Second-seeded Windsor advanced to the quarterfinals of the Class 4A boys soccer tournament with a 6-0 win over No. 15 Mesa Ridge.
Month: April 2021
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Photos: Lewis-Palmer beats Standley Lake to advance in 4A boys soccer tournament
It’s on to the second round of the Class 4A boys soccer tournament for Lewis-Palmer. The Ranger beat No. 9 Standley Lake 4-1.
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Photos: No. 7 Ralston Valley girls volleyball tops No. 10 Valor Christian
Class 5A No. 7 Ralston Valley claimed the Jeffco League title with a 3-0 win over No. 10 Valor Christian on Wednesday.
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Photos: No. 12 Fossil Ridge girls volleyball tops Rocky Mountain
Class 5A No. 12 Fossil Ridge girls volleyball kept its solid season intact with a 3-1 win over Rocky Mountain.
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Photos: No. 10 Valor Christian girls volleyball tops Pomona in three sets
Class 5A No. 10 Valor Christian girls volleyball beat Pomona 3-0 to get a big Jeffco League win on Tuesday.
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Photos: No. 1 Mountain Vista girls volleyball sweeps Regis Jesuit on senior night
It was an enjoyable senior night for Class 5A No. 1 Mountain Vista girls volleyball as the it swept Regis Jesuit 25-18, 25-21.
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Photos: Euler leads No. 9 Grandview field hockey over No. 12 Denver East
Elise Euler scored both goals to lead No. 9 Grandview field hockey to a 2-0 win over No. 12 Denver East on Tuesday.
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Emma Luce has No. 3 Meeker girls volleyball ready to chase a state title
(Wendll’s White River Roasters) As a freshman, Emma Luce put up some impressive numbers on the volleyball court. Her 266 kills had Meeker just one match away from reaching the Class 2A semifinals last year.
Now, she has ambitions of taking her team further and her style of play is helping to make the entire team better across the board.
The 2A No. 3 Cowboys have looked strong all season as they’ve built a 10-0 heading into the final weekend of the regular season. After finishing 80th in the state in total kills last year, Luce sits atop the leaderboard across all classifications in 2021.
She’s put the ball down 245 times and she could get it down another 245 times this year and the feeling will never get old for her.
“It does not,” Luce said. “I wish I could have that (feeling) with every set. It’s a great feeling.”
And it has been such a vital part of the team’s success. Volleyball is far from a one-player sport and there are so many qualities that make up a championship team. But there is no denying that having a player like Luce on the roster, whether it be in a match or just in practice, has made Meeker a better team throughout the season.
“Since last summer she a grown as a player and it has made us all better,” coach Greg Cravens said. “Just the other night, I had her hitting against the varsity girls. They were telling me that they’re getting better because they can dig what Emma is hitting at them.”
(Wendll’s White River Roasters) And that number shows up on the stat sheet as well. When it comes to the kills, Luce does the bulk of the work as her 245 make up more than 68 percent of the team’s total number.
She also leads the team in digs with 192, but receives so much support from the rest of the rotation. Lea Knapp has 120, Sarah Kracht has 99 and Aspen Merrifield has 94.
In fact, Luce only accounts for 29 percent of the Cowboys’ total digs on the year. And in 27 fewer sets played so far this year, she has already has nearly three times as many digs as she totaled as a freshman.
Since the end of last fall, she’s done everything she can think of to grow as a volleyball player.
“My offseason consisted of being in the weight room and playing a lot of beach volleyball,” she said. “I’m always getting touches and I’m always in the gym and I think that helps me a lot.”
And although there was no track season last year, she does run track. Being a multi-sport athlete has been beneficial to her development in her sport of choice.
“Learning form and being able to stay athletic in any sport really helps you out,” she said. “That’s having leg strength, always being in the gym and getting reps running and that includes high jump. High jump helps your vertical so much. And every sport also helps you remain disciplined.”
All those attributes have been essential in her development. Even though she is just a sophomore, she has grown into solid all-around volleyball player and a dominant hitter.
And in the coming weeks, she’s going to put that ability on display in the girls volleyball playoffs.
(Wendll’s White River Roasters) -
Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week: Denver South’s Ryan Marini
Even though it’s his job to be the inspirational guy, Denver South’s Ryan Marini can’t help but be inspired by football players.
He’s seen a player lose his house to a fire and the team had to deal with the tragic loss of teammate Davarie Armstrong to a shooting last summer. After an 18-15 win over Vista PEAK on April 17, the Ravens were voted as the top Class 5A team in the state.
They play with heavy hearts and it had fueled an undefeated regular season. Marini is the guy who takes charge of the team but he’s also the first one to say it’s his guys who make this team special, not the coach. Still, it takes the right kind of leader to help these young men through the tragedies that they have dealt with and push them to be at their absolute best, both in football and in life.
