AURORA — CHSAA is holding a competition for high school students to have their artwork grace the cover of the 2015-16 directory of member schools, as well as the 2015-16 handbook.

The student’s name and school will appear as credit on the front cover of the book. Additionally, their bio will appear inside. Two winners will be selected by the CHSAA staff, and each will receive $250.

More information is below.

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Important dates

• Contest opens: March 31, 2015
• Deadline for entry: May 21, 2015
• Winner announced: May 22, 2015

Rules/guidelines

• All entries must come from a current student of a member high school.
• All artwork should represent one of the following themes (or combine them): High school activities and athletics; or, the state of Colorado.
• All artwork used in the piece must be original work created by the student.
• The piece can use any type of medium (digital, paint, pen, photo, etc.).
• The final entry should be a digital image of the original artwork. A scanned version of the artwork is preferred.
• The artwork needs to either be 8-1/2 inches by 11-inches, or scalable to that size. It needs to be at least 150 DPI.
• The final entry will be the piece that is printed on the cover, if selected.
• Artists may choose to include the following texts in their entries:
  • CHSAA (or) Colorado High School Activities Association
  • 2015-16
• If you choose not to include the text, we will overlay it over the artwork.
• Artists may include either the CHSAA seal or CHSAA logo in their entry (both are included below).
• If you choose not to include one of the logos, we will overlay them on the artwork.

Terms & conditions

• Two winners (one for the directory, one of the handbook) will be selected by the CHSAA staff, with each winner receiving $250. In addition, they will receive credit on the cover of the respective book, as well as inside with a short bio.
• Winning artists grant CHSAA the rights to print the image on the cover of either the member directory or the handbook, as well as other material related to the Association. The artist will retain full copyright.
• If your image is not selected, CHSAA does not have the right to use it in any material, unless other arrangements are made.

How to enter

• Email your image to chsaanow@gmail.com with the subject line “Cover art contest entry – (Your name)”
• Alternatively, you can click here to send that email with the subject line filled out.
• The following formats will be accepted: .jpg, .png and .gif.

Logos to use

• Blue CHSAA flag logo
• CHSAA seal

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Examples of past handbooks and directories

The 2014-15 Handbook.

The 2013-14 Handbook.

2012-13 directory.

2011-12 directory.

2010-11 handbook.

2008-09 directory.

(Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)

LOVELAND — Andrew Firestone, living up to his name, replaced his lacrosse stick with a flamethrower Friday.

The Steamboat Springs senior, who had all of six goals last year, scored three in the first quarter and five in the game during a 13-11 road victory for the No. 8-ranked team in Class 4A at Thompson Valley.

TV is ranked No. 9, but have dropped to 3-4 with three of their losses to ranked teams Ponderosa, Cheyenne Mountain, and now Steamboat.

Despite a 200-mile drive from the mountains to Loveland, the game was played in the Sailors’ comfort zone in front of a substantial fan section.

An internationally known winter ski resort, Steamboat, with its stunning natural beauty, is located just west of the Continental Divide. They have endless amounts of trails, popular hot springs pools, restaurants, and numerous other tourist attractions. Oh, and they have lacrosse.

“Steamboat is a special spot,” coach Jay Lattimore said. “With 75 kids in the program and all the fans that travel four-and-a-half hours to come watch us, it means a lot for us to work hard for everybody that comes to support.”

Despite a smallish enrollment of only 645 students, numbers are up and wins have been flowing with back-to-back 4A semifinal appearances entering this season.

“It’s the most popular sport in town,” Lattimore added.

Andrew Firestone of Steamboat Springs. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)

On Friday, the Sailors boarded ship early with a 2-0 lead on goals by attackers Firestone and William Gunn, a second team all-state honoree last season.

Thompson Valley answered early and throughout, but was never able to take the lead despite a fantastic individual effort from Johnny Parsons, a senior with six goals.

Steamboat, seeming to feed off their large crowd, had a small step up on the Eagles as Firestone scored four goals in the first half and five of the Sailor’s first eight as Steamboat led 7-4 at halftime and had an 8-5 lead with 8:09 remaining in the third quarter.

