Fairview boys soccer is the new No. 1 in the Class 5A boys soccer rankings. Likewise, Denver Christian is now No. 1 in 2A.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday during the regular season.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Class 5A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Fairview (8)
9-0-0
88
3
2-0-0
2
Boulder
8-1-0
77
1
1-1-0
3
Grandview (1)
8-1-1
60
2
0-1-0
4
Fort Collins
6-1-1
58
5
2-0-0
5
Legacy
8-1-0
56
4
1-1-0
6
Arapahoe
8-0-2
52
7
2-0-0
7
Denver East
9-1-0
44
8
2-0-0
8
Broomfield
6-3-0
23
6
1-1-0
9
Rampart
8-0-1
14
9
2-0-0
10
Cherokee Trail
8-1-1
12
–
3-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Legend 5, Hinkley 2, Ralston Valley 1, Rock Canyon 1.
Dropped out
Greeley West (10).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Air Academy (9)
8-1-1
90
1
2-0-0
2
Durango
11-1-0
65
3
2-0-0
3
Battle Mountain
7-1-1
56
4
0-0-0
4
Centaurus
6-2-0
47
8
2-0-0
5
Denver North
6-1-2
45
6
1-0-1
6
Pueblo Centennial
9-1-1
43
7
1-0-0
7
Skyview
10-0-0
39
5
2-0-0
8
Golden
9-2-0
24
10
2-0-0
9
Discovery Canyon
8-2-0
20
9
1-1-0
10
Cheyenne Mountain
6-3-1
11
–
2-0-0
Others receiving votes:
The Classical Academy 10, Green Mountain 9, Pueblo Central 7, Fort Morgan 6, Regis Groff 6, Pueblo West 4, Steamboat Springs 4, Kennedy 3, Lewis-Palmer 3, Widefield 2, Niwot 1.
Dropped out
Regis Groff (2).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Kent Denver (5)
9-0-1
90
1
2-0-0
2
Roaring Fork (3)
8-0-1
89
2
1-0-0
3
Atlas Prep (1)
9-0-0
70
3
2-0-0
4
Liberty Common
7-1-0
60
5
3-0-0
5
Colorado Academy
8-1-0
54
4
2-0-0
6
Faith Christian (1)
7-1-1
52
6
1-0-0
7
Delta
7-2-1
33
7
1-1-0
8
Vail Mountain
6-3-0
20
8
1-1-0
9
Salida
4-4-2
16
10
0-1-1
10
Eagle Ridge Academy
9-2-0
14
–
2-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Lutheran 10, James Irwin 9, Aurora West College Prep 6, Colorado Springs Christian 6, Peak to Peak 5, Arrupe Jesuit 4, Coal Ridge 3, DSST: Green Valley Ranch 3, DSST: Stapleton 3, DSST: Byers 2, Jefferson Academy 1.
Arvada West (in 5A) and Longmont (4A) are newcomers to this week’s softball rankings.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday during the regular season.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Class 5A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Loveland (3)
18-2-1
86
1
2-1-0
2
Fossil Ridge (2)
18-3-0
79
4
4-0-0
3
Cherokee Trail (2)
18-2-0
77
2
2-1-0
4
Eaglecrest
16-4-0
68
3
2-1-0
5
Legacy (3)
17-4-0
63
5
4-0-0
6
Brighton
15-4-1
42
7
2-0-0
7
Rock Canyon
16-5-0
39
6
3-1-0
8
Douglas County
13-8-0
18
8
1-3-0
9
Legend
12-9-0
14
10
3-0-0
10
Arvada West
14-6-0
12
–
2-1-0
Others receiving votes:
ThunderRidge 10, Hinkley 9, Valor Christian 9, Columbine 6, Mountain Vista 6, Ralston Valley 6, Arapahoe 4, Regis Jesuit 2.
Dropped out
ThunderRidge (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Silver Creek (3)
19-2-0
83
1
2-0-0
2
Holy Family (4)
18-2-0
81
2
2-0-0
3
Erie
15-5-0
71
3
3-0-0
4
Pueblo County (2)
19-2-0
67
4
3-0-0
5
Mountain View
13-6-2
45
5
2-0-0
6
Conifer
19-2-0
39
7
2-0-0
7
Golden
14-6-0
35
9
3-0-0
8
Pueblo South
14-6-0
20
6
1-2-0
9
Wheat Ridge
12-8-0
17
8
0-3-0
10
Longmont
15-5-1
15
–
1-1-0
Others receiving votes:
Berthoud 13, Thomas Jefferson 5, Roosevelt 2, Discovery Canyon 1, Evergreen 1.
