Rocky Mountain is the No. 10 team in this week’s Class 5A football poll. (Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Cherry Creek remains the top overall team in the Class 5A CHSAANow.com rankings after a 7-6 win over Pomona Friday night.
The Bruins received all but one of the first-place votes. It was the Panthers who got that other No. 1 vote.
Following its second-straight loss, Valor Christian fell one slot to land fourth in the polls, with Columbine taking over the third spot.
Both Cherry Creek and Valor Christian will travel out of state for games this week.
Newcomers to the 5A poll include Cherokee Trail, fresh off an impressive win over Denver East, and Rocky Mountain.
Like in 5A, the rest of last week’s top teams remained at No. 1 in the polls, with some newcomers being filtered in.
Pine Creek remains the top team in 4A after its bye week. Greeley West made the biggest jump in the 4A pool, going from ninth to sixth, thanks to a 28-20 win over D’Evelyn.
After starting the year 2-0, Palmer Ridge broke into the 4A poll at ninth, followed by fellow-Colorado Springs newcomer, Rampart, at No. 10. The Rams blanked Coronado on Saturday and have yet to surrender a point this season.
Defending champion Pueblo East is still on top in the 3A poll. The top seven teams in 3A held their positions and only one team, Mead, broke in as a newcomer. They join this week’s poll at 10.
Kent Denver remains atop the 2A polls, but the biggest shake-up of the week happened right behind them. Faith Christian fell from second to seventh after a stunning loss to Florence. The Huskies joined the poll this week at eighth on the strength of their 15-12 win over the Eagles.
Trinidad also joins the 2A polls at No. 10 this week. The Miners look good early this season, outscoring their opponents 93-14 through two games.
Crowley County joined the 1A polls at No. 10 this week.
Springfield and Holly each made their way into the 8-man polls. They come in and ninth and 10th, respectively. Merino also jumped from No. 10 to No. 6 this week.
In 8-man, Cheyenne Wells breaks into the top 10, coming in at ninth. Pawnee also jumped from fifth to third this week.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Rampart coach Rob Royer gives the play call to quarterback Parker Humphrey during Saturday’s game against Coronado. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — There wasn’t anything else that Clayton Hacker could do for his team Saturday night. Well, maybe he could’ve kicked the extra points.
But beyond that, he was the catalyst behind the Rampart Rams taking down Coronado 28-0 in their 2015 home opener at District 20 Stadium.
The Rams (2-0 overall) have yet to surrender a point this season.
“At any level,” Rams coach Rob Royer emphasized. “You go from Zero Week, to Week 1 and Week 2 and you just have to make sure the kids keep pushing it.”
Hacker, in particular, took those words to heart. He was on the receiving end of a 31-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Parker Humphrey. After the first quarter the Rams held a 7-0 lead, putting pressure on the Cougars’ (0-3) offense.
They tried to hit the Rams with a healthy dose of running back Marquis Arrington, who ran for 77 yards on the night. But the Rampart defense showed up early and was relentless all night. On the first play from scrimmage for Coronado, Toby Smith’s pass was picked off by Nate Zelasko cementing momentum early for the Rams.
“Turnovers and executing in general (would’ve helped us),” Cougars coach Robb Wetta said. “Defensively we played well enough to win this game, we just couldn’t get it done on the offensive side of the ball.”
Royer tried to throw as many weapons at Wetta’s defense as he possibly could. He provided a balanced running attack from Xiaver Bisho-Falu and Joseph Gums, Jr. The two backs combined for 110 yards on the ground and provided enough of an attack to give Humphrey some freedom through the air.
Humphrey completed 9 of 16 passes and threw for 125 yards and a touchdown. The Rams got their second touchdown on the night when they lined up Hacker in the wildcat and he took the direct snap for a three yard run into the end zone.
And his night was far from over.
The Rams defense continued to haunt Smith and the Coronado offense, but on a third quarter punt attempt, Hacker broke through the line and got his hands on the ball. He fell on top of the loose pigskin in the end zone to score his third touchdown of the night and give the Rams a 21-0 lead. It was also Hacker’s second blocked punt and touchdown recovery on the season.