The teams traded scores the rest of the way as Thompson Valley got within two, 12-10 with 4:35 left in the fourth and 13-11 with 1:49 on the clock, but couldn’t overcome a seasoned group.

Steamboat was able to grind out a road victory, one they viewed as critical after losing to Valor Christian, the No. 1 ranked team in 4A, on March 17. They also struggled a bit in an 11-8 victory over Douglas County last Saturday.

“We had a close game against Douglas and we didn’t come out very strong, but we had a good week of practice and we just came out and came together today,” Firestone said. “I think it was just team play. We all passed it once we got pressure on us and none of us were afraid to shoot.”

Of course, it was Firestone who did a good amount of not just the shooting, but finding the net.

“I have to give it up to my teammates,” the senior said humbly. “I had a couple goals on the crease that were just great passes.”

“Andrew continues to do the right things and putting the ball in the cage is what we ask of him,” Lattimore added. “It definitely speaks high volumes for all our seniors right now. They’re all really feeding off him and hustling hard.”

Of course, Firestone wasn’t the only player who served as a weapon against the Eagles as six others scored goals. Gunn and Drew Williamson had two each in the win.

“Our depth is really strong and besides Andrew leading the way today, we really do a good job spreading the goals and assists around,” said Lattimore, in his second season as the head man. “Our goalie, Peter Wharton, is playing really good right now too. We just need to keep supporting him and making sure the defense is protecting him.”

If there’s one thing to know about Steamboat lacrosse, it’s that Wharton will have the backing of his teammates and community.

“We’re a really tight knit group of guys,” Firestone said. “It’s a small town and we all know each other really well and we just love each other. We’re a family out there.”

Steamboat continues their road trip at Windsor (2-2), a team that beat Thompson Valley 12-9 this week. The Wizards host the Sailors at noon on Saturday.

AURORA — No. 2 Cherry Creek improved to 6-0 under new coach Kathryn Ames with a win over Cherokee Trail on Friday.

(Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)

EATON — Jim Danley is a living legend in the high school baseball ranks.

The longtime Eaton coach, head man for 44 seasons and counting, has won 35 league championships. The Reds have reached the Class 3A state title game 20 of the past 25 seasons, winning 10 crowns during that stretch. They’ve been in the championship the last three years and are tied with Revere for the most baseball championships in state history with 10.

They outscored opponents 312-44 a season ago before bowing to Holy Family in the state finals.

So when Eaton blows a team out it doesn’t typically raise any eyebrows. Of course, when that team is ranked No. 6 in all of 3A, earning one first place vote this week, a victory does seem to cement the Reds atop their classification, at least for now.

Eaton handled the Sterling Tigers 10-0 at home on Thursday, two days removed from a 17-0 drubbing at the Tigers’ place. The No. 1 ranked program in 3A is now 2-0.

In round one this week, the Reds outhit Sterling 21-1 as Brady Tedesco dominated on the mound.

The Tigers, starting their captain and 6-foot-4 ace Jacob Thiessen, looked thirsty for redemption at Eaton and held in the game early as the first two innings were scoreless.

But, Eaton’s powerful lineup could only be tamed for so long as the Reds nip-and-tucked in one run in the third and two runs in the fourth. Eaton starter Ryan Koehler hung tough for three and a third innings while giving up only two hits and two walks, while striking out five.

Then, in a pressure cooker situation with a man on second after a walk and stolen base and only one out, Danley brought in Lane Greiman to try his hand at pitching. The senior earned a strikeout and fly out to escape the fourth inning.

“When Lane came in and threw that slider, that was a big pitch,” Danley said of the strikeout. “He’s that senior that you want in those situations. That was a game turning pitch.”

Finally, Eaton’s bats went from soft blows to a knockout punch in the fifth with seven runs to clinch a mercy rule 10-0 victory.

Sean Carson of Eaton. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)

Left fielder Sean Carson, a sophomore who looks anything but at 5-foot-10 and 220 pounds as the cleanup hitter, nailed a two-RBI double in the fifth and made a fantastic diving catch to finish off Sterling in the same frame. He went 2-for-4 at the plate.

Oh, and he did all his damage while having the flu, causing him to miss the past two-and-a-half days of school.

