(Courtesy photo)

The NFHS Network, launched in 2013, is a revolutionary idea that has changed the way high school sports are covered.

It brought live streaming coverage to all types of events, including various state championships. It took off in Colorado, and continues to grow through outreaches like the School Broadcast Program, which allows schools to use the Network as an extension of the classroom.

The next idea in that revolution may change the game even further.

The NFHS Network has partnered with Pixellot, which will allow for a full automated production of a broadcast. That production includes a camera that follows the action, and allows schools or school districts to schedule broadcasts.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Cherry Creek Schools district athletic director Larry Bull, who purchased eight units for his district.

Examples of the technology, on display at various conferences and events in Colorado over the past few months, are stunning. It pans and zooms to follow action smoothly in football, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and other sports, such as wrestling.

The system, which is designed to be installed at stadiums or in gymnasiums, comes with four weatherproof HD cameras, a computer for creating the automated production, a device that plugs into a scoreboard (to translate that data to the broadcast), and then an audio board, which allows for the optional inclusion of announcers.

It drops perhaps the biggest barrier to starting a School Broadcast Program: No longer is someone required to run the broadcast. Once scheduled, NFHS Network support staff will start and stop the broadcast.

(Courtesy photo)

“It’s an exciting new technology that’s going to impact high school athletics, and the coverage of high school athletics by schools,” said Che Vialpando, who oversees the School Broadcast Program in the Rocky Mountain Region. “It allows them to produce live and on-demand content that they never would have been able to do in the past.”

According to the Network, 35,000 high school events were produced in 2016. But that means more than 90 percent of all events across the nation went uncovered.

PlayOn! Sports CEO David Rudolph called the partnership, announced in June, a “quantum leap toward comprehensive coverage” of high school sports.

Already, the NFHS Network has sold more than 20 units to schools or school districts in Colorado. The expectation is that 40 units could be in place by the time fall sports begin in August. Nationwide, that number could be 400.

Cherry Creek Schools is installing Pixellot units at its two stadiums — Stutler Bowl and Legacy Stadium — as well as inside the main gymnasiums at all of its six high schools.

“The thing that’s nice about it is it’s gender equity,” Bull said. “We’ve got field hockey. There’s not many people that stream field hockey, but now we can stream field hockey.”

The Pixellot technology will not only eliminate a barrier to entry for some schools, in that it will no longer require a staff to operate broadcasts, but will also allow existing programs to expand what they are already doing. And increase their quality.

“It’s really caught fire in our district,” Bull said. “It’s creating opportunities for males and females, opportunities for athletes from freshman to varsity, and then it’s also an opportunity for kids that are into the streaming and the broadcasting and the story-writing.”

(Courtesy photo)

Vialpando gave an example of Cheyenne Central High School in Wyoming. They produced 23 events during the fall season as a first-year program, an amazing output. Once Pixellot was installed in their gym, they produced 19 events in 16 days in January, and then 33 events in February.

“The number of events produced by a school is going to be huge, and will include sub-varsity broadcasts,” Vialpando said.

Those interested in inquiring about the Pixellot technology from the NFHS Network can reach Vialpando at Che.Vialpando@nfhsnetwork.com.

(Chris Fehrm/MaxPreps)

Palmer Ridge quarterback Ty Evans has committed to play college football at Arkansas.

“From the first time I visited Arkansas, I knew that this place is special,” Evans told CHSAANow on Tuesday. “I’ve been dreaming of playing college football my whole life, and it felt like this is where I want to commit. I’ve been planning it for a while in my own head. Today felt like the right day to pull the trigger.”

Evans announced his decision on Twitter on Tuesday morning:

719➡️479 pic.twitter.com/30X65YBXsu

— Ty Evans (@EvansTy18) July 18, 2017

pic.twitter.com/s8fO7Y3YIj

— Ty Evans (@EvansTy18) July 18, 2017

One of the top in-state prospects from the Class of 2019, Evans had been drawing all kinds of national interest in recent weeks and months.

