The stadium on the campus of Englewood High School has been renamed Randy Penn Stadium, after the legendary former coach, teacher and mayor who passed away unexpectedly last month.
Penn “was a pillar of the Englewood community,” Englewood Schools superintendent Wendy Rubin wrote in a letter last month.
Penn started in Englewood School as a teacher in 1981, and at various times, he coached football, wrestling, cross country, track and girls swimming until 2008. He was Englewood’s mayor from 2011-15, and recently retired as the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.
Randy Penn. (Courtesy of Englewood Schools)
“Randy’s legacy in our schools and community is boundless,” Rubin wrote.
After Penn’s unexpected passing, many members of the community reached out to Rubin, Englewood athletic director Nate Smith, and Englewood principal Ryan West about the possibility of naming the stadium after him.
“Randy’s teaching and coaching career touched the lives of so many people in Englewood, and his continued involvement with the community after he retired from EHS was an example of how much he cared about Englewood,” Smith said.
The stadium recently completed a major renovation, and is now among the best facilities in the state.
On Tuesday night, the Englewood Schools Board of Education approved a proposal to rename the stadium after Penn.
It looks like whenever the Centauri Falcons need a touchdown, it’s as easy as handing the ball off to Mason Claunch.
The junior running back has been more than impressive this season, scoring nine touchdowns on just 11 carries. He has also totaled 268 rushing yards, giving him an average of 24.4 yards per carry.
He also has two receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown. He’s touched the ball a total of 13 times and has 10 touchdowns to his name.
Of all the players in Colorado that are off to a hot start, Claunch could be off the the best. The Falcons are 2-0 on the year and head to Del Norte on Friday, hoping to remain unbeaten after three weeks.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Among other significant running backs this year is Fountain-Fort Carson senior Q. Jones (476 yards, nine touchdowns) and Erie’s Mason VeVe (460 yards, six touchdowns).
From a passing standpoint, Smoky Hill’s Leslie Richardson III is also adding to already impressive career numbers. Richardson has thrown the ball 66 times for 610 yards and nine touchdowns. Perhaps the most impressive part of his season is the fact that he has kept the ball out of opposing hands. He has yet to throw an interception and that includes in a loss to defending Class 5A state champion Cherry Creek.
Richardson is just one of two quarterbacks in the state to throw at least 60 passes and not be intercepted. Fairview’s Liam O’Brien is the other.
Summit’s Aidan Collins would be anyone’s favorite receiving target with the numbers he’s putting up this season. He’s hauled in 16 receptions for 445 yards and eight touchdowns in the two games the Tigers have played this season.
Fossil Ridge sophomore Mac Busteed is the only other player in the state with at least 300 receiving yards. He has 310 yards on 14 catches, five of which have gone for touchdowns.
A lot of players are finding ways to get to opposing quarterbacks, but Holoyoke’s Joey Beckner and Cheyenne Mountain’s Jake Boley are the only two in the state to have recorded four sacks.
Banning Lewis junior Nate Early is quickly helping the Stallions become a defensive powerhouse as he leads the state with six interceptions. Five players behind him have picked off three passes, including Lamar’s Damian Ramos.
With Week 3 games slated to start on Thursday night, more players will try to put together notable performances to help their lead their teams to a win.
Bill Forgey just sounds like a man who means business. He initially got thrown into the coaching ranks when a middle school wrestling coach was needed and he hasn’t looked back since.
Now prowling the sidelines for Walsh’s football program, Forgey is hoping to lead his team to a winning season. Despite dropping the first game of the year he steered the team back on path with a 16-12 win over Branson/Kim last week.
That win was good enough to make to him the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Previous stops: Walsh assistant coach 2011-15; Walsh head coach (2016-present).
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Question: Why did you get into coaching?
Forgey: It started with wrestling. I wrestled and played football in school. And then (Walsh) was needing a junior high wrestling coach. So I stepped up there and then our high school coaches left and I took over that. My kids all graduated, the last one graduated in 2013 and I was going to give it up, but nobody stepped up to take over. And then with football, I just enjoy working with the kids and basically what it is.
Q: What do you think it’s like to be coached by you?
Forgey: I’m not sure how to answer that one. The kids seem to keep coming back out for me. I mean, we didn’t have an abundance of kids last year. We had seven kids playing six man football and played four games with six kids. They seem to enjoy it.
