Below is a list of Week 10 games for teams which did not make the Class 5A football playoff bracket. These teams were paired up by the 5A seeding committee.
Cheraw junior Tristan Headrick entered his team’s Week 8 game against Cotopaxi with 24 receiving touchdowns. The state record is 25.
“We were aware of it, so we were going to try and get him touches,” Cheraw coach Brad Phillips said on Tuesday.
But with Cheraw, a 6-man program, leading 16-0 early in the second quarter, Cotopaxi had to forfeit the game when injuries meant they could no longer field a team. Headrick didn’t have a touchdown to that point, so he stayed at 24.
Fast forward to Monday, and the release of the Wild Card points. This season, 6-man football is using the formula to help in determining crossover games, which take place in Week 9 of the regular season. Sixteen teams move on to play, including the Nos. 1 and 2 teams from each conference, as well as six Wild Card spots.
Cheraw was No. 16 in that forumla, but Genoa-Hugo/Karval, No. 18 in the Wild Card points, was No. 2 in the Central League. It meant Cheraw got bumped. Their season over was over, and so was Headrick’s chance at a record.
“It’s too bad,” Phillips said. “But he had a good year.”
Headrick finished his season with 1,295 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns. Perhaps most astonishingly, he only had 48 catches — meaning that every other reception he had, he scored.
Another thing to keep in mind: Heritage’s Shane Optiz set the record during the 2009 season, when his Eagles won the Class 4A championship. His mark came over 14 games. Headrick played seven games and one quarter.
In any case, Optiz will keep the record. At least until Headrick gets another shot at it next year.
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Lewis-Palmer volleyball’s national profile is rising
Just how good is this Lewis-Palmer volleyball team? The Rangers are ranked No. 3 in MaxPreps’ latest national poll. That’s astounding.
That the Rangers actually dropped a set is significant. It was only the second one they’ve lost the entire season. The other came in a 2-1 win over Valley (3A’s current No. 2 team) in a tournament in early September. They have now won 53 sets, and dropped two.
And it’s not as though the schedule has been weak. There are the wins over Chaparral and Valley, and well as sweeps of Cheyenne Mountain (at the time No. 2 in 4A), Rampart (at the time No. 1 in 5A) and Valor Christian (then No. 7 in 4A). L-P has played anyone and everyone willing to land on the schedule.
Should this dominance continue on through the state tournament, the question at that point may turn from one of a national perspective to historical. At this point, 1979 Evergreen team is widely regarded as the best in state history. In fact, they were inducted into CHSAA’s Hall of Fame last January. Recently, though, the 2011 Chaparral squad headed by Nicole Dalton was hailed as a challenger to the Evergreen squad.
That Chaparral team ended the season 31-0, ranked No. 3 in MaxPreps’ national poll, and went 93-6 in terms of sets. Spanning the 2010-12 seasons, the program had a 58-match winning streak.
Lewis-Palmer’s current winning streak sits at 25 matches. In terms of history, it may not yet match the multiyear runs of Evergreen and Chaparral. But, headed by national player of the year candidate Alexa Smith, the Rangers are having an incredibly special season.
Perhaps one of the best ever.
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Smoky Hill, Hinkley come together to make a memory
Here’s what high school sports are about: Last week, Smoky Hill and Hinkley lined up before kickoff to give a special needs student Blake Yaw a memory he won’t soon forget.
A four-year manager for the team, he lined up with Smoky’s offense, took a handoff and ran 40 yards for a touchdown through the Hinkley defense, who was in on the moment.
“The entire bench emptied to help celebrate Blake’s touchdown,” athletic director Preston Davis wrote in an email.
The full video:
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Short stuff
The state playoff brackets for five of the seven classes of football come out on Sunday. I’m very interested to see how 5A plays out. This is the first year of a new system which gives the seeding committee to move the qualifiers anywhere on the bracket. At this point, I think Grandview has the inside track at the No. 1 seed, assuming the Wolves beat Valor Christian on Friday. If Valor wins, I expect Ralston Valley to take the top seed — again, assuming a win against Mullen this week.