“He’s a big sophomore and he’s starting out on fire,” said Danley, who also raved about Carson’s mental fortitude. “You usually don’t expect a sophomore to hit the good pitching as well as he does.”

On an evening with multiple contributions from a number of talented players in the white and red of Eaton, the game served as a reminder of what has made baseball so successful in the town of 4,500.

Pitching was prominent, bats came alive, and depth was obvious. So was crowd support.

“We’re very fortunate to be in a community that really honors and respects these kids that come out and battle,” Danley said. “The fans here are great. It’s a perfect baseball situation.”

In a small town like Eaton, the high school program feeds off the baseball culture that so many take part in at a young age.

“We’ve been working at it a long time and we’ve got just a bunch of good players coming up,” Danley said. “We develop the system. We have certain things that we want all the kids to do at all the levels.”

Carson has certainly embraced the tradition.

“It’s a really big honor to be wearing this uniform, especially on the varsity level because we’ve had a lot of good players that have moved on to the minor and major leagues,” the sophomore said. “Many go on to play college ball with great scholarships. It’s a great honor.”

Cherry Creek won a state title on March 7. Last weekend, the Bruins — as a club team — won a national championship. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column does not reflect an official viewpoint of CHSAA.

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[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n Monday, within about 30 minutes of one another, two Colorado high school hockey teams won national championships.

It is a massive deal for the sport in this state at the youth — and especially the high school — level. But we can’t celebrate it. We can’t even really acknowledge it. Because both team were forced to participate in the tournament as club teams due to what, in my eyes, is an important issue that the CHSAA membership faces moving forward.

Teams made up of students from the Cherry Creek School District and Regis Jesuit traveled to St. Louis last weekend as part of USA Hockey’s High School National Championships. The Creek squad competed in the Combined Division (teams up of multiple schools); Regis was in the Pure Division (teams that draw from one school).

It’s a prestigious tournament. Regis has been each of the last four years, and actually won another national championship in 2012. Cherry Creek also went last season. It is a big deal to even receive an invite, let alone have the success of actually winning the thing.

But Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit teams weren’t in St. Louis as high school teams over the weekend. Had they done so, they would have been in violation of a CHSAA bylaw which prohibits teams from representing their high schools outside of their sport’s season. In hockey’s case, that season ended when Cherry Creek won the state title on March 7.

The bylaw, 2300, specifically states that “an individual or team may only represent a member school during the designated competitive sports season.” This phrase was added by the Legislative Council during the 2005-06 school year, though the interpretation has been in the Association through at least the 50s in various bylaws.

Semantics seem to be the determining factor on whether or not a team is allowed to participate in a national tournament.

Both Regis Jesuit and Cherry Creek also operate club hockey programs which compete in “high school” leagues throughout the year. One of the leagues is a non-sanctioned JV league which runs concurrent to the CHSAA season. There’s a varsity league in the fall, another in the spring. And it is through those leagues that the teams qualified for Nationals.

And so both teams traveled to St. Louis as their club teams. Even though the vast majority of both of their rosters and coaching staffs were similar to the ones from the CHSAA season. Even though tournament officials referenced them as Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit throughout the weekend. Even though both teams wore uniforms using official school colors and logos.

Even so, they technically weren’t representing their high schools. Because they weren’t allowed to. And I think that needs to change.

The bylaw banning school representation outside of a sport’s season is outdated. It is not in sync with the sports landscape in 2015. Shoot, it’s not even consistently applied across all of our sports.

Consider last year’s situation with the Regis Jesuit girls basketball team.

The Raiders, at the time, were among the best teams in the nation. They would go on to win the Class 5A championship with an unbeaten record. The team is in the conversation of the best girls basketball squad in state history. They may even wind up in CHSAA’s Hall of Fame somewhere down the line.

And so, just before the 2014 Great 8, Regis was approached about participating in a prestigious four-team national championship in New York. There was one problem: It was due to take place after the season, which would be in violation of that bylaw.

The CHSAA staff tried to find a way around the bylaw, to no avail. They put forth the idea that Regis could participate as a club team — but officials from the tournament wouldn’t have it. They only wanted teams representing their high schools. And that meant Regis couldn’t go.