Casey Coons, current Arvada West High School’s Athletic Director, was inducted into Western Colorado University’s Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame on Sept. 14. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
ARVADA — Casey Coons has been involved in football across Colorado for more than four decades.
From his high school playing days at Lincoln High School in the mid-1970s to this year being his first as Athletic Director at Arvada West High School. Coons received the honor of being inducted into the Western Colorado University’s Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame class of 2018 on Sept. 14.
Coons found out about going into the HOF last summer. He received a call from current Western Colorado football coach Jas Bains to officially give Coons the news.
“I told him (Bains), ‘It must be a slow year,’” Coons joked. “It is a nice honor.”
T.W. Stites, former player for Coons, was also inducted.
“It was fun,” Coons said of the induction weekend a few weeks ago. “At halftime of the football game they called us (inductees) out. The best part is a lot of former players came back. That is what it’s all about. It not about how many games you win really. It’s about relationships.”
Casey Coons coached Arvada West’s football program for a decade. The Wildcats racked up 74 wins and four Class 5A state semifinal appearances. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Coons spent fours years (1977 to 1980) as an offensive lineman for the Mountaineers. Western won three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles during that span.
He returned to his alma mater for a seven-year stint from 1988 to 1994. Coons was the offensive line coach and strength and conditioning coordinator for three years before getting promoted to assistant head coach and defensive coordinator in 1991.
“When I became the defensive coordinator in 1991 we were all on the brink of probably getting fired if we didn’t get things going,” Coons admitted. “We were fortunate. We lost our opener and then won 10 in a row.”
The Mountaineers won three RMAC titles from 1991 to 1994.
“It was a great time,” Coons said. “We had a great staff and a bunch of great players.”
Coons has called Arvada West High School home for the past 17 years. He was hired as the head football coach in 2002. He spent 10 years coaching the Wildcats, racking up a 74-40 record with four Class 5A state semifinal appearances.
“I’m really proud of those teams,” Coons said of his state semifinal teams. “I’m proud we have three to five guys off those teams coaching now. That is big to me.”
Coons moved into the athletic director position at A-West this year.
“I love the school,” Coons said who has taught and been the dean of students at A-West High School. “I love the kids. I love the community. It’s similar to what we had at Western. It’s a great group of people.”
To say there’s some history within the Limon football program would be quite an understatement.
The Badgers are the most successful football program in the history of the state, having won 16 outright championships, and tied for another.
It’s under that microscope that Limon exists: The expectation is to win.
That’s something current coach Mike O’Dwyer knows a little bit about: He graduated from the school in 1980, and was part of three state championship teams.
“Coach (Lloyd) Gaskill, obviously, set that expectation, and we’re trying to do the best to follow that,” said O’Dwyer, who is now in his 17th season leading the elite program.
Previous stops: Limon junior high coach (1985-87); Limon assistant (1988-2001); Limon head coach (2002-present).
[divider]
Question: Why did you decide to get into coaching? What drew you to it?
O’Dwyer: Well, it was actually by accident. I had played football at (Northern Colorado). I came back here, back home — because I graduated from here — and I was working and the superintendent at the time, he said, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know that you’re our new junior high football coach, and practice starts on Monday.”
That’s kind of how I got into it. It had never really crossed my mind to be a coach, so I kind of feel into it by accident. I coached junior high for three years, and then I was an assistant for 14. Dave Grimes had been the head coach for quite a few years. They asked me if I wanted to be the head coach in 2002. It kind of started from there.
Question: Was there something that made you want to stick with it? What’d you enjoy about it?
(Dustin Price/dustinpricephotography.com)
O’Dwyer: For me, it was the kids. It’s a kids game, and I think it’s the greatest game created for boys, to help boys turn into quality young men. It teaches them that aspect of physical play, and sometimes you’re a little sore and a little beat up, and everyday, you have to go out there and have to overcome some of that. As you do in life: You have to overcome some of those little aches and bruises and you’ve just got to suck it up and go. And I think that the game really helps that transition.
Question: You guys this year are off to a 5-0 start, and are No. 1 in both the RPI and the poll. Not that rankings mean a whole lot right now, but I think it’s because of what you guys have done that people are recognizing that this is a team to beat.
Have you talked to your guys about expectations and handling expectations?
O’Dwyer: We always set up our long-term goals, and really our long-term goals don’t seem to really change. We always talk about we need to win our first game, and that doesn’t mean the first game of the year. That means at some point, you have to win your first game.
