The 2014 all-state baseball 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.
Players of the year were also selected by a vote of the coaches.
Is 2014 the most athletically-gifted class to graduate from this state in recent years? Or ever?
Well, maybe.
It’s tough to find real perspective when it comes to recruiting, seeing as how real data has only been kept since about 2002 at the earliest. Even then, not many commitments and signings were reported at that time, and even fewer were reporting from sports like lacrosse, volleyball and even baseball.
So while the data from the 2014 class absolutely blows away anything that we’ve been able to dig up, we can’t say how it stacks up to, say, the class of 1995. Still, it’s astounding where this year’s crop of seniors will head.
A total of 905 athletes have signed to play their sport(s) in college.
Of those, 343 will head to Division I programs.
Baseball features an astounding 45 Division I players in this class. I was able to find data as far back as 2006. The next-highest output of D-I guys from Colorado came in 2008, when the state had 28. This year’s 45 Division I seniors, by the way, came from more than 20 different schools.
Boys basketball has 12 Division I guys this go-round. That, too, is the most since data was kept, going back to 2002.
Likewise, girls basketball has 18 Division I players. Again, it is a high-water mark, though I only found reliable data back to 2010.
Football will send 31 players to D-I FBS schools, which is the most since 2008 (33). Another 16 will head to D-I FCS programs.
Other sports, like boys lacrosse, girls lacrosse and volleyball were right at or above their average Division I outputs over recent years.
In every instance, these sports are reporting the most college signings across all levels. Now, that is undoubtedly because we’re getting more kids to report their college commitments and signings than ever before. (Additionally, our lists only include athletes who are arriving on campus as scholarship athletes. There are dozens of other walkons headed to colleges.)
Even so, the data backs up that the 2014 class will be one to remember.
Valor Christian offensive lineman Isaiah Holland, a senior, had committed to Army to play football, but was recently denied admission “due to a medical issue,” according to 9News. Instead, he has signed with Colorado. “I love this state and I love that I get to be one of the cool Colorado kids that gets to go,” Holland told 9News.
Another late college switch: Chaparral baseball’s Keenan Eaton tweeted that he will head to Wichita State instead of Vanderbilt. This season, the Shockers featured five Colorado products.
Arapahoe selected assistant Brad Jansen as its next boys basketball coach. He takes over for Dan Snyder, who was massively successful for the Warriors before stepping away from coaching this offseason. Snyder briefly accepted the job at Grandview before changing his mind. Grandview has since hired Michael Rogers, formerly of George Washington.
Grand Junction hired Isaac Madison as its boys basketball coach, the school announced on Tuesday. Madison was an assistant for the Tigers for the past 11 years. “We look forward to the leadership that he will bring to our men’s basketball program, and the contributions that he will make to the Tiger coaching staff,” athletic director Ned Pollert wrote in an email.
How epic was last week’s 2A baseball semifinal battle between Rye and Sedgwick County? The two pitchers accounted for a combined 32 strikeouts. Rye’s Trenton Hughes had 17, Sedgwick County’s Chase Dunker finished with 15. Sedwick County won 4-1 in eight innings, but then lost to Resurrection Christian in the title game.
Reagan Todd’s two-out, walkoff grand slam to beat Mountain Vista in the 5A baseball tournament last weekend is one of the craziest finishes to a game I’ve seen at any level.
The MLB Draft, set for June 5-7, should be interesting for locals. Thomas Jefferson graduate Kyle Freeland, now pitching at Evansville, is expected to be a top-10 pick, and others like Regis Jesuit’s David Peterson and ThunderRidge’s Brody Westmoreland figure to be selected early. Peterson drew a crowd of scouts while pitching last weekend.
Dr. James Andrews — who has performed countless Tommy John surgeries — and a colleague are releasing an app which seeks to lower the risk of arm injury to youth baseball players. It will be called Throw Like a Pro, and will suggest guidelines on how to manage pitching — such as number of rest days and maximum number of pitches — based on a player’s age.
Former Chaparral offensive lineman Shane Callahan will transfer from Auburn to one of the in-state schools, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. The paper cited a desire to play closer to home. Callahan will be a redshirt sophomore.
Cherry Creek is building a swimming pool. Here’s a pic from AD Jason Wilkins on Twitter.