Evans visited Arkansas last month, and they had offered in May. According to HawgSports.com, Evans is the first recruit of Arkansas’ 2019 class. He is also the first local player from his class to commit.

“When I visited there, the whole atmosphere and the university itself clicked with me on a lot of levels, academically and socially,” Evans said. “The coaching staff and I have great relationships. Me and coach (Dan) Enos and coach Bielema really seem to be like-minded people. At the end of the day, it felt like home.”

Evans also had offers from Colorado, Colorado State, Kansas State and Northwestern.

“I talked to my family a lot about it, I talked to my coaching staff at Palmer Ridge, I talked to close friends,” Evans said. “The Sam M. Walton College of Business is one of the best places to go, I think, because of the connections that they have and the type of education that I get.”

Listed at 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Evans is rated as a four-star prospect by Scout, and a three-star by Rivals.

Evans threw for 3,130 yards and 30 touchdowns as a sophomore last season in leading the Bears to an 8-3 record and an appearance in the Class 3A playoffs.

He is Palmer Ridge’s first Division I football recruit since 2016 grads Isaiah Sanders and George Silvanic both signed with Air Force.

“There’s no better place to play college football than the SEC,” Evans said. “I think I really fit in with the program. It’s the place for me.”

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

The latest version of the agenda for the All-School Summit is out.

The Summit, scheduled for July 31 and August 1 at the Denver Marriott South at Park Meadows, brings together administrators from nearly every member school that is part of CHSAA.

New CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green will address the membership for the first time on July 31, and then new Board president Jim Lucas will give a speech on August 1.

The athletic directors will also hear from Joe Ehrmann and Jody Redman, who head up the InsideOut Initiative, over the course of the two-day meeting.

Among other topics on the agenda are Real Life Emergency Action Plans, updates from CLOC’s subclassification committee, and a speech from Poudre High School athlete Ky Ecton, who won the 5A girls tennis No. 1 Singles title last spring, about what it means to be involved with activities.

The annual new athletic directors meeting will take place just prior to the general Summit on July 31, and the athletic and finance secretaries meeting will be after the last session on August 1.

Additionally, on Tuesday, there will be classification breakouts to discuss topics to be covered by the football committee.

A complete agenda is below.

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Download: PDF

https://old.chsaanow.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2017-all-school-summit-agenda.pdf

Jackson Solem. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

The U.S. Junior Amateur golf tournament kicked off on Monday and three Colorado kids are participating in the event.

Jackson Solem (Silver Creek), T.J. Shehee (Silver Creek/Mead) and Davis Bryant (Eaglecrest) all came out of the June 27 qualifier at the Fox Hill Club.

Solem graduated from Silver Creek this year and will play at the University of Denver starting this fall. Shehee was on the team with Solem at Silver Creek, but will compete this year for Mead, who is starting a program this fall.

Bryant will be a senior at Eaglecrest for the 2017 golf season.

The best round of the qualifier went to Solem, who shot a par 70. Solem ended his high school season falling just short of the Class 4A boys state title, losing in a playoff to Discovery Canyon’s Luke Trujillo.

Shehee and Bryant each ended their qualifying rounds with a 71.

The tournament consists of two days of stroke play before the final field of 64 competes in a match play tournament to crown to the champion.

Results can be tracked at the USGA’s website.

(Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)

Cherry Creek’s Dimitri Stanley has found a football home for his post-high school career.

The Bruins’ athletic receiver made an exclusive announcement on 9News that he will become a member of Darrin Chiaverini’s Black Out Boys at the University of Colorado.

He later took to Twitter to announce the move to anyone who did not watch his commitment as it aired.

After much prayer and discussion, I am pleased to announce that I will be continuing my football career and furthering my education at… pic.twitter.com/R5HAAfHNW5

— Dimitri Stanley (@Dimitri_114) July 16, 2017

This is the third in-state recruit from the class of 2018 to commit to the Buffs. Highlands Ranch safety Ray Robinson committed back in October and Valor Christian quarterback Blake Stenstrom chose the Buffs in December.