And homecoming here is such a big deal, so we have to win our homecoming game, or that’s the expectation. We want to be North Central Conference champions. And then we need to win our first playoff game, because if you don’t win your first playoff game, you’re not going to get a second one.
And then, obviously, to be a state champion.
I think that expectation level is just what is set up here. And I’m sure it is everywhere else, too, but here it’s difficult with those expectations sometimes. Especially from the coaching aspect, because everybody wants their kids to be part of something really special.
We’ve been really fortunate over the years to have that success. Even with our numbers. I think we’re the second-smallest school in 11-man football. That gets really difficult at times when you play the Strasburgs and Florences and Yumas and Burlingtons, and all these schools who are going to have 45-50 kids. I think we have 33. That makes it even more tough for us to do it.
Question: How much of those expectations has to do with the fact that Limon has won the most state championships of any program? Does the community expect that excellence?
O’Dwyer: I think that that’s kind of put into a lot of these young kids. These are kids of parents that went through the program when the expectation was to be a state champion. You know, back in those times, we were probably one of the bigger schools in 11-man football. Coach (Lloyd) Gaskill, obviously, set that expectation, and we’re trying to do the best to follow that.
(Dustin Price/dustinpricephotography.com)
I always get teased by some good friends of mine about my assistant coaches. They say, “The first question on your application is: Did you graduate from Limon High School? If you didn’t, don’t go to Question 2.”
(Laughs) Now, that’s not exactly true, but I’m pretty fortunate with the assistants I have. I’ve got three Division I football players that are on my staff. And all four of played college football. One played at CU, and two played at CSU. So I’m very fortunately to be in a situation where I have those assistant coaches that understand that expectation.
Question: What are you expecting out of the North Central League? It’s probably one of the toughest in the state.
O’Dwyer: I really think so, especially this year. It’s always been very tough at the top because you have Burlington and Wray, and now you have Holyoke, who is sitting 5-0 as well.
If you go through what we did in our non-conference schedule, we played Crowley, who was (ranked No. 7). and Meeker, where I think was No. 5 at the time, and we obviously played (two-time defending champion and current No. 2) Strasburg.
Yuma is a much-improved ball team. And then we get Burlington and Wray back-to-back, and then Holyoke. Those three teams are probably going to be top-10 teams. You don’t put a lot of stock in all the rankings, but obviously those are all very good football teams.
That’s going to be the hardest thing, is just to be able to go week-in and week-out to make it through the North Central Conference, because it’s a fairly physical conference. With our numbers, you definitely get beat up just trying to get through your own conference. I really think that the North Central this year … is the toughest conference out there.
Cheyenne Mountain will forfeit its football game against Pine Creek on Saturday.
The team entered last week’s game against Widefield with enough players to play, but academics, eligibility and injuries have thinned the roster for this week, and the lack of available players resulted in the decision to forfeit.
The decision has only been made for this week. Cheyenne Mountain is planning to play its next game against Vista Ridge on Oct. 13.
“It’s a current moment thing,” Cheyenne Mountain athletic director Kris Roberts said. “The bottom line is we didn’t have enough numbers to play the game this week.”
“Part of participating is making sure the high school experience is positive and safe, and in order to ensure that with the limited number of participants, we made the best decision on behalf of our kids and school community,” Roberts said.
The school sent the following letter to parents on Monday:
Dear Football Parents:
Unfortunately, I am writing to inform you that a number of circumstances have required us to forego and forfeit the varsity football contest against Pine Creek High School on Saturday October 6, 2018
Based on a combination of injuries, academic eligibility, and feedback from our coaching and athletic training staff, we simply do not have enough varsity football players available to safely participate in this week’s contest.
Our hope is that next week potentially brings the return of more players who are injured or ineligible, resulting in our having an appropriate number of varsity players for participation in the subsequent contests on our schedule. Updated practice information during this time will be forthcoming directly from Coach Saravis.
The sub-varsity contest scheduled for Saturday October 6, 2018 versus Pine Creek High School will take place as scheduled at Pine Creek High School.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Kris Roberts
Assistant Principal / Athletic Director
Cheyenne Mountain High School
BOULDER — On a brisk Monday afternoon at the beautiful Boulder Country Club, Eaton senior Peter Grossenbacher found himself in the lead of the Class 3A boys golf state tournament.
Shooting 5-under on the tournament’s first day, Grossenbacher’s two-shot lead over Kent Denver senior Jackson Klutznick was immensely earned. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for Grossenbacher, who bogeyed two of his first three holes, and was 1-over through the front nine.