The senior struck out nine, powering Resurrection Christian to a 5-1 win over Sedgwick County at Hobbs Field at the Runyon Field Sports Complex.
“I just wanted to leave it all out there,” the 6-foot-2, 190-pound right-handed Lohr said. “We wanted to win this state championship so bad and that’s what we came here to do. I had nerves the whole game, but I had complete confidence in the guys behind me. It just feels great to achieve this goal.”
Resurrection Christian finished its memorable season with a 22-3 record. The Cougars advanced to the finals by cruising past defending 2A state champion Denver Christian 13-3 earlier Saturday. Resurrection also won state in 2012.
Sedgwick County ended its campaign at 22-2. Sedgwick had a dramatic 4-1 win over Rye in eight innings in the semifinals. Chase Dunker fanned 15 batters in the win. Dunker, a senior southpaw, finished his season with a 9-0 record and 144 strikeouts.
“This is a special group of boys,” second-year Resurrection coach Grant MacAlmon said. “They understood what the big picture was and I’m so proud of them.”
In the bottom of the second, Resurrection Christian’s Jake Tomcheck came up with bases loaded and he dropped a safety squeeze bunt to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.
Resurrection kept its offense momentum going in the third frame as Luke Mondt had a lead-off double and then came home on an RBI single by Josh Miller.
Sedgwick County cut the deficit to 2-1 in the top of the fifth on Trey Walter’s sacrifice fly. With two outs, Chase Dunker came to the plate with a runner on third, but Lohr struck out Dunker on some high heat.
In the bottom of the sixth, Del Chance Richardson reached on an error and then the left-handed swinging Mondt smashed a run-scoring triple to right field. Mondt scored moments later on another Sedgwick County error and then Nate Wiggins doubled to put runners on second and third.
Leading 4-1, Cory Wiggins placed a bunt just past the pitcher Tyler Woodhams to score Richardson, giving the Cougars a 5-1 lead.
“We all wanted to win state and we just kept pushing through every game,” Mondt, a junior, said. “I was relaxed up there at the plate, but I give Jake a lot of credit for his solid effort. Plus, our offense came through with some big hits when we needed them.”
Justin Peters, Sedgwick County’s coach, wasn’t making any excuses for his team’s tough defeat.
“There’s not much to be said about it,” Peters said. “Two ball clubs came together and played really hard and the outcome is what it came out to be.”
Green Mountain’s Lindsey Hendon set the state record with her 40th career shutout on Tuesday. (Carl Auer, MaxPreps)
Green Mountain goalkeeper Lindsey Hendon has made 221 saves in her career. She carries a 0.631 goals-against average, and has 55 wins for the Rams. But most impressive is what happened Tuesday.
Hendon.
Hendon, a senior, set the Colorado record with her 40th career shutout during a 10-0 win over Colorado Springs Christian on Tuesday.
CHSAA does not maintain soccer records, but the National Soccer Coaches Association of America has extensive data. According to that record book, Hendon broke the mark of 39 career shutouts set by Overland’s Lisa Griffin after the 1988-89 season.
Ten of Hendon’s 40 shutouts have come this season. She notched 11 as a junior, 10 as a sophomore and nine as a freshman.
Hendon, an Iowa State recruit, is now 55-6-6 in net.
Green Mountain is 12-1-1 this season in Class 4A.
Cherry Creek boys lacrosse in driver’s seat
Cherry Creek boys lacrosse had probably its biggest win of the season on Tuesday night — and what a time to have it.
The second-ranked Bruins beat No. 1 Regis Jesuit 10-7 and are now 10-0 against in-state competition.
Cherry Creek has finished runner-up each of the last two seasons. Should they beat Kent Denver in the Friday’s season finale, it seems very likely that the Bruins end up as the No. 1 seed of the Class 5A field. In that scenario, I think Regis — 12-1 against in-state teams — would still wind up as the No. 2 seed.
Other high seeds should include Mountain Vista, Kent Denver and Colorado Academy.
Boykins talks new Douglas County job
New Douglas County boys basketball coach Earl Boykins, the former Denver Nugget, is a weekly guest on 104.3 The Fan. Tuesday, he talked about his new job.
