State championship season rolls on as the boys golf tournaments are set to begin play on Monday. The Class 5A tournament will take place at Rolling Hills in Lakewood, the 4A tournament will be played at the Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs and the 3A tournament is at Dos Rios in Gunnison.
Each classification has several standout teams as well as multiple teams that can battle for a team state championship. Below is breakdown of what to expect at each tournament when the boys start launching them Monday morning.
Weather forecast: Sunny, temperatures in high 70’s (both days)
Outlook: The 5A tournament might have some of the best talent the state has on display. Cherry Creek sophomore Charlie Flaxbeard and teammate TJ Hicks both shot career rounds at regionals and will take a lot of momentum into state. Combined with the veteran presences that players like Kates and teammate Matthew Wilkinson bring and it could make for a fun two-day battle at Rolling Hills. The team race between Cherry Creek, Arapahoe, Lakewood and Ralston Valley should also be fun to track.
Others to watch: Ralston Valley’s Gage Messingham is the top-ranked 5A player according to iWanamker rankings, Lakewood’s Ryan Liao has finished in the top four in the last two years of the 5A tournament and Prairie View’s Jeff Nelson has put together some of the best rounds in the state during the course of the regular season.
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Class 4A
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Course: Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs
Weather forecast: Sunny, temperatures in mid-to-high 70’s (both days)
Outlook: After winning the last three team championships, Montrose is going to have its work cut out for it this year. Micah Stangebye is gone but Jordan Jennings has done a great job of leading the team as a senior. The individual race should be an intriguing one as Discovery Canyon’s Kaden Ford and Northfield’s Hunter Swanson return after tying for second place. Lewis-Palmer’s Greg Lewis was right there as a sophomore and has only gotten better in the last year. The team race could come down to host Cheyenne Mountain battling it out with the likes of Mullen, Pueblo West and Windsor.
Others to watchk: Falcon’s Reese Knox has been on fire lately as has Coronado’s Noah Keller. Frederick’s Jake Chesler has been steady all year and Durango junior Levi Tichi has found himself under par on several occasions.
Weather forecast: Sunny, temperatures in low 70’s (both days)
Outlook: The 3A tournament certainly brings the most collective talent from the widest range across the state. Aspen’s Nic Pevny finished with in a three-way tie for third with Kent Denver’s Jeffrey Zhou and Stering’s Tayleb Schaefer at the end of last year’s tournament. All three competitors are back which means the second day of the tournament could look more like a men’s club Friday night shootout than a final round of stroke play. Aspen, Kent Denver, St. Mary’s, Sterling and Vail Christian will all have a shot to make a run at a team title and it could be the results on the first day that could put either of those teams in the driver seat.
Others to watchk: Montezuma-Cortez’s Thayer Plewe has more poise on a golf course as a sophomore than most men have in their 30’s. He’s looking to keep his hand steady and play his way into contention. Primero’s Lance Peters has shown no fear when feeling the need to pull driver out of his bag. The narrow fairways of Dos Rios might give some players pause before going for the big dog, but if Peters has a spot in mind and needs driver to get there, he’ll waste no time swinging away.
The volleyball record book has been updated (and has a new look). There are a total of five new team entries, 59 individual entries, and five coaching updates. Among those are five overall records.
Sterling and Denver Christian each joined the list of teams that have had an unbeaten season with their first last fall.
Those two teams each also climbed the ranks of the consecutive sets won record. Sterling won 52-straight in 2019, while Denver Christian won 50-straight.
Individual:
Palmer Ridge’s Kyra Kisting set the season record for assists with 1,223. Colorado Springs Christian’s Kiersten Brock (5th, 1,099) and Cherokee Trail’s Sydney Cole (7th, 1,070) both also made the top-10.
Briggsdale’s Shelby Hoffman set the season record for digs with 895. Rye’s Ashlyn Romine (3rd, 809) and Wiley’s Macy Rowan (8th, 745) both also made the top-10.
Rowan set the match record for digs in a match with 75 against Cheraw on Nov. 9. She also had 63 (4th) against Cheraw on Aug. 29, 60 (7th) against Stratton/Liberty on Sept. 12, and 59 (9th) against Eads on Oct. 10.
Castle View’s Leanne Lowry set the career record for digs with 2,177. Peyton Frank of Holy Family (4th, 2,083) and Lewis-Palmer’s Gianna Bartalo (6th, 1,948) each also cracked the top-10 of the category. Notably, Wiley junior Macy Rowan is already 19th on the career list with 1,351.
