Dave Ramirez (front) watches his Pueblo East team take the field during the 2014 Class 3A state championship game. (Mark Adams)
COLORADO SPRINGS – The football staff at Liberty High School got two major upgrades this summer with the addition of two former head coaches.
Former Pueblo East coach Dave Ramirez, who won a Class 3A state title in 2014 with the Eagles, and former St. Mary’s coach Nic Olney have both been added to Marc Sites’s sideline for the 2015 season.
“We’re very excited to have Dave and Nic join our staff,” Sites said. “It’s a huge boost for our program. What they bring to the table for us is going to be huge this season.”
Ramirez left his position at Pueblo East in the spring and joined Liberty, initially as a teacher. Upon getting hired, Lancers athletic director Michael Sibley informed Sites that Ramirez was working at the school as a teacher.
Stiles jumped at the chance to add a state championship-winning coach to his staff.
“My AD contacted me and said that Dave might be joining Liberty as a teacher,” Sites said. “Once he was hired, I contacted him and met with him a couple of times. It was one of those things that happened with the right place and right time.”
The same could be said for the addition of Olney. He resigned as the coach of the Pirates early in the summer after leading the team to a 7-3 record.
Looking around for the next chapter of his coaching career, Olney saw an opportunity at Liberty and jumped at the chance to join the Lancers.
“We had a position open and he inquired,” Sites said. “He contacted me last week and we had an opening and we met up and came to an agreement and we’re looking forward to bringing him on board.”
Both coaches will be on hand when official practices begin Aug. 17.
AURORA – The Colorado High School Activities Association and its 352 member schools open the 95th school year with Boys Golf official practice on August 10. All other sports start officially on August 17.
Student athletes in Cross Country, Field Hockey, Boys Golf, Football, Girls Gymnastics, Boys Soccer, Softball, Boys Tennis, Volleyball and Spirit anxiously await that starting date.
Prior to the start of practice, though, the CHSAA has participated in several meetings for coaches and school administrators, including the annual New AD/Principals’ and League Presidents/District Athletic Directors meetings, held in conjunction with CHSAA’s All-School Summit on August 3-4.
The annual Colorado High School Coaches Association meeting was held July 31 and August 1 with all CHSAA administrators participating in the various events.
“The start of the new school year, which includes the beginning of the fall sports season, is one of the most exciting times in a student’s life. Certainly the start of fall practice is a bit more special because it starts the entire school year. The community-based feeling that high school sports bring to high schools remind each of us of our own roots. Schools have always been the hub of activities for neighborhoods and communities and that status remains unchallenged year in and year out,” CHSAA Commissioner Paul Angelico said.
Teams may start playing tournaments on August 13 for Boys Golf, games on August 20 for Softball and Boys’ Tennis. On August 27, all other sports start competition. Check out the CHSAA calendar for scrimmage dates at CHSAANow.com.
In May, 1921, a group of superintendents and principals met in Boulder and organized the Colorado High School Athletic Conference. The purpose of this organization was to better regulate and develop the interscholastic school athletic program.
There were nine leagues by the time the first constitution was published, including the Northern, North Central, Western Slope, Suburban, Southeastern, Arkansas Valley, South Central and San Juan Basin leagues.
The first champions crowned that school year were Colorado Springs in football, Greeley in basketball, and Fort Collins in track and field.
In 1924, the Colorado High School Athletic Conference joined the National Federation of State High School Associations and has remained an active member of that organization ever since.
Loveland’s R.W. Truscott was the Association’s first president and Eaton’s J.C. Casey its first secretary (commissioner). Truscott replaced Casey as secretary in December, 1926 and held that post until July, 1948 when Glenn T. Wilson became commissioner. Ray C. Ball took over the commissioner’s post in 1966 and remained in the office until August, 1986 when Ray Plutko assumed the duties. Bob Ottewill became the Association’s sixth commissioner in July, 1990, followed by Bill Reader who served as Commissioner from 2002 until 2010. Angelico assumed the position on July 1, 2010
The CHSAA has had 59 presidents dating back to 1921. Its current president, Boulder High School Athletic Director Eddie Hartnett is in the first year of a two-year term as president.
