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The 2020 all-state football teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These teams were created following a lengthy process which included nominations from leagues, and then a vote of head coaches across the state.
Players were placed onto the first-team, second-team and honorable mention based upon the number of votes they received. In 5A-1A, spots were reserved for linemen and one kicker/punter, while 8-man reserved spots for linemen.
CHSAA does not determine who makes or doesn’t make the team; they are created from the results of the coaches’ vote.
Because there will be two football seasons during the 2020-21 school year, this is the all-state football team for Season A. There will be a separate all-state football team released for Season C.
Palisade’s rushing attack held off a monster game from Allen Ortiz, and the Bulldogs beat Green Mountain in a 3A top-10 battle.
Gabe Harrison had two scores to lead Palisade’s offense, while Franklin Barks and Julio Rodriguez also scored on the ground as the eighth-ranked Bulldogs beat seventh-ranked Green Mountain 31-24.
The Bulldogs are now 3-1 this season, with tough games against Conifer and Eagle Valley remaining.
“It’s tough, you’ve got to win to stay in, I know that,” Rammuno said.
Green Mountain’s Ortiz had four receiving touchdowns, twice scoring from 80 yards out. He also had touchdown catches of 56 and 22 yards.
“Boy, there’s a lot of talent on the field,” Rammuno said. “Green Mountain’s got a fine football team.”
The coach added that his team’s own passing attack helped to open the ground game.
“We were able to have some balance offensively,” Rammuno said. “We were able to get the ball in the air a little bit, which really opened up our option game. Tremendous effort by our guys.”
Down 6-0 after the first quarter, Palisade scored twice in the second to go up 14-6 at halftime. The second score came via a 28-yard score by Harrison.
In the third quarter, Rodriguez pushed the lead to 21-12 with his touchdown.
Later in that same frame, the third of Ortiz’s scores cut it to 21-18, but Palisade, and Harrison, responded. His second TD made it 28-18 late in the third.
The score stayed that way until Rudolfo Dexter made a 40-yard field goal with four minutes to play, pushing the lead to 31-18.
Ortiz’s final score made it 31-24 with two minutes to play, but Palisade recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.
Palisade’s defense had two interceptions in the win.
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4A: (9) Fountain-Fort Carson 35, (8) Pueblo West 21
A close game throughout, the Trojans get a key touchdown from Q Jones with 5:54 to play that made it 35-21.
Fountain-Fort Carson led 20-7 after the first quarter, but Pueblo West slowly chipped away that that lead. It was 20-14 midway through the third quarter, and later 27-21 early in the fourth.
But Jones’ 15-yard score seemed to put the game away:
Sanford turned an 18-6 first-half lead into a big top-10 win.
After the half, Sanford’s defense made a stop and the offense responded.
“We came out and had a really good stop on their first possession,” Sanford coach Joe Cary told the Scoreboard Show. “Our offense started clicking a little bit better. We started figuring out some different things on how to go at them. The had two great, big linebackers that were really tough in the middle, so we had to figure out how to go around them. We had a few things that we did, and it seemed to work.”
Sanford is now 4-0 this season, but Cary thinks they haven’t yet reached their potential.
“I still don’t think we’ve seen our team play at the level that we want them to,” the coach said. “We’re not content with where we’re at. We’re going to keep pushing to try to get to that level.”
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6-man: (4) Granada 67, (7) Cheraw 60
It was a shootout in a big top-10 matchup.
Cheraw led 60-45 in the fourth quarter, but Granada was able to rally for the win.
“It was a very, very wild football,” coach Traegon Marquez told the Scoreboard Show. “A fun one to be a part of. But ‘wild,’ I think, is a mild way to put it.”
In a tight contest, 5A No. 6 Fairview beat previously unbeaten Legacy 43-32. Liam O’Brien threw for 267 yards and rushed for another 134. He had three total touchdowns.
1A No. 2 Strasburg beat rival Bennett 42-0. “Bennett came to play, but we did some really good things,” coach Brian Brown told the Scoreboard Show. “They kind of stopped some of our big-play offense, but we really showed a very diverse offense tonight.”
Moffat County had a big upset of 2A No. 9 Woodland Park, 27-23.
Longmont QB Keegan Patterson had another big game. He was 29-of-41 with 316 yards and four touchdowns as his Trojans beat Greeley West 43-21. Photos from the game are available here.
The 2020 all-state softball teams are presented by CHSAANow.com, ColoradoPreps.com and MaxPreps.
These team were created following a process where the coaches voted upon a list of nominees. Players who were named first-team all-league are eligible for the all-state ballot.
Coaches also voted specifically for player and coach of the year.
