Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
LONGMONT — Top-ranked Mead football came out and stunned No. 5 Roosevelt early in a 33-6 win on Friday.
The Mavericks scored 13 points in a matter of three-and-a-half minutes on just seven plays to open the game.
“This is what we want to do: We want to have great body language, we want to give great effort and we want to have a great attitude,” Mead coach Jason Klatt said. “If we do that, the execution happens. We don’t even focus on the scoreboard, or anything like that. We focus on those three things.”
On third down of the opening Mead possession, Derek Edwards took the handoff right, then looked up to find Dom Esters for a 67-yards touchdown on a designed running back pass.
“We’ve been tinkering with it for a couple weeks now,” Klatt said. “We liked it. Our offensive coordinator does a great job. He has a feel of what’s going on. He felt like it would be good there, and he called it. Dom Esters, he’s the guy that made it work. They kind of had it double covered, and it didn’t look good. Sometimes players make you look good. Dom did that.”
Added Edwards: “I’ve never thrown one before. I knew it was going to be open, I just had to toss it up there for Dom to make a play on it. And he did, he took it to the house. That’s all on him.”
Mead forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and took over on the 25 after a Jake Wachter fumble recovery.
Four plays later — on fourth down and three — quarterback Tyler Keys kept on a read option and took the run up the middle for an 18-yard touchdown.
(Cannon Casey/CHSAANow.com)
“That was huge. Our special teams has been big all year,” Klatt said. “We’ve typically been a team that starts fast. We want to continue that, and we jumped on them early. It was nice to have that cushion in the beginning.”
Mead threw a haymaker at a Roosevelt team that came in looking to upset Class 3A’s No. 1 team. Instead, the Roughriders looked up at the scoreboard to see themselves down 13 points before the eight-minute mark in the first quarter.
“It just gives us ton of energy and pushes us in the right direction that we want to carry on for the rest of the game,” Edwards said.
Taylor Kamigaki put two field goals (23 yards, 25 yards) through the uprights to give Mead a 19-0 lead before the half was over.
Roosevelt was threatening, down 16-0, but a fumble on the snap set the Roughriders back. They were forced to attempt a fourth down conversion instead of taking points on a field goal, and were not able to convert.
Roosevelt attempted a fourth and three from the Mead 30 on the first drive of the second half, but Mead stuffed the run in the backfield.
The Maverick took the ball down the next drive for a touchdown. Keys ran it in from five yards out for his second rushing touchdown of the game.
“We feel that we have a good team all around,” Edwards said. “We want to go out and show what we can do every week. We want to come with our stuff, pound the ball and play some good, solid defense. We came out and did that.”
Roosevelt got on the board with a six-yard touchdown pass from Trent Beall to TJ Sterling with 9:34 to play.
Mead’s Nathan Mackey, held in check for most of the game, was able to break through on a 2-yard touchdown run to put the score at 33-6.
“We’re going to go to work tomorrow and get ready for a well-coached, good team next Thursday on a short week,” Klatt said. “(The win) means nothing and says nothing. We’re going to have fun tonight, but we know we’re right back to work tomorrow. We’re going to go one day at a time.”
LITTLETON — Raccoon Creek was not in a very giving mood on Tuesday. It allowed just one golfer in the entire field at the Class 4A boys state golf tournament to shoot under par.
Thompson Valley’s Darren Edwards was not that golfer. But he didn’t have to be.
His one-over-par 73 on Tuesday was good enough to make him a champion, so he figured that would do for the day.
“I found my putter really well today,” Edwards said. “I put myself in good spots and I just played smart.”
He started the day in three-way tie with Valor Christian’s Jake Welch and Roosevelt’s Tyler Severin. It was a two-horse race after one as Severin started the day with a double-bogey.
Edwards was playing par golf for the first four holes and trouble around the fifth green led to his first bogey of the day. But it wouldn’t matter as Welch made double-bogey, so even at two-over for the tournament, Edwards had the outright lead.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com
He made another bogey on No. 8, but got it back with a birdie on nine and knew that he could start playing a little more aggressive golf. As a result, he made three birdies in four holes.
“On the back nine, I could be a little more aggressive when I needed to and do what I could do to score,” he said.
Eagle Valley’s Barrett Jones was the only player all day to shoot in red numbers. He was three-under on the day at one point and briefly held a share of the lead with Edwards.
Falcon’s Ryan Welsh was the only other player to even shoot one-over.
Montrose had the best day as an overall team. The Indians matched their effort of 17-over from Monday and held off Evergreen by six strokes to win the team championship. It’s the second title for the Indians with the first coming back in 2003.
“We had three sophomores and a freshman so that’s a good problem to have,” Montrose coach Dave Woodruff said. “It’s a neat little experience for these kids.”