The Association enters the year with few changes on staff. Paul Angelico, in his 26th year at CHSAA, is Commissioner. Associate Commissioner Tom Robinson is in his 15th year on the CHSAA staff, while Assistant Commissioners Bert Borgmann, is in his 28th year, while Bethany Brookens and Harry Waterman are in their eighth years, respectively. Assistant Commissioners Bud Ozzello and Jenn Roberts-Uhlig are in their sixth and third years, respectively, with CHSAA. Ryan Casey is in his third year with CHSAA as Director of Digital Media.
Donna Coonts serves as administrative assistant to Commissioner Angelico, while Whitney Webermeier (Borgmann), Sandra Williamson) (Brookens), Theresa Muniz (Waterman), Audra Cathy (Ozzello), Jane Boudreau (Roberts-Uhlig) and Monica Tillman (Robinson) assist the other administrators. Bookkeeper Kenzie Hewson and mail room coordinator Sharon Garcia round out the Association staff.
The CHSAA administrative staff. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Paul Angelico, Commissioner (Classification and League Organization Committee, Board of Directors, Legislative Council, Budget, Hardship Waivers, Handbook, Personnel)
Ryan Casey, Director of Digital Media (CHSAANow.com; Technology Advancement, CHSAA.org)
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CHSAA Board of Directors (Leagues Represented) [term expires]:
CHSAA President/District 6 (Continental, Front Range, 5280): (Serving First of two-year term): Eddie Hartnett, Athletic Director (Boulder High School) [2017]
District 1 (San Juan Basin, Western Slope, Southwestern): Paul Cain, District Athletic Director (Grand Junction Schools) [2018]
District 2 (Centennial, Northern, Frontier, Tri-Valley): Mike Schmidt, Principal (Platte Canyon School District) [2016]
District 3 (High Plains, Lower Platte, Mile High, North Central, Patriot, Union Pacific, YWKC): Doug Pfau, Superintendent (Weldon Valley Schools [2019]
District 4 (Jefferson County, East Metro, Colorado 7): Jim Thyfault, District Athletic Director (Jefferson County Schools) [2017]
District 5 (Denver, Metropolitan, Confluence): Loren Larrabee, Athletic Director (Lutheran High School) [2018]
District 7 (CS Metro 4A, CS Metro 5A, Pikes Peak, Tri-Peaks, West Central): Troy Baker, Athletic Director (Buena Vista High School) [2019]
District 8 (Black Forest, Fisher’s Peak, Intermountain, Southern Peaks): Joe Garcia, Athletic Director (Antonito High School) [2018]
District 9 (Arkansas Valley, Santa Fe, South Central, Southeastern): Richard Macias, District Athletic Director (Pueblo City Schools 60) [2017]
At-Large Representative: Kathleen Leiding, Athletic Director (Lyons High School) [2017]
At-Large Representative: Kelley Eichman, Athletic Director (Fountain-Fort Carson High School) (2019)
Colorado Association of School Boards: J. Scott Curley (McClave School District) [2019]
Colorado Association of School Executives: Jim Lucas, Assistant Principal (Pine Creek High School) [2019]
Colorado Association of School Executives: Rick Mondt, Superintendent (Briggsdale Schools) [2017]
Colorado Department of Education: Wendy Dunaway, Colorado Department of Education [2019]
Colorado State Assembly: Jim Wilson, Salida (State Representative, Salida) [2017]
AURORA — Pueblo Country Club has been selected as the host site of the Class 4A girls golf state tournament, CHSAA associate commissioner Tom Robinson said Wednesday.
Manitou Springs will serve as the host school out of the Southern region.
“We’ve been there before, and it’s been a great host for the girls,” Robinson said.
Pueblo Country Club also hosted the 3A boys state tournament in 2013.
The 5A site has not yet been selected, and will be announced later.
Cheyenne Mountain won the 4A title last spring, the program’s second consecutive championship.
A 6-foot-3, 235-pound defensive end and fullback, also had offers from Air Force and Wyoming. CSU offered on July 24.
Last season, McBride had nine sacks and 100 tackles. He also caused four fumbles, and recovered three others. As a fullback, he had 575 yards and 14 touchdowns on 90 carries.
Fort Morgan reached the Class 3A semifinals last season.
McBride is the first Division I football recruit out of Fort Morgan since 2006, according to Rivals.com. Former Fort Morgan star Joel Dreessen, who graduated in 2000, also played at CSU and later in the NFL.