WOODLAND PARK — In some ways, it’s Nolan Bynum’s world and everyone else just lives in it. The Delta quarterback was solid both on offense and defense to keep his Delta Panthers undefeated through Week 3.
Delta traveled over the terrain of the Rocky Mountains to get a 27-2 win over another group of Panthers donning green and white in Woodland Park.
The battle of two of the Class 2A CHSAANow.com top 10 teams lived up to the hype as one quarter and few key turnovers really made the difference.
And if Bynum showed one thing, it’s that he’s happy to capitalize off turnovers if he gets the chance. The teams got out of the first quarter locked in a scoreless tie, but Bynum quickly found Nathan Scharnhorst for a 25-yard touchdown to get Delta (3-0 overall, 1-0 2A West League) on the board.
He connected with Scharnhorst again for 44-yard touchdown toss to push the lead to 14-0.
That’s when the defense stepped up. Colton Johnson intercepted a Mason Pyles pass setting up Bynum’s third touchdown pass of the quarter – and the game – with a 48-yard strike to Noah Nortnik with just 23 seconds left in the first half.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
“After that second one, when we beat them deep I thought we’d be able to come back to that all night,” Bynum said. “They were momentum changers for sure heading into the half.”
And they were more crucial than Bynum or his teammates thought they’d be. The Woodland Park (2-1, 1-1) defense adjusted nicely in the second half and didn’t get beat by any big throws in the third or fourth quarter.
The problem was the lack of offense. Whether it was Colin Kucera or Pyles taking the snaps, Woodland Park couldn’t find a sustained rhythm to get into the end zone. Even when they got within striking distance, disaster struck in the form of a turnover. Bynum had thrown an interception early in the game, but made up for it with a defensive pick of his own in the third. On the first play on offense, Timothy Horn was swallowed up in the end zone for a safety.
It turned out to be a fair trade, giving up two points instead of seven with a Woodland Park touchdown.
“We didn’t really plan on that so it was a little surprising,” Delta coach Ben Johnson said. “I thought our defense played well. They were solid tonight.”
They complimented the second quarter offensive effort nicely and despite playing to good games to start the year, Woodland Park learned quickly that falling behind the 2019 2A runner-up early is not a recipe for success. Joe Roskam will look back to the drawing board and try to push his team forward to a playoff appearance.
“They did a nice job of being able to contain us,” Roskam said. “They didn’t let get anything vertical and that little nose guard that No. 50 kid (Jeffery Griffth), he’s a tough kid. We had a hard time blocking him inside.”
Bynum added a rushing a touchdown in the closing two minutes of the game and left the field pleased knowing that the team is capable of jumping on the bus for a long ride and still playing at a high level.
“It’s a whole different style of football over here on the eastern slope,” Bynum said. “On the western slope, everyone is hard-nosed and just runs the ball right at you. Guys that throw it around are a lot more fun to play against.”
There were quite a few changes to this week’s football rankings, with Dakota Ridge (4A), Roosevelt (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A), and Fleming (6-man) taking over atop their respective classifications.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
There’s no mistaking the upward trend that’s happening in Teller County. For the last several years, Woodland Park hasn’t necessarily been a dominant football team but there has been significant growth and the team overall looks ready for a breakout season.
A big part of that reason is the consistency that head coach Joe Roskam has brought to the program. From the time he was born, Roskam has been a football guy. He grew up with an old school background, but since he’s joined the coaching ranks has grown more creative with his style of the game.
That creativity worked out in the Panthers first game of the year in which they took a road trip down to Alamosa and came away with 21-13 win over the Mean Moose.
The expectations for his boys are high this season and after getting a win in Week 1, Roskam has been named the Denver Broncos high school football coach of the week.
Previous stops: Harrah (Okla.) assistant (1997-99), Cripple Creek/Victor head coach (2000-03), Sierra head coach (2004-11); Woodland Park head coach (2012-present).
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Question: Why do you coach?
Roskam: The people that made a big difference in my life were my coaches when I was a kid. A lot of it has to do with my dad too. My dad was a small guy, but loved football. From the day I was born, I mean, I was 18 months old on the beach in North Carolina in a diaper playing with a football. I wouldn’t know where I would be without the game. I’m just doing my very best to instill those same desires and wants and, you know, and really turn these young people into upstanding young men.
That’s the goal, right? I know it’s cliche, but [he’d say] you want to see what kind of team do I have? He goes, I’ll let you know in 20 years when I find out we’re kind of men they are. That’s stealing it from the best, but that’s definitely a big part of it.
Q: Why do you coach the way that you coach?
Roskam: That that also comes from some of some of the situations that you grew up in. They have some coaches that were hard-nosed. They just wanted to get in there and run power all the time and you’re going to gut it out. We’ll run through a wall for you.