The Indians had two finish in the top-10 in the tournament. Micah Stangebye (eight-over_ and Jordan Jennings (nine-over) were two big pieces of the Indians’ championship win.
“It feels good,” Stangebye said. “It was a fun stretch because we didn’t know what we were at and whether or not it was close.”
Knowing they were only up one stroke going into Tuesday’s final round made that part of it a little stressful, but Stangebye and his teammates were able to add a little bit of a cushion to lock up the first-place trophy.
Defending team champion Discovery Canyon finished sixth. Defending individual champion Luke Trujillo was just one of many victims of Raccoon Creek and finished with a 84 on Tuesday.
The conditions were also much more enjoyable for the second round as the clouds broke up and the sunshine that evaded Littleton all day Monday, finally made an appearance. That helped the conditions on the course which Edwards and the Indians fully took advantage of.
“It was a little warmer so the course dried out in the afternoon,” Edwards said. “This course did an awesome job.”
Voted upon by coaches and 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
Valor Christian (12)
5-0
120
1
W
2
Eaglecrest
5-0
104
2
W
3
Pomona
3-2
83
3
L
4
Regis Jesuit
4-1
79
4
W
5
Fairview
5-0
55
7
W
6
Cherry Creek
3-2
51
5
L
7
Mullen
2-3
43
6
Bye
8
Grandview
3-2
41
9
W
9
Columbine
4-1
35
8
W
10
Highlands Ranch
4-1
20
–
W
Others receiving votes:
Lakewood 17, Arvada West 8, Doherty 3, ThunderRidge 1.
Dropped out
Lakewood (10).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Ponderosa (11)
5-0
166
2
W
2
Chatfield (4)
4-1
142
3
W
3
Pine Creek (3)
4-1
139
1
L
4
Windsor
4-1
106
4
W
5
Loveland
5-0
104
5
W
6
Pueblo West
5-0
89
6
W
7
Monarch
5-0
81
8
W
8
Fruita Monument
5-0
76
7
Bye
9
Pueblo South
4-1
45
9
W
10
Skyline
5-0
18
10
W
Others receiving votes:
Fort Collins 6, Vista Ridge 5, Widefield 4, Broomfield 2, Greeley West 2, Montrose 2, Rampart 2, Standley Lake 1.
Dropped out
None.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Mead (10)
5-0
120
2
W
2
Palmer Ridge (2)
5-0
111
3
W
3
Erie
5-0
87
5
W
4
Berthoud
5-0
77
4
W
5
Roosevelt
4-1
69
7
W
6
Skyview
5-0
55
8
W
7
Holy Family
4-1
45
1
L
8
Harrison
5-0
44
9
W
9
Silver Creek
3-2
32
6
L
10
Longmont
2-3
27
–
W
Others receiving votes:
Evergreen 14, Thomas Jefferson 10, Denver North 6, Canon City 5, Frederick 5, Rifle 5, Palisade 3.
Roosevelt’s Tyler Severin. More photos. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
LITTLETON — Monday felt more like a typical day at the Open Championship than the first day of a boy’s state golf tournament in Colorado.
It was cold, wet and windy and as a result, the scores weren’t where any of the participating golfers would’ve liked them to be.
But it’s sure going to make for an interesting day on Tuesday. Roosevelt’s Tyler Severin made a par putt on 18 to go into the clubhouse tied for the lead with a one-over-par 73.
Thompson Valley’s Darren Edwards and Valor Christian’s Jake Welch also shot 73 to sit atop the Class 4A leaderboard.
“I was just really smart off the tee,” Severin said. “I was taking really good shots. I thought over every single shot with my coaches and we decided on aiming points. Usually down the stretch, guys don’t hit a lot of drivers, but I was hitting my driver really well.”
He never put himself in too much trouble and just played consistently through all 18 holes. He was two-over on the par-threes, one-under on the par-fours and even on the par-fives.
For the most part, Welch was having the best day of anyone at the tournament. He shot 34 on the front to head into the back nine at two-under. As he teed off on the 17th hole, he was sitting at one-under, but made a very costly mistake.
Jake Welch. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
His tee shot on the 226-yard par-three didn’t draw back and splashed in the water. He triple-bogged the hole.
“The wind was coming in from the right so we were just trying to (draw it),” Welch said. “I just didn’t catch it great and it went in the water.”
He rebounded with a birdie on 18 to go in as the leader in the clubhouse.
Edwards and Severin followed him in shortly after and the post-round interactions between Severin and Welch made it clear that the two — who are close friends — are going to enjoy playing together on the final day.
“We play summer golf together and have each other on Snapchat,” Severin said. “I think it’s going to be business oriented, but we like like to chirp at each other every now and then.”
