Golden hired Mike Thumim as its new boys lacrosse coach, athletic director JC Summers announced Thursday in an email.
Thumim, who has coached the Demons lacrosse team before, will take over for Kurt Ohlen, who has accepted a position with the Johnson & Wales University men’s lacrosse program.
Thumim comes from Dakota Ridge, and was very successful in his first stint as the Demon’s head coach, winning five Jeffco Championships and the Foothills Conference in 10 years. He was also the coach of Team Russia for the European Championships in Budapest, Hungary in 2015.
“The Golden lacrosse community is very excited for the return of Coach Thumim and wishes the best of luck to Coach Ohlen in his new venture,” Summers said in an email.
The Demons fell in the Class 4A state quarterfinals last season to eventual state champion Valor Christian and finished with a 13-4 mark.
As a sophomore, Rylee Anderson cleared a jump of five feet, seven inches to claim the state title for the Class 4A girls high jump.
That’s not even the best jump of her career. The current junior at Silver Creek has already cleared a staggering 5-08 and she still has two more years of high school to compete. It’s not a question of if, but when she will pass her mother’s career best jump of 5-09.
And all the while, she continues to be a standout volleyball star for the Raptors, using her jumping ability to excel as an outside hitter.
“It’s thrilling, but I didn’t plan that by any means,” Amy Anderson said. “Just because I was a high jumper, I didn’t expect her to become one. But it became evident when she was in middle school that she had some talent and so we just continued to pursue it.”
(Photo courtesy of Silver Creek volleyball)
The more they pursued it, the more they realized Rylee loved it. Just like mom, she was going to have an athletic background.
Amy was a track standout at Niwot where she also excelled at the high jump. Her career best was that jump of 5-09, a number she expects her daughter to reach in no time. And she has no qualms about helping Rylee accomplish that as she serves as one of her coaches.
“It’s difficult to coach high jump if you haven’t jumped yourself,” Amy said. “It’s such a technical event so it was by a stroke of luck that I was a fairly decent high jumper back in my day so I could just easily tell her what she needed to be doing and I’m very grateful that as her parent, she is able to listen.”
But her time with track and field only makes up half of Rylee’s athletic résumé. As she grew up, she also developed a love for volleyball, something her mom did not participate in at Niwot.
“I think they help each other out a lot,” Rylee said. “The mental piece helps a lot. I know that if I want to attempt a height at the high jump and I can clear that, it helps my confidence. That helps on the volleyball court, knowing that I can overcome adversity.”
As a sophomore on varsity, Rylee recorded 210 kills in 2015. As an underdog in the regional brackets, Silver Creek beat Erie and Steamboat Springs in a tie-breaker to advance to the 4A state bracket.
Unlike the high jump which is a competition that she faces alone, Rylee was able to share the thrill of the upset with her teammates, a feeling that really draws her to team aspect of sports.
“I love the intensity of it,” she said. “I love that you have a team with you. I also like in the heat of the moment, when you’re playing and you a win point after a long rally.”
Amy shares Rylee’s love of volleyball now, but it was not a sport that she chose to play in high school. It wasn’t until she moved to Florida and met Rylee’s father, Doug, that the two got into playing sand volleyball.
It was an activity that the couple stayed active in for about 10 years.
Doug passed away when Rylee was two-years-old so Amy moved them back to Colorado. As Rylee grew up, it was sports that really helped create a special bond between the two of them.
“We always had a strong bond because we lost him so early in her life,” Amy said. “I think you could say (sports) has strengthened the bond because both of those are passions of both of ours.”
As a junior, Rylee hopes that she will be able to go to college and compete in both sports. Every time she thinks that one stands out as a favorite over the other, she’ll change seasons and realize that they both hold a special place in her heart.
But if push comes to shove, she knows she’ll be able to analyze the big picture and make a choice that will serve her best in the long run.
