High school girls sports officiating pioneer Kaye Garms has retired as Western Athletic Conference Supervisor of Women’s Basketball Officials after 25 years in the position.
Garms is a member of the CHSAA Hall of Fame (1991) and the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame (1995). She was the first female officials inducted by both organizations.
The first “pure” game official inducted into the CHSAA Hall of Fame, Garms spent 20 years officiating CHSAA activities, including basketball, gymnastics and track & field. She was selected to officiate in the first 15 state girls state basketball tournaments and was assigned to 12 state title games from 1975 until her retirement in 1990.
She officiated in 16 state track meets and was one of the region’s top collegiate basketball officials. She is a member of the National High School Hall of Fame (1995).
Garms joined the WAC in 1990 helping that Division I conference enhance training and evaluation of veteran officials, along with the recruitment and development of new officials. She has been held in great regard by coaches, players and officials alike during her tenure, according to WAC commissioner Jeff Hurd on the WAC website story.
She was honored last fall as the Naismith Women’s College Official of the Year, which is presented to individuals “who display character, integrity and dignity, and have contributed mightily to the growth, success and viability of college basketball.”
For more information on this outstanding women’s sports pioneer, the CHSAANow staff encourages you to go wacsports.com.
Some information contained in this story was provided by the Western Athletic Conference Website.
Johnson threw 19 1/3 innings last season for Pine Creek, which reached the Final 8 in Class 5A. He had a 3.62 ERA and struck out 23 batters to just five walks.
Creighton, in Nebraska, was 32-19 last season. The Bluejays play in the Big East Conference, and lost in the final of the conference tournament during the 2015 season.
Creighton plays home games at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, which is annually the site of the College World Series.
Johnson becomes the 11th known in-state player to make a college baseball commitment from the Class of 2016. On Friday, Air Academy’s Cole McKissock also committed — to Appalachian State.
McKissock, who is 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, hit .304 with eight RBIs last season. He helped the Kadets go 16-5 and reach the Class 4A district round last season.
Appalachian State is a Division I program in North Carolina. The Mountaineers went 17-36 last season. They had four players drafted in the 2015 MLB Draft.
McKissock is the latest member of the Class of 2016 to commit to play college baseball. Pine Creek’s Brice Johnson also committed on Friday, picking Creighton.
Witherspoon was the Class 4A Jeffco player of the year in 2015, and was also selected first-team all-state in 4A.
The graduated senior was a key component in the Jaguars’ run through the 4A state tournament that ended with a 2-1 loss to eventual champion Green Mountain.
In his last start on the mound for D’Evelyn, he went seven innings and gave up only two hits while striking out seven in a 5-0 win over Wheat Ridge.
Witherspoon was a two-sport star at D’Evelyn, averaging 20.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.8 steals per game for the school’s boys basketball team, which reached the Great 8. He was a second-team all-4A pick in basketball.
Witherspoon becomes a late addition to the Colorado recruiting class of 2015.
Valor Christian’s Dalton Ziegler. (Caden Colson/cadencolsonphotography.com)
Valor Christian’s soon-to-be junior lacrosse standout Dalton Ziegler announced on Twitter Friday that he has committed to the University of Delaware to continue his education and lacrosse career.
In 19 games during the 2015 season, Ziegler totaled 24 goals for the Eagles. He helped Valor reach the Class 4A state championship game where the Eagles fell 17-12 to Aspen in their only loss of the season.
He’ll return to Valor for his junior and senior seasons and with the pressure of recruitment now gone, can focus solely on helping his team try to win its first state championship.
Ziegler is the latest member of the Class of 2017 to announce a college choice.
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.
A on-going list of college soccer commitments from girls high school athletes in Colorado’s class of 2016. Send additions, along with position, height and weight, to rcasey@chsaa.org.
North goalie Michael Genge is able to reach back to stop a shot from South forward Thomas Debonville,far left in yellow jersey, from going over the goal line late in the first half Wednesday at Lakewood Memorial Field. North defenders Jayce Melby (15) and Sam Van Sickle, far right, helped on keeping South off the scoreboard in a 2-0 victory for the North in the Colorado High School Soccer Association’s All-State Game played at Lakewood Memorial Field. (Dennis Pleuss)
LAKEWOOD — The North squad had no problem getting revved up early for the 2015 All-State boys soccer game put on by the Colorado High School Soccer Coaches Association on Wednesday night.