First-year CSU coach Mike Bobo tweeted out a not-so-subtle response to McBride’s commitment:
He is the seventh member of football’s Class of 2016 to make his college choice known — the first to CSU. Last cycle, the Rams signed four in-state products.
LONE TREE — Big changes are ahead for Class 5A football. Beginning with the 2016 season, the classification will move to a 16-team playoff field, a 10-game regular season, and alignment will be set by a waterfall system.
It means moving away from the current 32-team playoff field and nine-game regular season in 5A, as well as a new way of thinking about alignment, which is set right now — for the most part — by geography.
These changes were made by the CHSAA football committee, which met ahead of the start of the All-School Summit at the Denver Marriott South on Monday. They voted to approve the June recommendations of an ad-hoc 5A football committee.
“Big changes, yes,” said Mike Krueger, the chair of the football committee, “but it got unanimous support from the committee, and we got a lot of good feedback on the changes from around the state.”
“There are a lot of positives to it,” Krueger added later. “I know there are going to be hiccups, but at the foundation, it’s really good for 5A football.”
This latest meeting was the fourth the committee has held since last December. In addition, the group has conducted two direct surveys of member schools, and each committee member has served as a sounding board for input for the rest of state.
At the crux of these changes is a modified Rating Percentage Index (RPI) system, which takes into account a team’s winning percentage, the winning percentage of a team’s opponents, and the winning percentage of the opponents of a team’s opponents.
This is a change from the current Wild Card points system, which determines qualifiers in 5A. (That system will still be used for the 2015 season.)
Already, Class 4A through 6-man has adopted using an RPI to determine postseason qualifiers — and 5A did the same on Monday morning for its 16-team field in 2016. Seven league champions will get automatic bids, and the top nine remaining teams according to the RPI will make the playoffs in 2016.
The RPI is also at the heart of the move to a 16-team playoff field in 5A, as well as the waterfall system. When the football committee met in April, their aim was to standarize the playoff structures in all seven classifications. One glaring difference was the 32-team bracket in 5A.
Since 2006, 5A has been the only class where more than 16 teams made the football playoffs. The change from 32 brings 5A in line with the rest of the classes — all but 6-man, which has an eight-team field, have 16-team tournaments.
But 5A’s leagues, as currently aligned, sit unbalanced, and so simply cutting the bracket would not work.
“When we started talking about (moving to a 16-team bracket), we kept hearing, ‘We’d go to 16, but the problem is the imbalance of the leagues,’” Krueger said.
The waterfall alignment will balance the leagues, and the idea has been well received around the state.
To set the waterfall alignment, teams will be ranked based upon their two-year average in the RPI. The top seven teams in that ranking will each be placed into seven separate leagues. From there, teams will be snaked into leagues. So, No. 8 will be placed into the same league as No. 7; No. 9 will be with No. 6; No. 10 with No. 5, and so on — until all teams are placed into a league.
The expectation is that 5A will have 42 teams in the 2016-18 cycle, and so each league will have six teams.
This waterfall system was made possible due to the close geographic proximity within 5A. Once realignment for the 2016-18 cycle is finalized this November, every school in 5A will be along the I-25 corridor — making the longest drive from one school to another roughly two hours.
“You were going to travel for non-conference, anyway,” Krueger said. “So that’s just now a conference game, and I can still play my cross-town rival, but it’s just a non-conference game. So people may say, ‘Travel, travel, travel.’ The reality is that it’s the same amount of travel, and it could even possibly be less.”
On Tuesday at the All-School Summit, athletic directors will break into classifications to talk about league alignment in football for 6-man through 4A.
Rusk led ThunderRidge in scoring last season, averaging 14.0 points per game. She also averaged 7.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
The 5-foot-11 Rusk, who plays guard, wing and forward, was a first-team all-state pick in Class 5A after the season.
The Grizzlies are sure to be a title contender in 2015-16, with four of their top five returning scorers back. In the offseason, Matt Asik was hired to take over the program when former coach Paula Krueger left for a job at her alma mater.
Rusk joins fellow ThunderRidge basketball player Austin Mueller in committing to Wyoming. Mueller committed in June.
To celebrate Colorado Proud Month and Harvest season, let’s dig a little deeper.
Milk is nature’s sports drink, but where does it come from and how is it processed? Stay tuned for the next four nutrition corner entries — Milk: From farm to athlete.