What difference would it have made were Regis Jesuit’s girls basketball team allowed to represent their school in an official way, rather than the smoke-and-mirrors approach of a “club” team that just happens to have the same roster, coaches and uniforms?

How is that national tournament any different than the one Regis Jesuit and Cherry Creek hockey just participated in? Or the national meets that take place after the cross country and track seasons every year, which Colorado athletes attend?

Then there’s spirit, which allows teams to compete in a national competition each year in February. Spirit’s state championships are in early December. In hockey’s sense, the season would be over. But spirit’s season of sport, according to its bylaw, doesn’t end until May. So they can go to nationals and represent their school.

Baseball also doesn’t have an issue when some of its teams represent their school in the summer. Why? The sport has the luxury of ending in May. This particular bylaw doesn’t apply in the summer months.

This is all inconsistent. It’s not even really logical.

In my mind, it’s silly that member schools allow teams to go to national tournaments as club teams, when there is virtually no difference if they were to represent their school. Shoot, they already are.

Schools have had chances to change this bylaw in the past, but they have resisted doing so. Until, of course, it’s their team that gets a chance to go to nationals. Then they’re all for it.

We may close our eyes, we may stick our heads in the sand, but a reasonable person can see what’s going on here. The rule needs to change.

Colorado Academy’s Justin Bassey. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

Justin Bassey, one of the state’s top juniors in boys basketball, has committed to Harvard, according to Scout.com:

https://twitter.com/JoshGershon/status/580855735875031040

Justin Bassey (21). (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

Bassey, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound guard, led his Colorado Academy squad to a second-consecutive appearance in the Class 3A title game earlier this month, where the Mustangs lost to Colorado Springs Christian by three.

The 2016 graduate averaged 23.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.4 steals per game last season. The 23 points per game were fifth in the state regardless of classification, and led 3A.

He also had offers from Air Force, Wyoming and Weber State, according to his Scout and Rivals profiles.

Harvard went 22-8 this season in reaching the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive season. The Crimson have reached the postseason six straight years, including an NIT trip in 2011, and a trip to the CIT in 2010.

Find more Class of 2016 commitments in our recruiting database.

Regis Jesuit went 49-30 in Mark Nolan’s six seasons. (Mark Adams/CHSAANow.com)

Regis Jesuit’s Mark Nolan has been named the new football coach at Notre Dame Prep in Scottsdale, Ariz., according to the school’s Twitter account and The Arizona Republic.

https://twitter.com/notredameprepfb/status/581196004520652800

9News also reported sources “close to” Nolan had confirmed the coach stepped down from Regis.

Nolan went 49-30 in his six years as the Raiders’ coach, including an appearance in the Class 5A state title game in 2010.

He came to Regis in 2009 from The University of Colorado, where he was the Buffs’ assistant director of football operations and recruiting coordinator.

Nolan’s has coaching roots in Arizona. Most recently, he was the defensive coordinator at Brophy Prep, a high school in the Phoenix area, from 2003-06.

He also was an assistant at Gilbert (Ariz.) from 1997-2002.

Regis Jesuit went 10-2 last season and advanced to the 5A quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Cherry Creek.

Follow all of the offseason movement in our coaching changes tracker.

Claire Stemper has committed to Michigan. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)

Claire Stemper, a member of CHSAANow.com’s all-state field hockey team each of the past two seasons, recently committed to Michigan.

The Class of 2016 graduate was 7-8-1 last season, and allowed just 21 goals in 16 games. She had a save percentage of .900.

Stemper’s commitment came along with the news that 2015 Raiders’ graduate Katie Lechner, a midfielder, had committed to Mercyhurst, a Division II program in Pennsylvania.

Both commitments were reported by the team’s official Twitter account:

https://twitter.com/RJHSFieldHockey/status/581195321847361537

Michigan finished last season 13-7, including 7-2 in the Big Ten.

Find more 2016 commitments in our database.

MONTROSE — The Montrose girls golf team captured the Black Canyon Tournament on Monday.

The squad finished at 262 total strokes in topping second-place Eagle Valley (276).

(Bethany Brookens/CHSAANow.com)

CASTLE ROCK — The 2015 state speech and debate tournament was held March 20-21 at Douglas County High School. Find complete results below.