“I’ve always wanted to teach young people basketball,” he said. “That’s always been a desire of mine and something I wanted to do. That’s why I started Boykins Basketball Academy. While doing the Academy, I decided I should take it to the next level, and the next level would be high school.
“It’s been a process that I’m enjoying and I look forward to the next basketball season.”
Douglas County went 3-20 last season, and actually hasn’t had a winning season since 2007-08. That’s also the last time the Huskies made the state tournament. Over the past six seasons, the Huskies are 29-110.
“I believe in Earl, I’ve seen him coach in person,” said Alfred Williams, co-host on 104.3. “I believe the guy’s going to be a great coach. Can’t wait to see it all come together.”
Arapahoe girls soccer turns it around
(Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
Arapahoe’s girls soccer team finished the regular season 11-3-1 and won the Centennial League by virtue of a win over Cherry Creek on April 15.
It was quite a one-season turnaround for the Warriors, who went 3-11-0 a year ago and lost seven of their final eight games.
Though, these guys didn’t exactly come out of nowhere. Arapahoe was 14-3-0 in 2012, and made the 5A title game in 2010.
Short stuff
In an abrupt change, Dan Snyder will not become Grandview’s new boys basketball coach. The longtime Arapahoe coach decided instead “to step away from high school coaching for awhile,” according to the Aurora Sentinel.
Prairie View baseball senior Caleb Dameron now has 22 steals this season with three games yet to play. That is believed to be a big-school state record.
Sedgwick County’s Chase Dunker threw his third no-hitter of the season on Saturday. This time, he struck out 16. Earlier this season, Dunker struck out 19 of the 21 batters he faced while tossing a perfect game.
County Line remained unranked in the final 2A baseball poll of the regular season, but the Rivals — it’s a co-op between Wiley and McClave — are now 13-3, including a double-header sweep of then-No. 1 Swink on Saturday.
Grand Junction boys basketball coach Dutch Johnson resigned to become an assistant at Colorado Mesa next season, according to this tweet.
Longmont volleyball coach Holli Stetson has resigned, according to BoCoPreps.com, following a difficult season during which she endured the death of her father and had a variety of health issues.
Spring championship season around the corner, and most of the events will be carried on the NFHS Network. The Network recently released an official app — download it here.
Ponderosa’s booster club tweeted out new jerseys the team will wear next season under first-year coach Jaron Cohen. Here’s away, and home.
Brandon Bailey, a 2013 graduate of Broomfield, was named the West Coast Conference’s baseball player of the week on Monday. He pitched a complete-game win over Saint Mary’s last Saturday, allowing just one earned run on eight hits. He also struck out a career-high seven batters. Bailey, who didn’t pitch his senior season because of an arm injury, is now 4-5 with a 3.24 ERA for the Bulldogs as a freshman.
Greeley West is looking for boys and girls basketball coaches. Apply here.
Regis Jesuit is No. 1 in this week’s 5A baseball ranking. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
For the second consecutive week, there’s a new team atop CHSAANow.com’s Class 5A baseball ranking. This time, Regis Jesuit has ascended to the top.
The Raiders, now 14-3, went 3-0 last week — including a 7-5 win over then-No. 6 ThunderRidge. They are now 9-0 in the always tough Continental League, and are riding an 11-game winning streak.
Fairview actually received the same amount of first-place votes (six) that Regis Jesuit did, but remained at No. 2 with 125 overall points to the Raiders’ 137. The Knights are now 16-1 — 13-0 against in-state teams.
Arvada West jumped into the rankings at No. 6, just behind No. 5 Chatfield and No. 4 Mountain Vista.
ThunderRidge dropped to No. 7, Rocky Mountain is No. 8 and Chaparral is No. 9. Cherry Creek rejoined the poll at No. 10.
There are also new teams atop the 3A and 2A polls. In 3A, Eaton received nine of the 10 first-place votes to overtake Holy Family, which dropped to No. 2. In 2A, Resurrection Christian got five of the seven first-place votes and took over for Swink, which also fell to No. 2.
Windsor retained its spot atop the 4A ranking, and Stratton held firm atop 1A.
The 4A poll added Pueblo East at No. 9, and also saw Lewis-Palmer move from No. 5 to No. 3, and Evergreen go from No. 7 to No. 4.