(Photo: wheyprotein.nationaldairycouncil.org)
Athletes can train harder and perform better with proper nutrition. Visit WesternDairyAssociation.org to read more about milk as an exercise recovery beverage and learn how to eat for peak athletic performance.
Eddie Hartnett, CHSAA’s board president, speaking at the All-School Summit on Tuesday. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
LONE TREE — Eddie Hartnett held up a book of CHSAA’s bylaws, and motioned out to the crowd seated in front of him.
“This book that I hold up in front of you is just a book,” said Hartnett, speaking publicly for the first time as the new president of CHSAA’s Board of Directors. “You need to understand that it works through you, that you are CHSAA. The bylaws in the book change with the times and the culture, and it is through you that changes can and should be made.
“You are invited and encouraged to make changes, and affirmations, of existing bylaws. It is through you, and your leagues, that this happens. You are part of it.”
Harnett, the athletic director at Boulder High School, became the Association’s 60th board president in June. Speaking Tuesday morning at the All-School Summit, he reflected on his early years as an athletic director. Hartnett eventually became district athletic director at Adams 12, before accepting the job at Boulder in May.
Eddie Hartnett. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“I remember my first few years as an athletic director, and seeing the president,” Hartnett said. “I truly wondered if that person understood the challenges I faced at a high school as an assistant principal and athletic director. And I do not want you to feel that way with me. I am honored and humbled to stand before you.
“I am one of you,” Hartnett continued. “I am the Boulder High School athletic director. And as your president, I am here to serve you and the 352 member schools and all the coaches and staff members and student-athletes. I felt that in order for me to represent our schools, it was important that I return to the front and experience, once again, what you experience daily at your schools, in your leagues, and in your school districts — through the eyes of a high school athletic/activities directors.
“As I spoke with (CHSAA commissioner) Paul (Angelico), I knew (changing jobs) was a bold move: The president of CHSAA, a district athletic director, going back to the front. It was what I wanted to do, but more importantly, what I needed to do. It is also what I felt the membership needed, to be represented by one of their own, a true high school and activities director.”
Hartnett acknowledged that he had a tough act to follow in Curt Wilson, now the superintendent at Centauri Schools, and Harry Bull (the superintendent at Cherry Creek Schools) before him.
“I want to continue the dramatic growth and development that Harry Bull and Curt Wilson established by honoring those two past presidents, recognizing their great contributions of presenting and passing bylaws that made Colorado student-athletes — all Colorado student-athletes — feel welcome and safe to participate in athletics and activities. They did great work,” Hartnett said.
“Looking over the 95 years of CHSAA history, I believe those two CHSAA presidents were the most influential presidents in CHSAA history,” Hartnett added. “They made a great impact, and I hope to live up to their standard and the high bar that they set. It was these two men who repeatedly said and emphasized, ‘We are CHSAA.’ We all came together under that slogan, and we are living it.”
Again, Hartnett implored the athletic directors to take ownership in the association.
“You, your communities, students, staff, leagues, schools and school districts — you are CHSAA,” he said. “Make a difference. Please make changes when needed. You, my friends and colleagues, you are CHSAA.”
Wade Davis, the executive director of the You Can Play Project. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
LONE TREE — Wade Davis, the executive director of the You Can Play Project, addressed the gathered athletic directors at CHSAA’s annual All-School Summit on Monday.
Davis, an Overland graduate and former NFL player, gave a powerful speech about his personal story, and how the athletic directors can create a better culture of acceptance for LGBT student athletes.
Scared to come out as a high school, college and professional player, Davis told the ADs he was more focused on hiding his sexuality during his career than improving himself as a player. He told those in attendance that in order to have a more competitive team, the athletic directors needed to not be afraid to have tough conversations.
His message was one about courage, telling the ADs that these conversations “could save a life.”
Davis told the crowd he wasn’t trying to change their beliefs, but that “I would like you to treat all of your athletes with respect, and as human beings.” He told the athletic directors to put themselves in their athletes’ shoes in order to relate to them.
“Otherwise,” he said, tongue in cheek, “you may miss out on the next Wade Davis.”
Davis’ personal message seemed to resonate with those in attendance, as many swarmed to talk with him afterward.
Last year, CHSAA became the first state association to partner with You Can Play during a video contest which sought to increase inclusion in sports.
