The Rampart Rams huddle up during Tuesday’s match against ThunderRidge. (Jayne Simpson/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — The Rampart Rams volleyball team opened the 2015 season at home with a non-league win against the ThunderRidge Grizzlies.
The Rams (1-0 overall) swept the Grizzlies 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-23) to make a strong statement to open their fall campaign.
Both rosters welcome back a small handful of seniors this season, ThunderRidge’s Grace Perry, Kaylee West and Christina Berlinger, and Rampart’s Kathryn Gorab and Alicia Phillips. Rampart head coach Nikki Kinzer’s, complete with four sophomores and six juniors agrees that the team lost a lot of talent this past graduation, but that her girls are unfazed and ready to work.
“I was a little nervous because it was the first home game, there’s a lot of other stuff,” Kinzer said. “I knew they were capable of performing at a high level. They proved to be pretty mature.”
The Grizzlies (0-2) kept close with the Rams in the first set, but sophomore Taylor Sibert’s five kills and juniors Alicia Hill and Josie Russell added two more kills each. Even so, ThunderRidge’s junior 6-foot-1 middle blocker Blair Whiting wasn’t giving the Rams an easy win. Whiting added eight points to the Grizzlies’ score in the first set alone. Late in the set the Rams took the lead at 18-14 and never lost momentum, finishing with a final score of 25-21.
The second was competitive throughout, with only three points separating the two teams at any point. ThunderRidge junior Ell Schuldt kept the Grizzlies from falling far behind with her blocking, but Rampart maintained their lead, finishing the set 25-23.
The final set was high energy, the Rams took an early lead of 13-9 which they extended to 22-16. Sophomore Taylor Sibert again showed her young athleticism, contributing over five points in the final set. ThunderRidge’s Taylor Cordts and Christina Perlinger helped close the gap to only three points at 23-20. The Grizzles continued to fight, closing the gap more, but falling just short in the final set to end the match at 25-23.
“What’s nice about our preseason is that we play some of those pretty good Denver teams,” Kinzer said. “It’s never an easy match, so it’s nice going in this early and see how we can compare and the level that we can play at.”
Going into the regular season, both teams have a clear set of goals for themselves and for each other. ThunderRidge head coach Lindsay Selover is still “searching for that right lineup,” but is well aware of the potential that the young team has.
After tonight’s game, she is also aiming to improve serving, passing and blocking within her team moving forward this season.
Sibert had an impressive game for the Rams, adding more than 10 points to the Rams’ scoreboard. On the upcoming season, Sibert says she and the Rams are feeling really pumped. Sibert and her team have set goals to keep their team morale high, even in tough situations.
“(We can’t) get down on each other,” Sibert said. “(We have to) keep fighting, and if we are down, to just have fun.”
The team’s goals match Kinzer’s, who is hoping to change the overall culture of Rampart volleyball in the next few years. Kinzer acknowledges Rampart’s success in the sport over the past years, but even a young team hasn’t stopped the Rams’ high goal setting.
She is aiming to bring her young team into a culture of winning, but also enjoying their time playing the game.
The Windsor Wizards break a huddle during Tuesday’s match against Thompson Valley. (Aislyn Carrillo/CHSAANow.com)
WINDSOR — The Wizards of Windsor High School may have let their nerves get to them in the first set of the match, but after that, there was no looking back. The Wizards stormed back to win their match against Thompson Valley 3-1 (23-25, 25-14, 25-21, 25-20).
“We were really nervous going into our first set,” senior Jordyn White said. “We were playing too tedious, like a deer in headlights.”
Windsor (1-0 overall) started out strong with a 7-point lead against the Eagles (0-1). Many defensive errors on Windsor’s part caused the Eagles to tie up the set at 13-13. The teams played neck and neck up until the last two points of the set and two unsuccessful spikes from Windsor resulted with a tight score of 23-25.
The Wizard’s head coach, Laverne Huston believes her team had few too many unforced errors, which set them back in the first set of the game.
Going into the second set, the Wizards had their game faces on. The team’s defense was playing harder, they had a steady three-point lead during the start and slowly increased their lead with the final score being 25-14.
With one of the Eagles’ biggest rivalries of the year coming up on Thursday, coach Nathan Fristed believes that his “team needs to work on their serving and cleaning up their blocks.”
Thompson Valley. (Aislyn Carrillo/CHSAANow.com)
Thompson Valley came into the third set knowing what they wanted, and they fought until the end. They had many outstanding roofs that kept the score close throughout the game. Net violations and service errors seemed to have kept the Eagles from being able to come out on top. Both teams played well offensively, but the lack of communication from the Eagles ended up keeping momentum with the Wizards.
Fristed says that his team is lacking practice time because they are unable to practice in their school gym. He believes that they are going into the season with a disadvantage since their time on the court has been limited to less than 10 hours a week.
With or without a great amount of practice time, the Eagles played as hard as they could, and it showed. Although their defense came out slow in the fourth set, they were still able to maintain a close final score. The Wizards kept a consistent lead on Thompson Valley as the Eagle’s balls kept going straight into the net, or completely out of bounds.
The crowd was wild on both ends, with every play, the crowd grew louder and louder which stood out to the Windsor players.
“Shout out to our student section. It really helped us out tonight and it was nice to have them there,” junior outside hitter Madi Bruen said.
With a handful of games coming up, Huston believes they “can improve on our entire game. We are looking forward to our upcoming games, one of our freshman who was not able to be here tonight will start, and there will be a number of different line ups to look forward to.”