Edwards was very consistent on his back nine. He made a double-bogey on his eighth hole (No. 17) but then rattled off nine straight pars before making birdie to end his round.
Going into Tuesday’s final round, those three will have a two-stroke edge over four players. Among them is last year’s champion, Discovery Canyon’s Luke Trujillo.
The defending champion (who recently committed to play golf at the Air Force Academy) took a double-bogey on 13 and followed it up with a bogey on 14.
Coming in as the defending champion would naturally come with some pressure, but having reached that pinnacle a year ago, Trujillo is going into Tuesday with a clear focus.
“I’m less nervous than last year,” Trujillo said. “Everyone wants to win twice, but I feel like who should have the most pressure, the person who’s already won or the person who wants to win? I’ve been thinking about for a couple months.”
Montrose ended the day with the team lead, shooting 17-over. Valor Christian is sitting just one stroke back while defending champion Discovery Canyon sits at 28-over.
Lane Wasinger grew up the son of a prominent coach, and has absorbed everything he can.
Wasinger, in his first year as the head coach at Roosevelt, is the son of longtime football coach Manny Wasinger, who has won two state titles and more than 200 games in a 34-year coaching career that includes stops at Alamosa, Adams State University, and Monte Vista.
“I kind of always wanted to be like him,” Lane Wasinger said. “I wanted to be a coach.”
This past spring, he got his first chance to be a head coach when Roosevelt picked him to lead its football program.
The Roughriders, who play in Class 3A, are off to a 3-1 start this season, including close wins over ranked opponents Longmont and Silver Creek the past two weeks. In Week 4, Roosevelt actually beat Silver Creek on the final play of the game.
This week, it’s Roosevelt that’s ranked. The Roughriders are No. 7 in 3A.
It’s another way Lane has emulated his dad: Manny Wasinger, a member of the Colorado High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame, was actually named the Broncos’ coach of the year in 2002 when he was at Alamosa, and was also a Broncos coach of the week in 2014 while at his current job at Monte Vista.
Like his dad, Lane Wasinger hopes to be in the coaching business for a long while.
“I’m at Roosevelt now until hopefully forever,” he said.
Previous stops: Western State University Assistant coach (2009-10); Arvada West assistant (2010); Fort Collins assistant (2011-15); Arvada West assistant (2016); Roosevelt head coach (2017-present).
[divider]
(Photo: Ian Zahn)
Question: Why did you decide to become a coach?
Wasinger: It starts from the way I was raised. My dad is and was a high school head football coach, so I was raised around the game. It was in my blood. It’s what I knew. I watch him impact young people from an early age and saw his success from a very close perspective.
I think the competitive bloodlines that I have, I kind of always wanted to be like him. I wanted to be a coach. I loved the game of football, and it was a way for me to stay connected to a game that I am passionate about and kind of molded me to the person I am today.
Q: Is there a reason that you coach the way you do?
Wasinger: I think I’m a product of all the coaches I’ve been around throughout my life, including my dad.
When I was at Arvada West, a guy I really look up to as a coach and as a role model is Casey Coons. He was a longtime head coach there for a while, and he’s still there helping out. He’s a lot of the reason I wanted to go back last year. He’s just someone that I look up to a lot, just from a leadership perspective and the way he interacts with people and kids.
I’ve seen a lot of coaching styles, so I think I’m a product of all of them put together. Everywhere I’ve been, I just kind of have taken things that I like and don’t like and just kind of put them into my own philosophies and my own ways of coaching. That’s just kind of who I am now.
I think a lot of people think I’m a lot like my dad. I mean, I talk like him and I probably act like him on the sidelines.
I see what has the most impact on kids. I see what works with them and what doesn’t work with them. I’ve seen coaches do things really effectively with kids and really reach kids, and I see the light bulb turn on. And I’ve seen coaches try different methods where kids are channeling them out and it’s not working.
Being a bystander for so long has really helped me become the coach that I am and wanted to be.
(Photo: Ian Zahn)
Q: So what would you say it’s like to be coached by you?
Wasinger: I would imagine I’m somebody who is real with kids. I can speak their language, I can connect with them on a level that might be different than someone who isn’t really understanding of their culture or of the times these days. I think being a younger coach helps reach kids, and establish some relationships with them that maybe aren’t all that common around the world today.
I think at the end of the day, kids know that I have high expectations of them, that I’m there for a bigger purpose than rather just coaching the game of football.
I enjoy interacting with them, I enjoy being a leader and kind of modeling that you can do all kinds of things in life and be successful, no matter what it is, and I chose football. I chose coaching, I chose teaching. I decided that that’s what I wanted to do and I was going to be great at it.
That’s what I’m going for, and kids understand that you’re all going to have different likes and interests, and all you need to do is go about something with passion and with a full heart and go after it and you can be successful.