I was fortunate enough in my very first coaching job. I got to coach under a legend and his name was Glenn Poole in Oklahoma. He won several state championships and did it the right way. We were able to really have a lot of fun with the way that we did it. We ran our offense and the way we were in our defense and just being attacking in nature all the time. I was fortunate to be in Oklahoma the years that Bob Stoops finally took over, I was coaching in Oklahoma and Bob Stoops took over at the University of Oklahoma and Mike Leach happened to be the offensive coordinator. We got to talk with those guys a little bit and it just stuck.
That’s when we started developing our spread passing game and trying to play as fast as we possibly can. There were a lot of people that I looked up to in the coaching profession and was just fortunate enough to be under a guy that really encouraged me to learn. Challenged me as a person, challenged me as a coach and a young guy. I give it up to Coach Poole and then our next one was Coach Battle.
I learned so much from those guys on how it’s supposed to be and what our job really was. At first I thought we were just supposed to be football coaches, but the amount of time that they spent really getting to know young people and how to make a difference was huge. I can’t thank them enough, you for giving me that opportunity.
Q: From your players’ perspective, what do you think it’s like to be coached by you?
Roskam: The expectation levels are high. Sometimes I would say that it’s fun, but it’s also challenging and that’s kind of the goal. How do we make it a practice challenging, but also want them to come back every single day and give everything that they’ve got? You have to find that balance between fun and really getting after them a little bit. So I think it’s tough but at the same time, we’re able to laugh at each other. We hug each other a lot. We say we love you a lot. We use those kinds of words and hopefully that’s what they would say.
Q: What impressed you the most about your boys’ ability to really start practice as quickly as you were able to start it and put themselves in a position to start the season 1-0?
(Photo courtesy of Joe Roskam)
Roskam: That’s really on them. We were able to do some work over the summer, we were able to lift but we weren’t able to do a whole lot more than that. I think the consistency and the proof in what we’ve been doing really helps us. We’ve been doing the same thing. For years, I actually started with this senior group when they were in fourth grade. I actually have a picture of me with this group of kids when they were just a pee wee league. The year before, our group here wasn’t able to form a team and I just said that’s never going to happen again. I actually started a club and this was my very first team. And for my son now as a senior, he was part of that group.
I started coaching these guys when they were that little, so they know the expectation. They’ve been coming up with me since they were little bitty and that’s where they learned the expectations. As soon as we walked in, we just lined up and went “Hey, we need four-right, 63.” Bam. Done. “We need three-right, 72.” That’s just how it is. We didn’t have to take a long time to install. They were just ready to go. Now we had to get them back in shape because you know, they got a little chubby over COVID. That’s been the hardest part is just getting them back in shape.
Q: Everyone talks about football being a great tool for life lessons. What are the life lessons that are going to be unique to the group of football players this year that you won’t find anywhere else?
Roskam: The level of resiliency is going to be next to none. You’re going to have to be uncompromisingly consistent right now in everything that you do. We’re seeing around the state that some teams have chosen to hang out with other people outside of school and have had their seasons not necessarily cut short because they’ll become they’ll be back, but they’re going to miss games. That idea of excellence in everything that we do, excellence in everything is going to be huge. You’re going to have to make really great choices outside of here just to protect the program. That’s going to be part of it. We’re really asking a lot of these kids to put something above themselves.
Everybody is tired of computers and they’re tired of being isolated, but they have to be able to take care of the program. They’re going to have to be extremely disciplined and still sacrificing in order for you to complete all six games. Look at the Broncos right now, they’re missing a game this week. That’s going to be one of those life lessons that everybody learns. We’re going to come out of this and see that we have kids that are even more disciplined as a result.
Q: Is it possible that once this season is over, that you and maybe more importantly, your boys get to appreciate the game of football more than maybe you ever thought you would?
Roskam: I don’t even think it’s going to be after the season. I think we’re doing that right now. I mean, we’re grateful every day that we get to get out and play, because not everybody’s able to do it. And we actually got to play Friday night and there were several teams in the state that weren’t able to, whether they’re going in the spring or due to COVID, they had their games canceled.
We’re appreciative of everything that we get right now, and I’m so thankful that CHSAA and the governor actually allowed us to play. Some of these stipulations are really, really tough and some of our travel because of the way that our leagues have to be now are just crazy.
Trying to get everybody down to Alamosa was difficult in itself. And the fact that our kids were able to overcome those restrictions and guidelines, and it took us forever because we can only dress 10 at a time in a gym to get everybody out on the field and ready before the game and then show up and actually perform just shows their aptitude for excellence right now.
They had every excuse in the world to go down there and not perform, but they did. They showed up and they played. I’m just excited that we’re getting to play and just seeing these guys grow. It’s awesome.