Wiggins’ Avery Burdette tied the set record for service efficiency when she was 24/24 against Flatirons Academy on Sept. 14, 2019.
La Veta’s Nya Sciacca had 295 career aces, which is the second most. Pikes Peak Christian’s Kyler Sweat (4th, 284) and Denver Christian’s Anna Kaemingk (8th, 256) both made the top-10.
Valor Christian’s Anna Davis had 329 career block assists, which is the second most.
Ryley Smartt of Genoa-Hugo/Karval is second in points per set for her career, averaging 6.0673.
Sydney Cole of Cherokee Trail had 564 total serves in 2019, which is the third-most in history. She set the record in 2018 with 608.
Cole also had 3,556 assists in her career, which is the fourth-highest total in state history.
Briggsdale’s Kimberlyn Krise (5th, 581) and Highlands Ranch’s Cassie Davis (7th, 560) are now each listed for kills in a season. Krise is also fifth in terms of career kills with 1,504, and seventh in career points (1,751).
Couple of top-10 marks for assists in a match for Palmer Ridge’s Kisting (3rd, 69 against Pueblo County; 7th, 66 against Cheyenne Mountain; and 8th, 65, against Discovery Canyon); and Erie’s Jessica Amend (10th, twice, when she had 64 assists against Prospect Ridge, and 64 against Holy Family).
Belleview Christian’s Lexie Ewing had 21 aces on Oct. 8, 2019, the fifth-most in a match.
Simla’s Kaitlyn Rector and Genoa-Hugo/Karval’s Smatt each had 672 total points this season, which is the seventh-most.
Mayson Fago of Union Colony is 10th for career points with 1,624.
Rye’s Havilah Pitzer is now 10th with 149 solo blocks in a season.
Coaching:
Arapahoe’s Larry Deffenbaugh is third on the all-time wins list with 540.
Sterling’s Lisa Schumacher remains at eighth with 464 wins.
Pueblo West’s Casey King is at 16th on the wins list with 348 wins.
Lewis-Palmer’s Wade Baxter is 12th among coaches with three state championships.
Sally Moos wrapped up her 38th season as the head coach at Cherry Creek last fall — the most at one school. Her 38 years are also the most of anyone as a head coach.
A number of other schools joined a movement to turn on their stadium lights Tuesday night as they sought to provide a source of hope for their students.
Started on Monday night in Colorado, five stadiums turned on their lights for a short period of time to show students they were thinking of them, even as schools remained closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many more joined in Tuesday as the movement spread. Among those taking part in #BeTheLightCO on Tuesday were:
The lights are on at North Stadium tonight for all Adams 12 Five Star student-athletes. In a world full of uncertainty right now, we hope this provides some hope that this too shall pass. Take care of yourselves and stay healthy. We miss you all. #bethelightCO@Adams12@CHSAApic.twitter.com/dKQkKEWK4s
— Five Star Athletics & Activities (@5StarActivities) April 1, 2020
— University Bulldogs (@udogathletics) April 1, 2020
Sierra:
Let these lights be a beacon of hope & assurance that we are always thinking of our students! With these uncertain times we will always have them in our hearts & minds! #BeTheLightCO#DoingMyPartCOpic.twitter.com/L79jhk4zpn
Cedaredge Bruins! We believe in our students, and we are here for this awesome community. To honor Bruin Country, the lights at the stadium will be turned on every Tuesday from 8:00-8:30pm until we are back! Hang in there and know we are thinking of you! #bethelightCO@chsaapic.twitter.com/pqPHDaIL6j
Responding to a challenge brought by @AdamCHSAA, and @CaraSyers AHS will light the field each night from now until the end of Wish Week as a symbol of how much we are missing each Warrior, and in recognition of how isolation may impact each of us. We love you all. #bethelightCOpic.twitter.com/w5yZ5c0FeO
Pueblo South coach Ryan Goddard, Fountain-Fort Carson coach Jake Novotny and FFC offensive coordinator Jeremy Mercer text each other and chat football often. Sometimes maybe a little too often, but that turned out to be a good thing about a week ago.
Confined indoors and away from their players due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the three friends started thinking about how to use this time to get better as coaches. And also to help coaches throughout the state get better with them.
With technology on their side, they worked quickly to create the Box State Blitz Online Coaches Clinic which is set to launch on Monday.