His back nine score of 29 (6-under) included an eagle on the 12th hole to spark a unbelievable surge.
“Today was a total blast,” Grossenbacher said. “On 12 I took a very aggressive line, hit a pitching wedge close and made eagle. After that eagle, my mom told me I was in the lead.”
The top of the leaderboard is tight. Aspen junior Jack Pevny (2-under) and Telluride senior Carlo Pine (even) find themselves right in the thick of things. Prospect Ridge junior Walker Franklin is in fifth at 1-over.
“It’s very exciting to be in it,” Pevny said. “It just shows you all of your hard work paying off. Definitely have grinded for the last two weeks to get ready for this. I think I need to play the same way I did today, tomorrow. I made some mistakes on the greens, but sticking to the game-plan by hitting the middle of the green is a focus and I’ll just go from there.”
Pevny’s team, Aspen, currently leads the team category of the tournament at 4-over par. Kent Denver follows at 5-over as third place for now is Holy Family at 15-over.
Telluride has just one player at state, but after a consistent afternoon, Pine finds himself with a chance as Day 2 approaches.
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“It was a pretty solid day,” Pine said. “My wedge game was a little off, but my putting kept things together, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to get the wedges a little closer and keep the putting and be under par.”
Pine’s lead held up at 1-under for most of the afternoon until Grossenbacher claimed the lead at 2-under following his eagle.
The leader’s golf partner, Klutznick kept pressure on, especially late in the round. With the two golfers at the top of the leaderboard, Tuesday’s final round is likely to bring more competitiveness between these two, who will be grouped together once again.
“We started feeding off of each other’s birdies and before I knew it, I was 5-under with two to play,” Grossenbacher said. “He also eagled 12, so after we both made those eagles, I told him I might have a skin there. I wasn’t very happy when I saw him make a putt, but it was fun to see the motivation we put on each other. He’s a very awesome sportsman.”
What was well known by all golfers leaving Monday afternoon: there is still another day.
“At the end of the day, whoever plays better tomorrow is what it all comes down to,” Klutznick said. “He (Grossenbacher) played great today, and if he plays like that again, it will be hard to do anything, but I’m going to try and keep it going.”
After accomplishing a tournament round career-low by four shots, Grossenbacher looks to become the first individual from Eaton to win the state boys golf championship, and he’s looking forward to the opportunity.
“It would mean the world to me to pull it out tomorrow,” he said. “I have put just so much preparation into this. Visualizing it even since freshman year when I’m practicing chipping and putting thinking, “I need to get this this down for state,’ so I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
COLORADO SPRINGS — Mountain Range’s Connor Jones hit an eagle with a 142-yard shot on the third hole at Colorado Springs Country Club. It would have been the shot of a lifetime if not for the fact that he did nearly the same exact thing in his practice round Sunday.
“Same hole, same club,” Jones chuckled. “Holed them both. It’s never going to happen again in my life.”
With his 9-iron, Jones landed his shot about five feet past the pin and watched his ball gently roll back into the cup on consecutive days. Now, he hopes his story of golf folklore can have a fairy-tale ending, too. The senior’s score of 3-under-par 68 is good for the three-stroke lead after the first day of the 5A tournament.
The senior had two birdies to go with his eagle during his round. He remains grounded despite a dazzling open to his state bid.
“Tomorrow, I’m just going to try and play my game,” Jones said.
Lakewood’s Ryan Liao is currently second after shooting even-par. Liberty’s Brandon Bervig and last year’s runner-up, Dillon Stewart of Fossil Ridge, are tied for third at 1-over.
“The goal was to give myself a chance,” said Liao, a sophomore. “I gave myself a chance today to play tomorrow and try to win.”
Liao and fellow-sophomore Noah DiBiase (73) led the Tigers to the top of the leaderboard, six strokes ahead of second-place Arapahoe and Fossil Ridge. Their fast start comes a year after Lakewood did not qualify a team to the tournament.
On Tuesday, the Tigers will look to hold the lead to hoist their first state title in program history with two sophomores and two freshmen leading the way.
“It’s not unexpected, we work hard,” Lakewood coach Alan Gonzales said. “We just love to play golf. We’re a young team but at the same time we’re experienced. They play a lot of tournaments in the summer.”
Jones will also try to hold off the field for his first title. He finished tied for sixth last year.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to look at the leaderboard today,” Jones said. “Obviously I’m going to have to look tomorrow.”