“I think our team overall was putting me in good positions to make a play,” Hacker said. “On the blocked punt, (the Cougars) were confused because we were rushing both sides and the other side really set me up to make that play.”
Sam Schiller added a five-yard touchdown run in the final minutes of the game to bring the score to 28-0. But the night belonged to Hacker and Royer couldn’t have been happier for his senior. Hacker missed half of last season because of academic issues and in the offseason worked hard to make sure he was eligible and able to stay on the field.
“He put himself to be in a position where he gets to be here,” Royer said. “I’m super proud of that kid for what he’s done off the field.”
But it’s what he’s doing on the field that help Rampart continue their early season success. They return to the field Saturday night to face another District-11 opponent in the Palmer Terrors.
Nicea Eliely (13) listens to instructions from Rampart coach Ashley Miller. (Courtesy of Robin Cook)
Nebraska’s girls basketball team just got a lot better. Sunday, the Rockies basketball club tweeted that Nicea Eliely of Rampart High School verbalized her commitment to the Cornhuskers.
Eliely figures to be to focal point of the Rams’ offense in for the 2015-16 season after the loss guard Cassidy Budge to graduation. With Budge under the weather in a crucial Class 5A league game against Pine Creek last year, Eliely stepped up to score 25 points as the Rams got the last-second victory over the Eagles.
Eliely was named third-team all-state after last season.
She is the latest recruit from the class of 2016 to announce her decision.
The Rampart Rams huddle up during Tuesday’s match against ThunderRidge. (Jayne Simpson/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — The Rampart Rams volleyball team opened the 2015 season at home with a non-league win against the ThunderRidge Grizzlies.
The Rams (1-0 overall) swept the Grizzlies 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-23) to make a strong statement to open their fall campaign.
Both rosters welcome back a small handful of seniors this season, ThunderRidge’s Grace Perry, Kaylee West and Christina Berlinger, and Rampart’s Kathryn Gorab and Alicia Phillips. Rampart head coach Nikki Kinzer’s, complete with four sophomores and six juniors agrees that the team lost a lot of talent this past graduation, but that her girls are unfazed and ready to work.
“I was a little nervous because it was the first home game, there’s a lot of other stuff,” Kinzer said. “I knew they were capable of performing at a high level. They proved to be pretty mature.”
The Grizzlies (0-2) kept close with the Rams in the first set, but sophomore Taylor Sibert’s five kills and juniors Alicia Hill and Josie Russell added two more kills each. Even so, ThunderRidge’s junior 6-foot-1 middle blocker Blair Whiting wasn’t giving the Rams an easy win. Whiting added eight points to the Grizzlies’ score in the first set alone. Late in the set the Rams took the lead at 18-14 and never lost momentum, finishing with a final score of 25-21.
The second was competitive throughout, with only three points separating the two teams at any point. ThunderRidge junior Ell Schuldt kept the Grizzlies from falling far behind with her blocking, but Rampart maintained their lead, finishing the set 25-23.
The final set was high energy, the Rams took an early lead of 13-9 which they extended to 22-16. Sophomore Taylor Sibert again showed her young athleticism, contributing over five points in the final set. ThunderRidge’s Taylor Cordts and Christina Perlinger helped close the gap to only three points at 23-20. The Grizzles continued to fight, closing the gap more, but falling just short in the final set to end the match at 25-23.
“What’s nice about our preseason is that we play some of those pretty good Denver teams,” Kinzer said. “It’s never an easy match, so it’s nice going in this early and see how we can compare and the level that we can play at.”
Going into the regular season, both teams have a clear set of goals for themselves and for each other. ThunderRidge head coach Lindsay Selover is still “searching for that right lineup,” but is well aware of the potential that the young team has.
After tonight’s game, she is also aiming to improve serving, passing and blocking within her team moving forward this season.
Sibert had an impressive game for the Rams, adding more than 10 points to the Rams’ scoreboard. On the upcoming season, Sibert says she and the Rams are feeling really pumped. Sibert and her team have set goals to keep their team morale high, even in tough situations.