That was certainly the case on Saturday. After the win over Vista PEAK, Marini was named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
The Broncos coach of the week is selected in partnership with the Broncos. Find a complete list of winners on this page.
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(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com) Ryan Marini bio
Years as head coach: 4 (18-17)
Years at Denver South: 4 (5-0 this season)
Previous stops: Lincoln assistant coach (2002-04, 2012); Heritage assistant (2005-07); Cherry Creek (2008-09); Denver South assistant (2013, 2016); Littleton assistant coach (2014-15); Denver South head coach (2017-present).
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Question: Why do you coach?
Marini To give me to give my wife a break mostly. Honestly, I kind of have selfish reasons. For 19 years, I think the best inspiration I’ve found is working with DPS kids. They’re the most inspirational kids that I’ve ever worked with in my life. And yeah, I work hard for them, but the stuff they give back to me, it’s just the coolest stories and the most amazing stories. I learn about life from them because they come from such different backgrounds. It’s been awesome to absorb all that and it has completely changed my life, being a coach in DPS.
Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?
Marini I’m a pretty energetic person. I think bringing the energy and positivity is probably one of my biggest strengths as a person. I really try to transfer that over in the classroom the same way, trying to make things fun. Social studies isn’t always the most isn’t everyone’s favorite subject, but I try to make it fun and try to bring that fun over to football and we don’t get paid for this, so we have to have something. If we don’t enjoy it what’s the point of doing it?
Q: What do you think it’s like to be coached by you?
Marini Entertaining for sure. I tend to be a very outspoken person. I hope in my players think I’m demanding, but I also hope they think I’m someone they can approach and that I listen to them and I hear from them as well. It’s not just a dictatorship. It’s a relationship built on trust.
Q: Coming into this year, a lot of people had Vista PEAK as a favorite to kind of dominate 5A and run away with this Season C title. At what point did you kind of have it in your head that you wanted to be the guy to get that win?
Marini With COVID, we honestly took just took a one week at a time approach, so probably not until about the third quarter. It had nothing to do with the doubt of my kids. I totally believe my kids, we just never set it as a goal. We just said let’s go out and be the best we can be because this is a pandemic and we have very little control. Let’s just be the best we can be every week. Control the controllables. So when we finally got to Vista PEAK week, it was just be great this week. We’re not going to change anything. Let’s just do what we do, make plays and see what happens.
Q: What did you see from your guys that you expected and what did you see from them that surprised you?
Marini What I absolutely expected with this team is resilience. This team has been through so much stuff with losing a teammate, our starting d-end’s house burned down last summer. There have been a million reasons to quit and the kids haven’t quit. I wasn’t surprised when we got down early, a couple of people started to panic, and I just looked at the kids, the mature leaders and told them to relax and do us.
What surprised me is that we’re under-sized. That was a huge team for us to play. I’m always a little surprised with how physical we can be. We coach them to be physical, but when you don’t weigh as much as the people across from you, I was just really impressed with how our defense stepped up physically and really stood up to the best freaking rushing offense in the state.
Q: How much can a win like this reaffirm to your players that they can do anything they want to in life, not necessarily just on the football field?
Marini That’s been the message of our program since I took over. Football is awesome and I want them all to play college football, but in the end, I want you all to be able to fight in life and do whatever it takes in life to be successful. I feel like our program is getting across better and better these days.
Q: You have a bye week this week and then you’ll have that condensed playoff, how do you maintain that one week at a time mentality and also push your guys to strive for this greatness that can be ahead of them the next couple of weeks?
Marini The biggest thing for us is just to identify why we’ve been successful. That’s the key. When you have success, sometimes you just sort of just kind of float along, but you really have to point out to the kids, whether it’s in a film session, whether it’s in practice, whether it’s just talking about their attitudes and lives, why we’re at this moment and to keep replicating that and keep believing in what’s gotten us to this point. I think that’s the key and we’ve been a team that said from the beginning we have to focus on our strengths.
We’re not Cherry Creek, we don’t have everybody huge, big and fast, but we’ve got some big strengths and we really play to those strengths.
Q: In such an unpredictable year, what are you going to remember the most about what you’ve been through with these kids this season?
Marini To see a group of kids truly motivated by the loss of a great friend. Being 19 years in DPS, I’ve seen this situation crush kids and crush teams to where they just never recover because it’s such a traumatic event. To see these kids, just that their resilience emotionally and their resilience in life is what I’ll never forget. Our game against Rangeview when we were honoring Davarie at halftime, we were losing and the kids just rallied again. We didn’t even have a halftime meeting. We went out there and they unveiled his mural and we just sort of had a moment and the kids just bounced back again. And that’s how they’ve been since last summer.