Stanley is a three-sport athlete at Cherry Creek, but his talents on the football field are hard to ignore.

Injuries plagued the Bruins at quarterback in 2016, but of the 1,975 passing yard amassed, Stanley was on the receiving end of 970 of them.

He also hauled in 13 touchdown catches.

Stanley’s father, Walter, also played for CU in the early 1980’s.

According to his Scout.com recruiting profile, Stanley fielded offers from 13 Division I schools, including Colorado State, Arizona State, Nebraska and Utah.

Scout.com also lists him as the No. 1-ranked athlete in the state of Colorado.

Cherry Creek opens the 2017 season on Sept. 1 when it hosts Regis Jesuit.

Which sport is the most effective at sending players to the next level? Which schools lead the state?

We broke down the 2017 commitment database from a few different angles, including looking at recruiting by sport and by school.

Note that this data is not complete, only what has been reported to us, but it is the most complete dataset that exists when it comes to college athletics signees from Colorado’s high schools.

Athletes heading to play college sports after high school is incredibly rare. As 9News detailed last month after breaking down CHSAANow.com’s data, just 3.4 percent of local athletes move on to the next level.

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By sport

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

Football leads all sports with the most athletes (277) headed to play college sports, something that could be expected due to the number of athletes participating — 16,686 played in 2016, more than any other sport.

Baseball will send 159 to college, the second-most of any sport, closely followed by girls soccer (150). Softball (105) and volleyball (94) round out the top five.

It’s girls soccer which continues to churn out the most Division I talent of any sport. This season, 70 will head to the top level in college athletics. Last season, 69 girls soccer players went D-I.

Football is second with 45 Division I players, and boys lacrosse (31) is next.

We’ve broken down the 2017 class by division and Division I:

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By School

(Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

We also broke down college commitments by school, including all divisions, Division I, and a per capita figure, which looks at the number of college athletes a school produces compared to its enrollment.

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Looking at football

(Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)

This season, 277 athletes are headed to play college football after completing their high school careers in Colorado. This is the most in the four-year history of the CHSAANow recruiting database, something that can most likely be attributed to the fact that we get better at gathering data each year. (The total has risen each year.)

Included in that total is 57 athletes headed to play Division I football, 45 on scholarship and 12 as walk-ons. The largest group is headed to play Division II (156, including four walk-ons), with 16 going D-III, 39 to the NAIA and nine to junior colleges.

We have data on Division I players which dates back to 2008, and the most that have ever gone D-I was 51. The 45 scholarship players from the 2017 class are the third-most in that time period.

Here is the complete dataset from this year’s group of football seniors:

Not many people have the task of taking over a team coming off a state basketball title.

But Jarris Krapcha does. The newly-anointed Eaglecrest boys basketball coach is heading into the 2017-18 school year as the coach of a team that claimed the Class 5A title the previous season.

But he isn’t shying away from the challenge. Rather, he’s embracing it. As he’s gotten situated in his new role, he spoke on what it means to follow a man who went out on top and what the Raptors’ future will look like with him at the helm.

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Question: Not many people have the opportunity, or burden depending on how you look at it, of taking over a team coming off a state title win. What are your expectations as you’re getting more familiar with this team?

Krapcha: I don’t really look at it as a burden. I think it’s great that I got the opportunity to take over a program that’s had so much success.

There’s a culture in place and kids want to play basketball at Eaglecrest. The school is excited about the basketball team from what I’ve gathered so far.

The cupboard is not bare. The senior class is really good. We have a chance to be pretty darn good. We’re going to be a competitive team.

Q: You were on staff at Doherty when you got the head job, but you’re going into a new school and a new position. How much are you brining a culture that you want and how much are you trying to maintain things from what John (Olander) was able to do?

Krapcha: It’s a little bit of both. Obviously, he’s been a very good coach and he’s been very successful and he’s won a lot of games. I think that the best thing about that is the commitment level of the kids.