“(We can’t) get down on each other,” Sibert said. “(We have to) keep fighting, and if we are down, to just have fun.”
The team’s goals match Kinzer’s, who is hoping to change the overall culture of Rampart volleyball in the next few years. Kinzer acknowledges Rampart’s success in the sport over the past years, but even a young team hasn’t stopped the Rams’ high goal setting.
She is aiming to bring her young team into a culture of winning, but also enjoying their time playing the game.
But the departure of the Class 4A player of the year, Alexa Smith, and a first-team all-state outside hitter, Nicole Montgomery, will give the Rangers a significantly different look in 2015.
Still, with four Division I prospects on the roster, the expectations are high.
Head coach Susan Odenbaugh took time to talk about the team’s mindset going into the season and how the players want to continue to uphold the program’s winning tradition.
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Q: In the time since last season has ended, have you had time to really take in what you and your team accomplished?
Susan Odenbaugh: In all honesty, no. The awards kept coming, even into late June and I think with us all — and Alexa included with all the awards she got — it still seems really surreal. We just went out and worked very hard as a team and we had some goals that we established and to get all the awards we got was so unexpected.
Q: With everything coming in as late as you’re saying, have you been able to focus on the upcoming season as much as you would like?
Odenbaugh: Yeah, I think the focus for the girls is still to prove that they’re a solid contender even with Alexa and Nicole being gone. They’re really excited to uphold the tradition. We haven’t been able to do a lot of stuff this summer because kids have been doing club stuff and visiting camps and everything.
We’re gearing up for a team camp that we have Aug. 3 and that’ll be the first time that I’ll have had all the kids together. We’re really excited to see what this next season holds.
Q: With all the awards and accomplishments from last year, is there an almost unfair set of expectations on this upcoming year, at least from an outsider’s perspective?
Odenbaugh: I really think that’s true. There’s such a strong tradition at LP that anytime you talk to anybody, they talk about a third-straight championship. Honestly, with the girls and myself, that’s not even going to be our focus. We just want to go out and work hard and be unified as a team. You just take it one game at a time because to win a state championship, it takes a lot of luck. You have to be injury free and all the pieces have to fall together.
We’re not going to gauge our success next year by any means, by winning the state championship. We just want to get better every single game and keep working hard and play to our potential.
Q: You said after your state title last year that your internal goal was to go undefeated. Is it safe to say this year that you’re resetting things with Alexa and Nicole gone?
Odenbaugh: When we talked about that goal last year, of going undefeated, it was said at the beginning of the year, kind of in a team building meeting that we had. Really, that was the only time that we mentioned it. We talked about how we thought this team had the ability to go undefeated, but to do that we were going to have to work really hard and we did.
Most of our practices were going to be more intense and more difficult than any match we played in. We’re going to have that same focus this year to go out and play hard and take everything one match at a time.
Lewis-Palmer players celebrate winning the 4A championship last season. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Q: Between you, Cheyenne Mountain, Rampart, Pine Creek and Manitou Springs, it seems like Colorado Springs has a really competitive nature when it comes to volleyball, probably more so than a lot of other sports. From your standpoint, why do you think that is?
Odenbaugh: I think there’s a lot of reasons. A lot of the schools that you mentioned are teams that have had the experience of going to state year after year and established a long tradition. So when kids play for those schools, kids want to uphold that tradition.
I think the club program in the Springs is really strong and that helps and supports the development of our high school teams. You just have a lot of qualified, experienced coaches. I think all of those factors contribute.
Q: How much of a rivalry situation does that create between the schools in this area?
Odenbaugh: I think it’s really strong. There’s always a rivalry with the big schools like Rampart and Pine Creek because we want to be able to prove that we can play up a level. You don’t have to say anything about the rivalry with Cheyenne Mountain. It’s a healthy rivalry.
I think when you talk to the athletes and coaches, when we walk away from those matches, it doesn’t matter who won and lost, our focus is that it was good, solid, fun volleyball to play. The kids always get up to play for those rivalry games.
Q: Do you see that dynamic changing this year kind of like with team expectations with Alexa and Nicole leaving?