The North scored the game’s lone two goals in the opening four minutes on the way to a 2-0 victory against the South at Lakewood Memorial Field. Chatfield graduate Ben Overholt scored in the second minute off an assist from Broomfield senior Porter Milner.
“I knew with Porter (Milner) playing center midfielder his reputation is incredible. I knew if I made the right run he (Milner) would give me the right ball,” Overholt said of the opening goal. “It was perfectly timed and all I had to do was slot it in.”
Porter netted the second goal two minutes later off an assist from Broomfield teammate Tyler Duggan.
“We were thinking after that second goal we would win 10-0 or something,” said Overholt, who will play at the Colorado School of Mines next fall.
North forward Ben Overholt, right, attempts to get past South’s Mark Beatty during the first half Wednesday at Lakewood Memorial Field. Overholt, a Chatfield graduate, scored the opening goal in the 2-0 victory for the North. (Dennis Pleuss)
The South battled back and dominated the scoring chances late in the first half and for the majority of the second half. However, the goalie tandem of Colorado Academy graduate Noah Henry and Broomfield senior Michael Genge kept the South off the scoreboard with some remarkable saves.
Summit graduate Thomas Debonville nearly pulled the South within a goal late in the first half, but Genge was just able to reach back for the ball as it trickled toward the goal line.
“It was all about having fun today. You try not to put too much pressure on it,” said Henry, who made a handful of diving saves in the second half. “Our defense was fantastic with playing just three in the back. That helped us out a lot up front.”
The two early goals were able to hold up as Genge and Henry were solid in net.
“South had at least eight great shots that could have very well went in,” Overholt said. “They were just unlucky that we had two great keepers.”
Overholt was one of seven players representing the Jeffco League for the victorious North. Broomfield and Colorado Academy each had three representatives.
“It’s incredible,” Overholt said of closing out his prep career on the field he called home for four years. “I’m going to miss this field a ton. I’ve had an incredible experience.”
Henry, who wouldn’t play collegiately, also felt fortunate to end his soccer career in an all-state game.
“It’s huge, especially playing for a small school,” Henry said. “Everyone here is just so great. I made some really cool friendships with some of the guys on my team.”
North forward Said Moreno, left, gets off a pass as South defender Astwin Tavizon closes in Wednesday night during the All-State Game at Lakewood Memorial Field. The North scored a 2-0 victory. (Dennis Pleuss)
Valor Christian senior-to-be Dakota Spencer, left, playing for the South squad during Wednesday night’s All-State girls soccer game battles with Wheat Ridge junior-to-be Alexandra Nillen for possession of the ball in the rain at Lakewood Memorial Field. The North team broke open a scoreless first half with three goals in the second half on the way to a 3-1 victory. (Dennis Pleuss)LAKEWOOD — It was a perfect ending for nearly a perfect day for Grandview junior Nicole Lyubenko.
The same day that Lyubenko received her Class 5A girls soccer state championship ring, the midfielder closed out the night with a rocket shot that found the back of the net during the second half of the 2015 All-State girls soccer game at Lakewood Memorial Field.
Lyubenko was the Wolves’ leading goal scorer as a sophomore this past spring on the way at the 5A state title for Grandview. She closed the season Wednesday night on the victorious North squad that scored three goals in the span of 14 minutes in the second half to pull out a 3-1 victory.
“Honestly it’s just still so surreal for me. It still hasn’t hit me. I still don’t feel like a state champion,” Lyubenko said. “We’ll go back in next season and try to get a second one.”
Lyubenko’s goal in the 70th minute Wednesday gave the North a 3-0 cushion over the South in the game put on by the Colorado High School Soccer Coaches Association.
“It was a perfect touch by Kristin (Barbour). I was really lucky,” said Lyubenko, who had a couple of scoring chances earlier in the game. “I just struck it and it went in.”