Q: What was last week like for you and for your guys? Obviously, it was a huge win.
Wasinger: Yeah, it was a huge win. We’ve had two weeks in a row now where we’ve had some pretty big wins for our football program. It’s been really good for our confidence and just helping us come in everyday and still working towards our ultimate goal of winning a championship.
It says that we can compete with anybody, we can play with anybody, and it kind of put us on the map a little bit. It helped the kids buy into what’s going on at Roosevelt now that we can find ways to win even when things aren’t working.
We have the resources, the coaches, the talent on our team, and the character on our team to never give up and find a way to win a football game even when things aren’t looking too good, or we make a mistake. We’re resilient and we’re fighters. If you can do that, you’re going to be successful.
(Photo: Ian Zahn)
One of the things we talk about is that successful people never quit, and we haven’t done that this year. Never have we just laid down and quit. For 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids, that speaks volumes to their character and to their maturity.
Last week against Silver Creek, it was a chance for us to out and play a team that had a lot of hype, and is a well-coached team. I think they’ve only lost two games since they’ve been down in 3A for the last couple of years. We knew that we were going to be in for a game, but we had no doubts in our mind that we were going to be able to compete. We knew that we were going to be able to compete with them.
By the end, we’re still waiting for our entire team to play our best football. We haven’t done that yet. We have seen spurts of it, we’ve seen glimpses here and there of what our potential is as a football team.
Towards the end of the game, we just found a way to win, and it was a fun one. It was a big win for the program and a big win for our kids.
Q: Had you been part of something like that, winning a game on the last play of the game?
Wasinger: I don’t know if I have. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen my dad win games like that before. Thinking back to my time as a player, I don’t know if we ever won a game on the last play of the game. I remember losing a game as a player on one of the last plays of the game, and that was pretty disheartening.
But winning in that fashion, as a coach and being a part of it, was extremely exciting. Someone told me I’m going to need a pacemaker if this keeps up.
There was all kinds of shakeup in this week’s football rankings.
The Class 3A poll added five new teams: No. 4 Berthoud, No. 7 Roosevelt, No. 8 Skyview, No. 9 Harrison and No. 10 Canon City.
Lakewood (5A), Skyline (4A), Crowley County (1A), Clear Creek (1A), Sargent (8-man) and Sierra Grande (6-man) are also new this week in their respective classifications.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Widefield 9, Broomfield 7, Vista Ridge 6, Standley Lake 5, Cheyenne Mountain 4, Rampart 4, Montrose 3, Greeley West 1.
Dropped out
Broomfield (10).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Holy Family (5)
4-0
104
1
W
2
Mead (5)
4-0
97
2
W
3
Palmer Ridge (1)
4-0
78
4
W
4
Berthoud
4-0
57
–
W
5
Erie
4-0
50
6
W
6
Silver Creek
3-1
48
3
L
7
Roosevelt
3-1
45
–
W
8
Skyview
4-0
38
–
W
9
Harrison
4-0
33
–
W
10
Canon City
4-0
19
–
W
Others receiving votes:
Palisade 9, Evergreen 8, Fort Morgan 6, Frederick 5, Discovery Canyon 4, Durango 2, Denver North 1, Thomas Jefferson 1.
Dropped out
Fort Morgan (5), Discovery Canyon (7), Durango (8), Longmont (9), Thomas Jefferson (10).
Class 2A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Kent Denver (10)
4-0
142
1
W
2
Bayfield (5)
4-0
132
2
W
3
The Classical Academy
4-0
115
3
W
4
Platte Valley
4-0
101
5
W
5
La Junta
3-1
98
4
L
6
Sterling
3-1
63
6
W
7
Faith Christian
3-1
48
7
W
8
Alamosa
3-1
30
8
Bye
9
Salida
4-0
24
9
Bye
10
Basalt
3-1
21
10
W
Others receiving votes:
Aspen 11, Bishop Machbeuf 9, Valley 9, Coal Ridge 7, Eaton 6, D’Evelyn 4, Elizabeth 3, Delta 2.
Dropped out
None.
Class 1A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Bennett (10)
4-0
118
1
W
2
Meeker (2)
4-0
108
2
W
3
Strasburg
3-1
93
3
W
4
Centauri
5-0
69
5
W
5
Limon
3-1
65
4
L
6
Paonia
3-1
54
6
W
7
Platte Canyon
3-0
52
7
Bye
8
Peyton
3-1
19
10
W
9
Crowley County
4-1
17
–
W
10
Clear Creek
4-0
16
–
W
Others receiving votes:
Burlington 15, Cornerstone Christian Academy 8, Buena Vista 7, Cedaredge 7, Rocky Ford 4, Grand Valley 3, Colorado Springs Christian 2, Monte Vista 2, Hotchkiss 1.