Q: With the unusual circumstances surrounding this season, how quickly when the option came up were you guys aware that you were going to choose to play in Season A?
Forgey: I was wanting to play in Season A because we’d already decided that you don’t want to play spring football out here on the plains. When you get into the spring, you get those hard, just bitter cold winds. I’d rather be inside wrestling at that time.
Q: What is it about the 6-man game that you enjoy the most?
Forgey: It’s hard. Honestly, I’d rather play 8-man, but the 6-man games give the smaller schools a chance to keep their programs. Our first year with 6-man, we were undefeated until we met Eads and we forgot the center was eligible and their center just killed us.
It’s just about learning different things. The quarterback, the first person to touch the ball, can’t run across the line of scrimmage. It’s hard to break kids in right after you’ve just come down from 8-man, but it’s a wide open game. I’m still learning.
Q: Is it safe to say it was a big adjustment for you as well as the kids?
Forgey: Oh yeah. The one-on-one tackling is you have to be good at it and because if you’re not, you get a lot of points scored on you.
Q: How important was it for this year for you guys to go out and get that first win against Branson/Kim?
Forgey: That was a big one. When we went to Mountain Valley, we didn’t play bad, but we had 12 penalties for 95 yards and we had one or two touchdowns called back. At the end of the three, they were up on us 19-8, but we were still in the game and then the fourth quarter just kind of fell apart on us. Our offense hasn’t been clicking very good.
Against Branson/Kim, they were up 12-0 on us going into the fourth and our offense finally started clicking some and we scored two (touchdowns) with our extra points and the defense played excellent. I’m starting three freshmen, two seniors and one junior and my freshmen are starting to pick it up and they’re doing a good job. All of them have done a good job.
Q: How challenging is that when half of your team is made up of kids who hadn’t seen the varsity level before?
Forgey: You know what, the freshmen I have now, I have six total on the team, but I’ve had them since fifth grade playing junior high football. They progress, but it’s a big step from junior high to high school, even though you played that game.
They’re just trying to figure it out. They’ve finally grown some and they’re figuring out their footwork and stuff like that. They’re coming along well.
Q: In this shortened season, what’s your measurement of success for this team?
Forgey: We haven’t had very many winning seasons since after our first year of 6-man. We’re just taking it one game at a time. We have Cheraw this week and right now they’re undefeated. So that’s another big game and we have some tough games coming up here, so they’re going to have to step up.
I think it’s going to be tough for us to make the playoffs because that league up north with Stratton/Liberty, Eads, Cheyenne Wells and all those teams, that’s a pretty tough league. But I’d like to have a winning record by the end of the season.
There were quite a few changes to this week’s football rankings, with Dakota Ridge (4A), Roosevelt (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A), and Fleming (6-man) taking over atop their respective classifications.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Rather than jumping at the chance to run the state course over a month ago, Cherry Creek’s Parker Wolfe opted to set a record and earn the fastest cross country time in the state.
When he finally got to the Norris Penrose Event Center for the state meet, another record became his. Wolfe claimed the individual Class 5A state title with a time of 15 minutes, 10.4 seconds, about two seconds faster than Valor Christian’s Cole Sprout ran the race a year ago.
And as soon as he was getting the opportunity, Wolfe had a very specific text message he was planning on sending to Sprout.
“Your course record is gone,” he said with a laugh.
Wolfe has overcome a lot in just this year alone. Before the season he battled through COVID-19, the very virus that gave state cross country and much different feel this year.
As the season he approached, he couldn’t help but feel the anxiety that was coming along with it.
“I didn’t know how it affect my lungs and all that,” Wolfe said. “Coming into the season my goal was to get to that Liberty Bell and get that time and make sure my lungs were still there.”
Wolfe actually lost his footing at the start of the 5A boys race but recovered quickly and put a lot of distance between himself and the field.
The other part of his goal beyond breaking Sprout’s record was to go sub-15. While he didn’t quite do it, he was still pleased with how the race turned out.
“I really wanted to get that sub-15 mark on this course because no one has done it,” Wolfe said. “I went out a little hard and it kicked me in the butt but overall I’m happy.”
It was just the start of a banner day for Cherry Creek.
Wolfe’s performance was backed up on the girls side by Riley Stewart who won the race at 17:33.8. Like Wolfe, she put plenty of distance between her and the rest of the field to get a decisive win.