BoCoPreps had a powerful story on how Nederland football is dealing with a severe spinal cord injury to senior Miles Pancoast.
Eaglecrest’s Jordyn Poulter is on the same national volleyball player of the year watch list as Alexa Smith. It was produced by MaxPreps.
Ralston Valley’s super athlete Andrew Wingard committed to Wyoming to play football on Tuesday night.
Ridge View Academy, a 2A program, forfeit two football wins due to use of an ineligible player. Wins over Manual (Oct. 4) and Denver West (Oct. 11) were forfeit. And, actually, that forfeit win may have guaranteed Manual a playoff spot. Manual moved from No. 15 to No. 9 in the Wild Card points standings as a result.
There may be a change to CHSAA’s playoff structure coming down the road in the form of an expansion. The staff had some internal discussions last week about exploring the possibility. In essence, it would create true district/regional fields where every team would qualify and then have to play their way into the state tournament. It’s still an idea at this point.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Smoky Hill field hockey is being coached by Natalie Foerster, an alum of the school. (Courtesy photo)
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]ield hockey, first sanctioned in 1997, has stayed constant with about 13 programs around the state. On the surface, the numbers haven’t changed.
The coaches know that’s not the truth.
Kent Denver coach Kathy James, a longtime presence in the sport and the head of the winningest program in state history, says interest in the sport has grown immensely.
Kent Denver has won nine of the 17 championships in field hockey’s sanctioned history. (Matt Daniels/MaxPreps)
“We don’t have a lack of girls,” James said. “Right now our biggest problem is that we have so many girls that want to play, that we end up having to turn some away. There are school programs that it’s not feasible for them to carry 25 girls on the team and so they have to cut some girls.
"Anybody who wants to play, we want them to have the opportunity.”
In the past six years, two club teams formed, the Denver Field Hockey Club and Club Lewy. James, a coach of the Denver Field Hockey Club, said the senior class’ team has fourteen girls from seven different schools this year.
“They are traveling together to compete at the U.S. Field Hockey Festival, which is the largest field hockey tournament in the world,” James said. “We are in the second highest pool, which means we’re competing against the top-10 clubs in the nation. Even though we’re small, the players are performing very well nationally.”
James added that the caliber of play has grown exponentially since the sport was first sanctioned.
“At that point, it was unheard of for people to get scholarships to D-I programs,” James said. “Now the festival team, we have four Division I athletes with a couple of them with scholarships. We’ve got four or five that are going to top-10 Division III programs.”
Level of play has been upped and numbers in the youth programs have grown. The Denver Field Hockey Club currently has about 50 girls between the age of five and eighth grade in it, while Colorado Springs-based Club Lewy has 20.
St. Mary’s Academy coach Sarah Jacobs, who played for James at Kent before enjoying a successful career at Johns Hopkins University, says the clubs have been huge.
“What’s wonderful now is that there’s full clubs and year-round opportunities to play as well as going around and traveling to tournaments,” Jacobs said. “I think that’s the number one thing that wasn’t included when I was around.”
Several of the high school teams have seen their numbers rise, as well. Last season, 591 girls participated around the state, up from 563 the year prior.
Golden’s program is seeing its highest turnout this season. (Courtesy photo)
Golden coach Marissa Copan is a 2006 graduate of the school and was a member of the first hockey team it fielded. She played at Division III Goucher College in Maryland before returning to her home state to coach. Copan says the 2014 team is the largest in the school’s history with 30 members, but the district will not fund a junior varsity team.
“We are all technically just one big varsity team,” Copan said. “Every single year that I’ve been coaching, more people have been interested. We have girls from eleven different schools.
“There’s only a couple different girls that actually go to Golden, but since we are the only program in Jeffco, a lot of the girls that play lacrosse together or play soccer together, tell their friends and we’ve gotten a pretty big turnout.”
Denver East has long had enormous numbers for field hockey. In 2013, 97 girls tried out for the program. This year, 87 attended tryouts. East carries about 20 girls on each of its four teams.