“Probably high jump,” she said when pressed for an answer. “I can probably go to a better school for high jump because there are a lot more good volleyball players than there are high jumpers.”
But no decision needs to be made now. Rylee is still at the beginning of her junior year at Silver Creek and has plenty of time to assess her options.
Until then, she’ll look to try and get the Raptors back to the state tournament. And maybe she’ll even find those two inches
Chatfield’s Sierra Bartley (8) and Julia Eiken (12) go up to block Evergreen’s Claudia Dillon on Tuesday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LITTLETON — No. 1 sounds and looks good to Chatfield’s volleyball team.
While taking over the top spot in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A volleyball poll on Tuesday, made the Chargers feel pretty good. Still, the prep season is young. The road is long and winding for Chatfield when it comes to its ultimate goal — lifting the 5A state trophy Nov. 12 at the Denver Coliseum.
“I’m really excited. We want to prove that we can be good two years in a row,” Chatfield senior Haley Fuller said of the Chargers taking over to the top ranking. “We are No. 1. We’ve worked hard for it and I don’t what to let it go.”
While Chatfield held the No. 1 ranking last season, there is still the memory of the Chargers coming into the state tournament as the top seed and failing to make it out of pool play.
“Our team has already had conversations about what rankings mean and what rankings don’t mean,” Chatfield coach Stephanie Schick said. “It makes me uncomfortable as a coach to talk about it. I guess I’m superstitious. I don’t like to jinx stuff.”
Chatfield sophomore Julia Geiger (14) tips the ball over Evergreen’s Marissa Hoerman (7) and Becca Butler. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
The new No. 1 tag didn’t affect the Chargers play Tuesday night in a non-league home game against Evergreen, ranked No. 7 in the 4A poll. Chatfield (3-0 record) celebrated the No. 1 ranking with a straight set 25-14, 25-19, 25-13 victory over 4A Jeffco’s defending league champion Evergreen (1-2).
Junior Julia Eiken got the Chargers going in the first set getting some early kills from the middle blocker position. Chatfield led 14-4 before the Cougars made a bit of a late rally before the Chargers pocketed the first set.
“Coach (Schick) has really pushed the middle so we can get the one-on-one opportunities on the outside,” Eiken said of getting some early kills looks before the Chargers went to their bevy of outside hitters. “It was awesome to see them with those kills out there.”
Evergreen gave Chatfield a test in the second set. Seniors Giselle DeGrandchamp, Becca Butler and sophomore Claudia Dillon were key for the Cougars as they took an early 8-2 advantage. However, serving runs by Chatfield seniors Nicole Langford and Fuller put the Chargers on a 15-2 run.
Schick was pleased with what Langford and sophomore Shea Fuller, Haley’s younger sister, provided Chatfield off the bench.
Chatfield junior Julia Eiken puts down a kill during the first set Tuesday. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“It was nice to see them respond quickly,” Schick said of the second set. “We haven’t started a set like that yet. That was good for us.”
Chatfield closed out the match dominating the third set several different players getting involved and Langford having a trio of aces.
“For us to win state we can’t have an easy go at it. We need to have a difficult and challenging regular season,” Haley Fuller said. “We have to know how to get out of slumps.”
Evergreen attempts to bounce back when it plays in the Elizabeth Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 10. The Cougars advanced to the 4A state semifinals last year, but graduated a handful of seniors.
“It definitely shows we’ve got a lot of improvement to make,” Evergreen coach Jenica Watts said. “We are a very young team after graduating six seniors last year. That has been rough trying to rebuild from that.”
Chatfield will have a bit of revenge on its mind when it hosts Fairview at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8. The Knights helped knock the Chargers out of the 5A state tournament last season when Fairview defeated Chatfield 3-1 in pool play.
“The feelings are definitely still there. We are definitely still hurt from it,” Eiken said of losing to Fairview at the state tournament. “We are going to come out fired up and ready to go.”
Evergreen celebrates a point Tuesday night during its non-league match at Chatfield High School. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