“Two Creek kids in one day is pretty phenomenal,” she said.
Her win had a bit more luster as the Bruins also claimed the girls team title. As much as Stewart wanted to get that individual win, being able to share a championship with her team was an even better feeling.
“We were runners-up two years in a row,” Stewart said. “To finish first this year and to finally get it is amazing.”
Centennial League rival Arapahoe came in second.
The boys championship once again fell into the hands of Mountain Vista.
“It means everything,” junior Jayden Nats said. “All the workouts that we’ve had and training together like we have, it means the world to feed off each other.”
Nats led was the top finisher – and only top-10 finisher – for the boys, coming in 10th place at a time of 16:11.0
This is the second team title in a row for the Mountain Vista boys and the sixth title overall.
LAKEWOOD — One big offensive pass play and a defensive stop on the final play of the game Saturday afternoon allowed Chatfield to grab its first win of the season.
“It came down to that last play on the goal-line,” Chatfield coach Bret McGatlin said after the Chargers (1-1, 1-0 in 4A Jeffco League) hung on for a 10-3 victory over Wheat Ridge. “I credit our kids for not giving up.”
Wheat Ridge senior Sam McDonough (3) and Chatfield senior Jake Turner (7) can’t make a catch as the ball hit the ground. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Wheat Ridge (0-2, 0-1) looked poised to score the game-tying touchdown in the final seconds. The Farmers drove from Chatfield’s 40-yard line in less than two minutes. Quarterback Dom Cross guided the Farmers down to the 2-yard line, but his pass intended for senior Sam McDonough on a play-action roll out fell incomplete as time expired.
“It’s a young team and if you can find ways to win it’s all we can ask for right now,” McGatlin said. “Wheat Ridge never gave up. They have a lot of guys who play both ways. That is a tough group.”
The Farmers took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter with a 37-yard field goal by sophomore Francisco Munoz. It would be the lone points Wheat Ridge would score.
Chatfield tied it up 3-3 with a field goal by junior Andre Haddad midway through the second quarter.
The offensive play of the game came just before halftime. Chatfield senior quarterback Ethan Delfino hooked up with sophomore Mason Lowe for a 57-yard touchdown with 3:53 left in the second quarter to give the Chargers a 10-3 lead.
“I was getting bracketed with triple coverage,” Lowe said of his 57-yard touchdown catch. “I saw the pass come over the middle. I tipped it with my left hand to myself and just took off from there.”
McGatlin wasn’t even sure if he would have the explosive sophomore on the field Saturday after Lowe suffered a minor leg injury during the week.
Wheat Ridge quarterback Dom Cross looks for running room as a flag is thrown during the first half Saturday at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“He (Lowe) is a special kid. We are going to have to ride him a little bit,” McGatlin said of Lowe playing some tailback and receiver on offense. “Ultimately we want to be a team that doesn’t have to rely on him so much.”
Lowe’s touchdown would be the final score of the game that featured several punts and marred by a bushel of penalty flags on both teams that stalled any offensive momentum for the Chargers or Farmers.
“That was crazy,” Lowe said of the scoreless second half. “I didn’t think my touchdown would be the difference in the game. It was a great team win. We needed it.”
Chatfield is back at Jeffco Stadium next Saturday to face Bear Creek (0-2, 0-1). Dakota Ridge (2-0, 1-0) and Standley Lake (2-0, 1-0) are the two undefeated team left in 4A Jeffco through Week 2. The No. 2 ranked Eagles have been impressive outscoring their first two opponents 113-26.
The Chargers are scheduled to face rival Dakota Ridge on the final week of the regular season on Nov. 13.
“Our hope is just find a way to win this next week,” McGatlin said looking ahead. “We need to get a lot better before we see them (Dakota Ridge).”
Wheat Ridge will be looking to pick up its first win of the season against rival Golden on Thursday, Oct. 22, at the North Area Athletic Complex. First-year head coach Nick Leonard, who moved from an assistant to the head coach just before Week 1, will try to keep the Demons (0-2, 0-1) winless.
Chatfield junior Jake Marschall (14) goes for a spin after getting hit by Wheat Ridge senior Dom Cross during the Class 4A Jeffco League game Saturday afternoon at Jeffco Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