They’re already there. They know what to expect. It’s like, ‘Hey, we’re working out in the summer. We have open gym at this time.’ The kids know that and they’re going to be in the gym, working.

We’re going to play a little differently than what they did. Just some philosophy differences, which should be expected.

It’s not going to be a whole lot of building a culture. When I took the job at Mitchell, I felt like that was all I was doing. I had to start from nothing and build an entire culture.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

Q: For you personally, coming into a situation, what are the challenges that come into it?

Krapcha: When you do take over for a program that’s had success and you throw some new things at the kids and say, “Hey, we’re not going to play that way. We’re doing to do that.” It’s probably natural for them to, maybe not question it, but kind of wonder that what they did was successful so why is it changing.

There are some challenges in getting them to buy into what I want in terms of what we’re going to do offensively and what we’re going to do defensively.

There are challenges there.

Also, being new in the building and seeing a lot of new faces. I’ve had most of the guys, but I understand there were some football kids that weren’t around. It’s not going to be that instant comfort.

At Doherty, I was very comfortable. THat’s something that was built over time. I’ll find my place at Eaglecrest too.

Q: What are you seeing from guys like Victor Garnes and Xaiv’ion Jackson who saw varsity minutes last year, but need to step up and lead this team to a level of play that it’s used to?

Krapcha: Vic hasn’t done a lot of basketball in terms of the summer. He’s probably a Division I football kid, so he’s going to camps and handling Eaglecrest football stuff.

My only interactions with him were in May at some open gyms. He has a great personality, he’s super-athletic, he’s extremely confident. You can tell he has that swagger about him.

Stepping into a larger role, whether that’s more scoring or something like that, I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. I can tell he’s a very confident kid.

X is just… I’ve been really impressed with him. He can really play. He has a high IQ. He can handle it, he can get to the rim. He’s a great passer; he’s just really smart.

We threw some new things at him offensively and he picked it up on day one.

He’s excited for his last go-around and he’s ready to step up.

Q: With no Colby Ross and a new coach, are people going to be pleasantly surprised with what Eaglecrest is going to do or should they temper their expectations?

Krapcha: I don’t want their expectations to be tempered. I applied for the job wanting those high expectations year-in and year-out.

I really think there’s pressure and all that, but no one’s going to put more pressure on me to win than myself.

I want those high expectations, I hope they’re still there.

There might be some speed bumps early which can happen with a new coach. I hope the expectations are still high. I think they are. It’s been communicated to me by my staff and things like that.

And the kids. They want to win another one, so I’m excited for the expectations to be high.

Q: How much do you know about the Centennial League and are you bracing for that challenge?

Krapcha: You talk about the reasons I applied for the job and the league is up there.

I wanted that challenge. I think it’s the best league in the state.

I think that stuff cyclical a little bit, bit year-in and year-out, you’re going to have some really quality teams in our league regardless of talent. It’s going to be pretty solid.

Last year with Grandview, Smoky (Hill) and obviously Eaglecrest, there are three top-10 caliber teams in one league.

Next year, Grandview is going to be really solid. Overland is going to be really good. They’re really athletic.

I like the challenge.

Q: Is there a point that it’s going to hit you the this team just won a state championship and now it’s yours?

Krapcha: It hasn’t yet. I get it in doses. I get it from talking to the administration, talking to my athletic director, talking to teachers in the building, or parents or someone else.

When I got the job, my phone was buzzing with text messages. I got so many different phone calls.

I knew right away that it was a pretty big deal within Colorado high school basketball.

I think, having said that, it won’t hit me until that first game. I think we open with Rock Canyon.

It’ll hit me then.

Q: What are you going to enjoy from the rest of the summer to the start of basketball season?

Krapcha: I’m excited. I’m a big high school sports fan so I’m exited to see the culture of the school.

I know our football team is going to be competitive and seeing the school standing behind its athletic teams, I think that’s going to be a lot of fun.

I kind of take July as a time to relax a bit and work on myself.

I’m a big studier, so I’m either watching film or watching how other coaches do other things. I just worry about me a little bit.