This is the second article in a series exploring how milk gets from the farm to an athlete.
Last week, we shared the quick story of how milk gets from the farm to the grocery store. But we left out important details at the processing plant, leaving out the answer to perhaps our most commonly asked question — what is the difference between whole milk and fat-free?
The answer in its most simple form is this: the true difference between whole and fat free milk is the fat content. All cow’s milk sold in grocery stores across the U.S. contains the same nutrition components, including eight grams of quality protein per cup, along with eight additional essential nutrients your body needs to function at its best.
As mentioned in our last article, when cows are milked on the farm, their milk is combined into a large tank of milk. Each cow produces milk with a slightly different fat content. However, the milk sold at the grocery store has a standard of identity (this way milk tastes the same everywhere) — whole milk is closest to the average fat found in milk before processing.
When fresh milk is brought to the processing plant, it is quickly separated into milk and cream — all of the fat is skimmed off of the milk.
A system of precise and careful machines adds back certain percentages of fat to the milk so that it can be labeled as either whole milk (containing 3.25 percent milk fat), Reduced Fat Milk (with 2 percent fat), Low-Fat (with 1 percent fat) or non-fat or skim milk (no milk fat).
Consumers are left to decide which milk they enjoy the taste of most, and which milk fits best in their diet.
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.
[divider] Photo courtesy of Innovation Center for US Dairy: Dairy Good. Read more at DairyGood.org.
Wheat Ridge High School is hosting a number of events to celebrate the upcoming release of “My All American,” a movie based on the life of Farmers alum Freddie Steinmark, which is set to release on Nov. 13.
Steinmark graduated from Wheat Ridge in 1967 after lettering in football, baseball and basketball. He led the Farmers to the Class AAA football title as a senior, and then went on to play at the University of Texas.
At Texas, he helped the Longhorns win a national title in 1969, and gained national renown for his performance on an injured leg against Arkansas that season — a leg that was amputated just six days later when a bone tumor was discovered.
Steinmark died in the summer of 1971, but his memory lives on through the Steinmark Award, which is given each year to a male and female recipient who are multi-sport athletes and excel on the field, in the class and in the community.
Wheat Ridge’s events culminate with the school’s homecoming football game — the 119th in Wheat Ridge history — against Green Mountain on Oct. 1. The school is inviting all former Steinmark Award winners to participate.
“We’d like to have as many of those guys and gals there as possible,” said Wheat Ridge athletic director Nick DeSimone. “That’d be pretty cool.”
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The full slate of events:
“Someone who has walked in your shoes” Sept. 23, 7 p.m., Wheat Ridge auditorium
Shelley Smith, Wheat Ridge alumni and ESPN reporter, will be giving an inspirational and courageous presentation on being a Farmer, an ESPN reporter, and a woman battling cancer. This will be a ticketed event. Admission to the event will be $10, for $20 you receive admission and a Pink Showdown t-shirt.
Wheat Ridge High School will donate all proceeds to the Lutheran Medical Center/Cancer Center of Colorado.
Pink Showdown Breast Cancer Awareness Game Sept. 24, 4 p.m., Jeffco Public Stadium
Wheat Ridge will battle Dakota Ridge in the 2nd Annual Pink Showdown game in Partnership with Lutheran Medical Center/Cancer Center of Colorado.
Thousands of students and fans from both schools will be wearing pink t-shirts made especially designed for this event. Coaches and players from both schools will be in their “pink” as well to help bring awareness to the fight against cancer.
As part of this event students from both high schools will be visiting the Lutheran Medical Infusion Care Center to spend time and support those undergoing treatment.
Shelly Smith, a Wheat Ridge High School alum and ESPN reporter will be honored at Halftime. Shelly is currently battling cancer herself, and we will honor her and her fight, as well as offer her all of our support at halftime.
Bower Yousse: “A Night With Freddie Steinmark and Friends” Sept. 30, 7 p.m., Wheat Ridge auditorium
Bower Yousse, Wheat Ridge High School alum and author, screenwriter will be giving an inspirational multimedia presentation covering his friendship and life with Freddie Steinmark. Bower will bring friends who played together with Freddie, classmates, family members, and more, to celebrate who and why Freddie Steinmark is still such an inspiration to all.
Wheat Ridge High School will celebrate a “homecoming” with students, alumni, and friends of the Farmers (wearing Freddie Steinmark No. 43 commemorative shirts) to honor Freddie Steinmark, his legacy, and of course the homecoming football game. The assembly will have skits for homecoming royalty, the band, Poms and Cheers and a tribute to Freddie and what he stands for at our high school.
Homecoming game Oct. 1, 7 p.m., Jeffco Public Stadium
Wheat Ridge High School will play Green Mountain High School in our 119th homecoming game. This night has been dedicated to the memory of Freddie Steinmark and his legacy. Students, staff, parents, fans, little leaguers will all be wearing commemorative No. 43 jersey/t-shirts in the stands.
Alumni, former athletes that played with Freddie, and Freddie’s close friends and family will be in attendance and recognized at halftime. We will be using the scoreboard screen to bring back the memory of Freddie with quotes, photos, and hopefully previews of the upcoming feature film about his life.
The school’s choir teacher is writing a song that our choir singers will sing at halftime about Freddie, as well. We are hoping to bring together the 87 recipients of the Colorado Steinmark Award, the most prestigious award that is given to a Colorado High School student athlete, for the game and/or “A Night With Freddie Steinmark and Friends.”