3A added Bayfield (No. 8), while 2A added Limon (No. 9) and Lyons (No. 10).
With the regular season ending Tuesday, these rankings will serve as the final poll of the regular season.
Chatfield is the No. 1 team in this week’s 5A baseball poll. (Pam Wagner)
Chatfield, 13-0 to start the 2014 season, has taken over atop this week’s Class 5A baseball poll from CHSAANow.com.
The Chargers moved up from No. 3 and received seven of the 15 first-place votes. They had 131 total points to top the ranking.
A total of six teams got first-place votes, including former No. 1 ThunderRidge, which dropped to No. 6 following its loss to Mountain Vista last week.
Fairview got two of those first-place votes and is No. 2 this week. Columbine, which plays Chatfield on Wednesday, is third, and Regis Jesuit is fourth. Mountain Vista rounds out the top five.
After ThunderRidge, Arapahoe is seventh and Ralston Valley is eighth. Chaparral is No. 9 this week, and Rocky Mountain is No. 10.
The 4A ranking also got a new No. 1 team this week when Windsor overtook Montrose. The Wizards received six of the 13 first-place votes, and had 115 overall points.
Montrose dropped to second this week, and is followed by No. 3 Niwot. Wheat Ridge bumped up one place to No. 4, while Lewis-Palmer is No. 5 after 3-0 week which included a win over then-No. 10 Palmer Ridge on Saturday.
Longmont is the lone newcomer to the 4A poll, joining at No. 10.
The other No. 1 teams held firm atop their respective rankings. Holy Family continued to lead 3A, Swink remain atop of 2A and Stratton continued to lead 1A.
The Sedgwick County senior threw his second no-hitter of the season on Thursday, this one a perfect game against Holyoke in which he struck out 19 batters in a seven-inning game. Two balls were put into play — one a groundout to second, another a groundout to third. He threw just 82 pitches.
He was also 3-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Dunker, 5-foot-9 and 147 pounds, is now 5-0 with 77 strikeouts against just four walks. In fact, Dunker has faced 99 batters this season, meaning he’s striking them out more than three-fourths of the time.
Dunker hasn’t allowed an earned run in 28 2/3 innings so far this season, and has given up just two total runs — and four hits. He also no-hit Wray on April 5, striking out 14 of the 16 batters he faced that game and throwing only 56 pitches.
Sedgwick County is now 11-1, and ranked No. 6 in CHSAANow.com’s latest 2A poll.
In his career, Dunker is now 17-3 with a 1.01 ERA. He hasn’t allowed an earned run since last May.
Dunker has signed with Northeastern Junior Collge in Sterling.
Short stuff
Regis Jesuit, already likely to move into Class 5A baseball’s No. 1 spot next Monday following ThunderRidge’s loss to Mountain Vista, got a big piece back Thursday when left-handed pitcher David Peterson returned to the mound in an 8-1 win over Ponderosa. He threw just one inning. Peterson, an Oregon recruit, fractured his right fibula before the season and was originally expected to miss the entire season. “Great to get back on the mound last night for the first time. Can’t thank my team enough for being the most supportive guys through all this,” he tweeted. Regis, meanwhile, has won eight-straight games.
On its Facebook page, Castle View announced it has hired Russ McKinstry as boys basketball coach. The move could shake up the Continental League a bit, where Castle View hasn’t been much of a contender in recent years. The SaberCats are just 29-62 since the 2010-11 season, including 9-32 in the Continental. They haven’t ever finished higher than eighth in the league. McKinstry led Lewis-Palmer to back-to-back 4A titles in 2012 — that team included CU’s Josh Scott — and 2013, but resigned last summer. “I’ve always felt like there was a very high ceiling for potential growth in Castle View’s boys basketball program,” McKinstry told the Facebook page.
Another big boys basketball coaching move: Douglas County tabbed former Nugget Earl Boykins, according to Basketball Colorado. Boykins played in Denver from 2003-07, and played in the NBA for 16 seasons.
MaxPreps’ computer rankings have made their spring debut in many sports. Included are baseball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse. Girls soccer‘s rankings were already up and running. Because the computer rankings uses a complex algorithm, a certain number of games are needed before the data is unveiled.