The Angels’ coach, Elise Landau, another former Division III field hockey player, said East has been fortunate enough to be able to carry a large team, a luxury most don’t have.
“I think we get a lot of girls from different schools that transfer into East that have been playing field hockey in middle school,” Landau said. “We have close to 50 freshmen try out. We have a reputation for not cutting girls, until recently, so mostly the freshmen who try out will come in knowing that they can play the sport and have fun and try something new.”
Smoky Hill coach Natalie Foerster, a 2011 alum of the school who was a member of four semifinal teams in her playing days, says it’s rewarding being part of the Colorado field hockey community again. She has embraced being a first-year head coach in the growing sport.
“I love seeing where we started this season with how much progress we are making,” Foerster said. “Scores may not reflect it, but our girls are getting better and for me, that is a great feeling knowing that the girls are learning and really taking in what we are teaching them.”
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Voted upon by coaches and select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Kent Denver is the new No. 1 team in 3A boys soccer. (Pam Wagner/CHSAANow.com)
Things are crazy in Class 3A boys soccer.
Not only is there a new No. 1 team this week — Kent Denver — the classification got four new teams this week.
Kent got five of the six first-place votes after going 2-0-0 last week to improve to 6-1-0.
Meanwhile, Colorado Academy rejoined the poll this week — all the way at No. 2. CA went 3-0-0 last week, including wins over ranked opponents Faith Christian and Fountain Valley.
Kent Denver and Colorado Academy play on Tuesday.
Also joining the 3A ranking this week were No. 7 Sheridan, No. 9 Vanguard and No. 10 Jefferson Academy.
The 5A poll added No. 5 Broomfield and No. 7 Doherty. Rock Canyon remained atop that ranking.
In 4A, Skyline was the lone newcomer at No. 10, and Air Academy continued to be No. 1.
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 select media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Legacy 13, Heritage 12, Columbine 11, Legend 7, Mountain Vista 6, Fort Collins 5, Grandview 4, Overland 4, Arapahoe 3, Aurora Central 1, Fossil Ridge 1.
Dropped out
Fort Collins (7), Fossil Ridge (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Air Academy (10)
8-0-0
100
1
2-0-0
2
The Classical Academy
6-0-0
88
2
2-0-0
3
D’Evelyn
6-1-0
54
8
2-0-0
4
Cheyenne Mountain
5-2-0
52
3
1-1-0
5
John F. Kennedy
8-0-0
40
10
2-0-0
6
Ponderosa
7-3-0
37
4
1-1-0
7
Montrose
7-1-0
36
7
2-0-0
8
Pueblo Centennial
7-1-0
34
9
2-0-0
9
Littleton
6-2-0
24
6
1-1-0
10
Skyline
7-0-0
18
–
2-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Denver North 14, Summit 10, Vista Ridge 9, Niwot 7, Fort Lupton 5, Sand Creek 4, Thompson Valley 4, Centaurus 3, Denver West 3, Windsor 3, Evergreen 2, Golden 1, Pueblo South 1, Wheat Ridge 1.
Dropped out
Wheat Ridge (5).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Kent Denver (5)
6-1-0
59
4
2-0-0
2
Colorado Academy
6-2-0
45
–
3-0-0
3
Coal Ridge
6-1-0
43
1
1-1-0
4
DSST-Stapleton
6-1-1
34
8
2-1-0
5
Crested Butte
6-2-0
30
6
2-1-0
6
Frontier Academy
5-1-2
26
7
1-0-0
7
Sheridan
4-1-1
22
–
2-0-0
8
Salida
5-2-0
19
5
2-0-0
9
Vanguard Charter (1)
5-0-0
16
–
3-0-0
10
Jefferson Academy
5-2-0
11
–
2-1-0
Others receiving votes:
Heritage Christian 6, KIPP 6, Bruce Randolph 5, Denver Christian 4, Aspen 2, Faith Christian 2.
Dropped out
Pagosa Springs (2), Faith Christian (3), Fountain Valley (9), KIPP (10).