After a scoreless opening half, Steamboat Springs senior Natalie Bohlmann buried a pair of goals in the 56th and 59th minutes to give the North a 2-0 lead.
“It was awesome. It was a great experience,” Bohlmann said. “It was great to have fun with all these other girls.”
The South was able to prevent the shutout when Pine Creek senior Reece Hummel scored on a penalty kick in the 71st minute to cut the lead to 3-1. However, the North’s scoring outburst in the second half was enough to get the victory.
“We settled down a lot in the second half. We were all connected and knew each other a little more,” Lyubenko said. “It’s hard to play with players that you don’t play with all year long. We settled down and got the job done.”
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Rules changes for the 2016 baseball and softball seasons were made at rules committee meetings last month in Indianapolis.
Those changes were subsequently approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Board of Directors.
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Baseball
Beginning with the 2016 season, umpires will be required to issue a warning to coaches before restriction to the bench/dugout or ejecting them as part of a new penalty progression to promote preventive officiating.
The revision to Rule 3-3-1 Penalty was one of two changes recommended by the NFHS Baseball Rules Committee at its June 7-9 meeting.
Previously, issuing a warning to an offending coach was optional for umpires, who will now restrict to the bench/dugout or eject coaches who commit a violation after previously being warned for a minor offense. However, coaches can still be ejected on a first offense if it is deemed to be major.
Also part of the modification to Rule 3-3-1 Penalty, coaches who receive a written warning (Rule 10-2-3) will be restricted to the bench and/or dugout for the remainder of the game.
“The new rule change has initiated a penalty progression, starting with a written warning, restriction to the bench/dugout and subsequent ejection from the contest,”said Elliot Hopkins, NFHS director of sports and student services and liaison to the Baseball Rules Committee.
The changes to Rule 3-3-1 Penalty will help to de-escalate contentious situations and allow coaches to dictate their status in the game by their behavior, Hopkins said.
“A successful game official practices preventive officiating, and this new penalty progression will allow the official to issue penalties that give the coach the opportunity to remain in the game and teach his players.”
The other change approved by the Baseball Rules Committee is an addition to Rule 3-3-1. Article “q” will state that a coach, player, substitute, attendant or other bench personnel shall not “have any physical contact, spitting, kicking of dirt or any other physical action directed toward an umpire.” The addition of article “q” serves to clarify other behaviors that would result in an ejection from the game, Hopkins said.
“Bad behavior that is being imitated from other levels has no place in education-based athletics and will not be tolerated,” Hopkins said. “If we are to continue to use sport to teach life lessons, then we have to ensure that appropriate behavior and conduct are modeled from those adults in the role of coach/teacher.”
In addition to the two rules changes, the Baseball Rules Committee approved three Points of Emphasis for the 2016 season. Points of emphasis are developed by NFHS rules committees and should receive special focus and attention by officials, coaches, players, fans and other leaders within the high school setting.
Points of Emphasis developed by the Baseball Rules Committee for the 2016 season are as follows:
Intermediate penalties/restriction to the bench/dugout
Proper catcher’s equipment
Sportsmanship — Celebrations around or near the plate and post-game ejections
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Softball
In softball, beginning with the 2016 season — not the upcoming fall season in Colorado — one rule change was recommended by the NFHS Softball Rules Committee at its June 15-17 meeting. In the new Article 4 of Rule 2-57, the committee provided a standard definition of a “projected” substitute.
Rule 3-3-3 prohibits the use of a projected substitute, which is now defined in the new article as “a player who does not immediately participate in the game.”
“There has been some confusion among both officials and coaches about substitution procedure,” said Theresia Wynns, NFHS director of sports and officials education and liaison to the Softball Rules Committee. “Therefore, the committee felt it was necessary to clear up that process and provide coaches and officials with a standard definition of a projected substitute.”
The following Points of Emphasis were approved by the Softball Rules Committee:
Strike zone (FP)
DP/Flex education
Pitching (FP)
According to the NFHS Athletics Participation Survey, baseball is the fourth-most popular sport for boys at the high school level with 482,629 participants in 15,789 schools. Fast-pitch softball is the fifth-most popular sport for girls with 364,297 participants in 15,225 schools during the 2013-14 season.
