”
“It’s self-perpetuating,” said Susan McHugh, a coach with the school’s debate team. “So, kids that come to East, and families, they feel pride and they want to uphold the standards and they want to be a part of the history that’s always been a positive history.”
Said Miles, “It was a challenge: What am I going to do to make East proud, to add another chapter in East’s book?”
Yes, a lot of that tradition is athletic success. The boys soccer team owns the most recent title, capturing Class 5A in 2011, and the boys basketball squad was upset in the 5A final last spring. From 1931 to 1968, the school won 73 state championships.
But there’s also the Constitutional Scholars team which routinely wins, or at least earns a place at, the national competition in Washington D.C. Its speech and debate program is widely known. The woodshop course designed and built new shelves in the school library.
“When I was there,” Miles said, “it was about me being the best runner I could be and still understanding that the academic foundation they were giving me is what was going to take me in life. It wasn’t just, ‘You’re an athlete.’ I was one whole student that they were putting together to go out and make an impact in this world.”
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A 5A boys basketball championship trophy from 1996. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com) What makes East so special? Once it touches you, the history and tradition never seem to let you leave.
“There’s kind of the rich sense of, ‘Once you’re an Angel, you’re always an Angel,’ ” said Lisa Porter, the school’s athletic director who played soccer, basketball, volleyball and softball at East before graduating in 1993. “Once you get a job at East, whether it’s teaching or coaching, you don’t leave.”
Seven coaches or heads of activities have been at East for at least 10 years. There are stalwarts like boys basketball coach Rudy Carey, who graduated from the school in 1970. Or Andy Mendelsberg, who has been at the school for more than 20 years. He was a softball coach, dean and athletic director before becoming principal last year.
One major reason coaches stay put is because East has outstanding participation numbers. More than 100 girls came out for field hockey last year—105 for tennis. The East Theatre Company routinely has between 275 and 300 members. Everyone, it seems, is involved in something.
And through the years, many of those students have found their way to big things. It makes for a legendary alumni base.
A portrait of John “Jack” Swigert, Jr., one of the three astronauts aboard Apollo 13, hangs in the Alumni Heritage Hall. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com) “I was talking to a group of freshman last year: ‘Anybody know anyone famous from East High School?’ Not a hand went up,” said Nelson, the historian. “So I said, ‘Well, I’ll give you a hint on one. This was an African American actor, he had a tremendous movie called Hotel Rwanda.’ I said, ‘Anybody know who that kid is?’ ”
Nelson was speaking of Don Cheadle, who graduated from East in 1982.
“Not one hand went up,” Nelson said. “And then I realized, they don’t know Hotel Rwanda. So I go to another one: ‘This guy was an Apollo 13 astronaut.’ A kid’s hand shot up, and he goes, ‘Oh, I know that one!’ I said, ‘What’s his name?’ He said, ‘Kevin Bacon.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s the guy that played him in the movie.’ ”
It’s something you won’t find at many other schools, these stories of astronauts who roamed the halls, of actors, or athletes. All Angels.
“Other high schools that I’ve worked in, they’ve worked to get that (tradition), but East has it naturally,” Porter said. “It’s just part of the culture, part of the fabric of East High School. It’s the rich community of pride and tradition in things we’ve all done. It happens as a school and as a community.”
“And then,” Porter said, after graduating, “we all come back.”
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Related: Photo gallery: Denver East’s campus, facilities and history