Odenbaugh: No, I think the rivalries will stay in place. The times that we’ve had with our players in open gym, we’re still pretty solid. This year, we’re pretty solid all the way around the front row and I think we’ll be just as competitive because we’ll be able to run an offense where it’s going to be difficult to block us. We’re going to have so many equal players front row that can terminate the ball.
I’m probably stronger back row than I’ve ever been. I think the one weakness that’ll we have in stepping up without Alexa and Nicole is when Alexa was servicing. She was just so solid. If we’re going to struggle with anything this year, it’s going to be our servicing.
Q: From a community standpoint, I don’t know if I went to any Lewis-Palmer game this year where I either didn’t see you from afar or bump into you. How important is it for you to remain involved with all the athletic teams the same way they come out to support your girls?
Odenbaugh: The support that we get from the different teams, the football team, the boys’ basketball team, is very important and it’s really important for me to be there and support those kids as well. I work. I sell tickets at the football games, I’m the game manager for the basketball games.
I think we’re not just one program, I think the kids and coaches alike, if we can go out and support the whole program, it’s going to contribute to the success of our school.
Q: When you travel, do you see the same involvement from other schools?
Odenbaugh: Yeah. To a certain extent, I think there are some programs where you know you’re going to step into that gym and there’s going to be a big crowd. They call it ‘the sixth man’ in basketball, I don’t know if you’d call it ‘the seventh man’ in volleyball but I think there’s a lot of schools, you step into Pine Creek’s gym, you step into Rampart’s gym, Cheyenne Mountain, the crowd is there to try and take the players our of their game and help their respective teams win.
I don’t think that’s exclusive to Lewis-Palmer, but I think sometimes it’s more consistent at Lewis-Palmer because our kids are there for all our matches, not just the big ones.
Q: What’s been the most intense or memorable moment that you have faced during the last two years as you have won two state championships?
Odenbaugh: Probably the state championship against Ponderosa last year. I didn’t think that anybody expected that we would be able to only drop five sets (on the year).
When we dropped that second set to Ponderosa, honestly they ran a faster offense than we had seen all year, as a coach and as players we had confidence that we could come back and compete and rebound after that second set loss. You looked up in the stands and it seemed as though there was a look of panic among the fans.
I think another one which was a turning factor for us is when we played Grandview in the championship game at the Cheyenne Mountain Invitational. They took us to five and that fifth set was 15-13 and that was a pivotal point for us as well. Grandview is a very good team so that gave us confidence to carry over into state.
Q: How much are you looking forward to that first set at home when your students get to come back and cheer you on as a two-time defending state champion?
Odenbaugh: It’ll be nice. Again, I love our home games because of the crowds that we get. Our kids, unfortunately, talk about how we need to lay for ourselves and have internal motivation, but it’s fun to see them rise to the occasion and play for their home team.
Bridget Sutter (0) of Colorado Academy is the girls lacrosse player of the year. (Matt Daniels/MaxPreps)
The 2015 all-state girls lacrosse teams honor the best players in the sport as judged by the leagues and coaches. They are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues and coaches, and then a vote of coaches.
Player and coach of the year was also selected by a vote of the coaches.
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Player of the year: Bridget Sutter, Colorado Academy
Coach of the year: Steph Sanders, Colorado Academy
The 2015 all-state girls track and field teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created based upon results at the state meet.
Athletes of the year were selected based upon the number of team points they produced at the state meet. This means that they received the full amount of team points from individual events they participated in, as well as one-fourth of the total points earned by the team in relays they participated in.
Finally, in order to be considered for athlete of the year, they must first have made the all-state team by winning in a championship.
Scroll down to see the teams, or use the menu below to navigate to the class of your choosing.
The 2015 all-state boys track and field teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created based upon results at the state meet.
Athletes of the year were selected based upon the number of team points they produced at the state meet. This means that they received the full amount of team points from individual events they participated in, as well as one-fourth of the total points earned by the team in relays they participated in.
Finally, in order to be considered for athlete of the year, they must first have made the all-state team by winning in a championship.
Scroll down to see the teams, or use the menu below to navigate to the class of your choosing.