“We consistently talk football,” Goddard said. “We wanted to continue to talk football and I had seen (camps) happening in a few other places. This was the opportunity to get it going in Colorado and we thought we had the opportunity to do and it took off from there.”
The idea actually stemmed from a roundtable discussion not too long ago. CHSAA assistant commissioner Adam Bright hosted a collection of football coaches from around the state to assess the state of football in Colorado and continue to move it in a positive direction.
“One of the things we talked about was that we needed more communication between our coaches with clinics and different things,” Bright said. “Ryan and those guys had the great idea that since we’re all sitting at home why don’t we accomplish one of those goals while we have the downtime.”
This camp aims to do more than just check one box. Goddard was encouraged by the response he got when he announced the launch of the clinic over the weekend.
“The response was better than what we were originally hoping for,” he said.
After an initial trial clinic with Goddard, Novotny and Mercer all conferencing each other in, they moved quickly to get other coaches involved both in terms of speak and attending.
“We feel it’s one way for us to give back to the state for what football has given to us,” Novotny said.
He also feels like it can kickstart options to ensure that coaches aren’t falling behind when it comes to preparation for the fall season.
“It’s even spurred ideas for my own staff,” Novotny added. “We’re talking about doing online staff meetings and doing some virtual stuff. We’ve met with kids online in terms of just checking in on them. And some kids have reached out to coaches about watching film and that kind of stuff. What it’s done more than anything is make us realize there are so many possibilities out there for us as a staff moving forward that we can save time as coaches and even for our players.”
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
The idea alone was enough to spark interest from coaches all over the state. While social distancing has become a national necessity, these coaches are working to balance family lives while making sure kids of their own are getting educated from home. And online clinic has become something that they can utilize while doing both those things and making sure they’re keeping themselves healthy while adhering to the national call to stay home in order to stay healthy.
“The world has really changed the last few decades with the amount of information you can access online,” Arapahoe coach Rod Sherman said. “An online clinic such as this is a great way to learn and learning might look different when I started my coaching career when it was all about sitting in the audience at a coaches clinic. Now you can do so much coaching development just by going online.”
The time between the idea being floated out in a group text chain to the launch of a potentially vital tool was right around a week. Just like they tell the athletes they coach, Goddard, Novotny and Mercer didn’t wait around for their idea to just materialize. They jumped into action and saw their hard work generate their desired result.
“I think what Ryan and Adam are doing is trying to bring a collaborative mentality to Colorado so that football coaches can all grow together,” Sherman added. “It will be good for all the kids and let’s put the competitiveness of the fall aside and do what’s good for kids.”
Their genuine hope is that coaches from all over the state at every classification can benefit in the long run.
“It shows that we have coaches who want to keep getting better but also want to help other coaches,” Bright said. “They want to see the game grow. I’m happy the guys putting this together are some of the ones we’ve partnered with at the CHSAA level to talk about where we want to get to and these guys are showing what kind of leaders they are.”
This week’s clinic speakers include Jason Mohns (Saguaro High School, AZ), Brian Nelson (Mary Persons High School, GA), Jeff Rayburn (Lone Star High School, TX) and Woody Blevins (Assumption College, MA).
Goddard is hoping that the online clinic can consistently feature speakers and also run on a regular basis for the foreseeable future.
Coaches who are interested in online access to the Box State Blitz Clinic can email Ryan Goddard at ryan.goddard@pueblocityschools.us.
The preseason girls soccer rankings were released on Monday, and leading the charge are preseason No. 1 teams Grandview, Evergreen, Colorado Academy and Denver Christian.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association.
New polls are released each Monday during the regular season.
Salida 14, Manitou Springs 13, Stargate School 9, Lutheran 8, The Academy 8, Colorado Springs Christian 7, Roaring Fork 6, Eagle Ridge Academy 5, St. Mary’s Academy 5, Faith Christian 3, Basalt 2, Frontier Academy 2, Delta 1, DSST: Montview 1.
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
1
Denver Christian (5)
0-0
77
2
Dawson School (3)
0-0
73
3
Fountain Valley
0-0
50
4
Flatirons Academy
0-0
47
5
Crested Butte
0-0
42
6
Telluride
0-0
41
7
Colorado Rocky Mountain
0-0
30
8
Loveland Classical
0-0
22
9
Rye
0-0
15
10
Front Range Christian
0-0
12
Others receiving votes:
Ridgway 10, Del Norte 7, Belleview Christian 5, Vail Christian 5, Rocky Mountain Lutheran 2, Thomas MacLaren School 2.