But we’ll hit the ground running with some preseason stuff and I’m definitely excited about it.

(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)

With 25 days before fall practice begins, Mead announced that it will be adding boys golf in the 2017-2018 season:

Mead High is excited to add boys golf to our sports in 2017-2018. Only 25 days until practice begins. Questions, contact Coach Ward.

— Mead HS Athletics (@MeadAthletics) July 13, 2017

The Mavericks will compete right away as a varsity program and athletic director Chad Eisentrager expects them to compete in Class 4A.

“I ran the numbers for last year and we had 14 or 15 kids playing golf in St. Vrain Valley schools,” Eisentrager said. “We decided we should have it at Mead High School. We had kids at Silver Creek, Skyline, Longmont, Frederick and Erie High School. We decided we wanted to bring that to Mead High School so we can represent our school.”

Eisentrager has named former Mead girls basketball coach Mike Ward as the coach of the golf team.

Ward is a science teacher at Mead and having a coach that was a teacher in the building was a big plus to help kick-start the program.

“He was excited about it,” Eisentrager said. “We’ll have a lot of talented golfers in the program. Having a coach in the building will be a big benefit to the kids.”

LAKEWOOD — Athletes from 30 schools participated in the Colorado High School Soccer Coaches Association’s all-state boys and girls soccer games on Tuesday.

The South boys beat the North 5-1 while the North girls edged the South 1-0.

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Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin recently completed the first-ever field-based study measuring athletic outcomes for adolescents drinking chocolate milk versus a typical sports drink – with some compelling results.

Previous studies all looked at adults, but never at the 7.8 million high school athletes in the nation – yet nutrition is especially important for these young athletes, whose bodies are still growing while also handling the heavy physical demands of athletics.

How Did the Study Work?

The UT Department of Kinesiology and Health Education studied 100 participants, including a mix of varsity and junior varsity boys as well as female athletes with an average age of 15. The students trained four times per week for five weeks, with both free weights and field agility drills. They were randomly placed into one of two groups: those who would drink chocolate milk as a recovery drink, and those who would drink a leading sports beverage instead.

What Were the Results?

At the end of five weeks, the two groups showed significant differences in two particular areas: bench press and squats. The athletes who drank chocolate milk bench-pressed an average of 3.5 percent more than they could before – whereas those who drank the commercial sports beverage actually decreased in bench-press strength by about 3.2 percent. That’s a net difference of 6.7 percent for those who drank chocolate milk versus a commercial sports beverage. Both groups showed improvement with squats, but chocolate milk drinkers showed more, lifting 15 percent more weight than before – whereas commercial sports beverage drinkers only lifted 8 percent more. That’s nearly double the increase in strength for chocolate milk drinkers.

Why Does Chocolate Milk Make a Difference?

Both chocolate milk and the typical sports drink have carbohydrates to replenish the body. Both combine electrolytes and fluid for rehydration. But the typical sports drink lacks protein to rebuild muscles.

Milk naturally contains two types of high-quality protein: whey and casein. One is absorbed quickly and one is absorbed slowly, meaning your body reaps both short- and long-term benefits – and there’s a whole gram of protein in every ounce of milk, which combines with the carbs in chocolate milk for the ideal muscle recovery ratio.

What Else Should We Know?

Intense training, both on the field and in the weight room, can lead to overtraining. When the body lacks the resources to match physical demands, athletes are prone to fatigue, illness and injuries. One way to avoid overtraining is ensuring athletes get a recovery drink that accomplishes the three R’s: Rehydrate, Replenish and Rebuild. Chocolate milk covers all three in one cost-effective package.

Further studies may determine how other factors affected the UT results – things like technique, or nutrition outside of the study. However, the study supports chocolate milk as a recovery supplement for adolescents participating in intense training, so we can add it to the growing pile of research about chocolate milk recovery for all ages.

Andy Cheshire, M.S. is the author of this article. He is a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the head football coach at Concordia High School in Austin, Tex.