Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
Tim Yount of On The Mat provides weekly wrestling rankings for teams and individuals in all weight classes. To see individual rankings, you can subscribe to On The Mat’s full rankings.
To subscribe via PayPal, choose your subscription option on this page click on the corresponding PayPal button. To subscribe by mail or fax and pay by personal check, click here for a printable subscription form. Email Tim Yount at tim@onthematrankings.com with questions.
To purchase individual weeks of the rankings (as opposed to the entire season), you will need to use the printable subscription form and pay by check. The season ranking subscriptions are offered at a discounted rate.
Loveland running back Zack Rakowsky doesn’t fit the stereotypical build of a standout football player.
His measurables according to the team’s roster on MaxPreps has him listed at 5-foot-10 and weighing 150 pounds.
Rakowsky isn’t a physically imposing kid — at least until it’s game time. He shined for Loveland all year, eventually taking Class 4A player of the year honors. And when watching him on the field, it’s clear that he’s example No. 1 that it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, but rather the size of the fight in the dog.
“What most people don’t realize is how well he runs the ball inside the tackles,” Loveland coach Jeff Mauck said. “He initiates contact. Even though he has a small frame, some people just pack punch or a thud when they hit, he initiates contact and takes it to the defensive player.”
Opposing defenses aren’t dealing with a scat back who works well in open space when Rakowsky gets the ball. His physicality ranks up there with any large-frame back in the state. Combined with his competitiveness and overall toughness, Rakowsky was one of several factors that led to Loveland’s 42-6 win over Palmer Ridge in the 4A state championship game.
Loveland’s goal was simple on the very first drive: establish the tone and run as many plays as possible to try and get a gauge on how the Bears were going to attack defensively. Eighteen plays and two 4th-down conversions later, Loveland had a 7-0 lead and never looked back.
“After we scored the touchdown I remember looking over at their defense and they had no idea what just happened,” Rakowsky said. “They were exhausted and really frustrated. After that (first) touchdown, I was very confident that it was going to end in our favor.”
Rakowsky ended the night rushing for 169 yards and three touchdowns. He also picked off two passes to help on the defensive side of the ball.
He erased any doubt that size in his case mattered in how he plays the game. His mindset on how he approaches the game has been far more vital to his success at Loveland it will be every bit as vital to his success at the college level.
(Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“I’ve been around sports a lot in my life and it causes everything in my life to be competitive,” Rakowsky said. “I think that drive that gets you to want to win; there’s nothing like it.”
And he wants to win.
It was clear in the regular season finale, a de facto win-or-go-home game against Skyline, that he wasn’t ready for his season to be over.
That translated directly into the playoffs where he rushed for at least 180 yards against both Broomfield and top-seeded Dakota Ridge. Heading into the state championship showdown with Palmer Ridge, Mauck was comfortable singing Rakowsky’s praises to anyone who would listen.
“I told everybody and I told (the staff at) CSU-Pueblo that he would be the best player on the field,” Mauck said. “He has a giant chip on his shoulder and he’s going to prove to everyone what he can do. He’s electric.”
When it comes to electricity, Rakowsky may look like just a spark. But he’ll provide a jolt that opposing players will feel long after the game has ended.
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.
PUEBLO — Loveland coach Jeff Mauck stood with his players on the balcony of the CSU-Pueblo athletic facility and got a good look at the turf of the Neta and Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl.
He told his players he wanted them to show him something early that make would make everyone in the building believe they belonged there. The players did him one better. They marched down the field in 18 plays over the course of almost nine minutes, capping it off with a Jadyn Tafoya touchdown run.
By the time the night was over, it was obvious that Loveland didn’t just belong there, but for a night it was their house.
Loveland dominated offensively and defensively to get a 42-6 win over Palmer Ridge to hoist the Class 4A state football championship trophy for the second time in three years. And it happened without a single pass being thrown.
“Being underdogs two weeks in a row and taking down the No. 1 and No. 2 seed, I wouldn’t ask for it any differently,” running back Zach Rakowsky said. “The season was rough the whole time with COVID and everything, but I wouldn’t trade these dudes or this season for anything.”
Loveland (9-0 overall) knew its hands were going to be full with Palmer Ridge’s pass-heavy attack so a long drive to start combined with a defensive stop on the Bears’ first possession was the ideal way to build confidence.
In all, Loveland picked off Bears quarterback Luke McAllister five times to put a stamp on one of the more impressive defensive performances in recent memory. Mauck was upset just three weeks ago when he heard whispers that Loveland wasn’t getting its due on the defensive side.
“They took a lot of that personally,” Mauck said. “What’d we give up? Six points tonight. They’ve done that every week. We shut down the top two teams, basically. Phenomenal.”
Touchdown runs from Rakowsky, Joe Killian and Tafoya in the first half sent Loveland into halftime with a 21-0 lead. This wasn’t unfamiliar territory for Palmer Ridge who had been down early against Montrose earlier in the year.
But a Tafoya interception early in the first half stifled any momentum the Bears (6-1) were hoping to build in the second half.
“We came up with five picks, a couple of sacks. We gave him a lot of pressure,” Tafoya said. “He wasn’t used to that.”
And they complimented the play defensive by pounding the rock on the ground game. Rakowsky totaled 183 yards and three rushing touchdowns while also picking off McAllister twice.
That resumé was solid enough to win Most Outstanding Player honors.
“I have so much respect for the guys on the other team,” Rakowsky said. “Our whole team put it together, our defensive line and linebackers were getting pressure so I could get those interceptions. Our offensive line was just pushing those dudes so I could run through. Our whole team played together, it was insane.”
This marks the eighth state football championship for Loveland. The last one came in 2018 at Mile High Stadium with a win over Skyline.
But this one will have an aura all on its own. Palmer Ridge had entered the game as one of the state’s most potent passing offenses. McAllister will play collegiately at Colorado State and wasn’t completely shut down as he found Marcellus Reed for the Bears’ lone score of the game.
But Mack and his players were aware that they entered the game as underdogs. They just never had any intention of playing like one.
“Everybody judges a book by its cover,” Mauck said. “They look at us like we’re the Little Giants. They think we’re smaller, we don’t look as fast, we don’t have a bunch of Division I commits, but that group rallies together every single week.”
And they do so in a way that earns championship hardware.
