Jeffco’s Bryan Wickoren, far right, organized the first Colorado High School Adapted Basketball Tournament on Thursday at Gold Crown Field House in Lakewood. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Jeffco Public Schools’ Adapted Athletics program made to quantum leap Thursday hosting the inaugural Colorado High School Adapted Basketball Tournament.
A total of 21 schools — 31 teams — took part in the tournament. Teams from school districts in Aurora, Boulder, Brighton, Denver, Colorado Springs, Frederick, Greeley, Littleton, Longmont and Jeffco gathered at Gold Crown Field House in Lakewood first state-wide basketball tournament of its kind in Colorado for students with special needs.
“We had a great response,” said event organizer Bryan Wickoren, Adapted Physical Education Coordinator for Jeffco Public Schools. “It’s a great representation of schools from the eastern side of the state. It’s a start.”
The event got such a great response that 10 schools were on a waiting list for the tournament. Wickoren, who is a part of the Department of Education adapted team advisory counsel, presented his idea last fall of having a state basketball tournament that Jeffco would host.
Wickoren said there is already talk about adding a state-wide soccer tournament in the fall, along with state-wide track and field meet next spring to serve students with special needs.
Sand Creek senior D’Shawn Schwartz, left, served as a coach for the Adapted Basketball tournament. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“I’m extremely proud,” Wickoren said of the growth of Adapted Athletics. “Eight years ago we had five schools doing a couple of athletic events. Now we are doing something every month in Jeffco. We are just building and growing. We have a solid foundation and base. We’ll keep going.”
Bringing in schools from outside Jeffco has been a goal for Wickoren.
“We want to offer this to more than just Jeffco schools,” said Wickoren, who added he hopes in the future Adapted Athletics will be sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association like it is in Minnesota.
Bonnie Mendenhall, Adapted PE teacher for middle and high schools in Falcon School District 49 in Colorado Springs, jumped at the chance to get her students involved in Thursday’s basketball tournament. Sand Creek brought two teams to compete.
“We’ve always wanted to get involved in unified sport, but we just didn’t have anything going on in the Springs,” Mendenhall said. “Talking to Bryan (Wickoren) he told me all about it. We decided to come up. This is our first time and our two teams we have are really excited.”
Schools from across the state took part in the Adapted Basketball Tournament. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Sand Creek also brought up a familiar face to Colorado prep basketball fans. Senior D’Shawn Schwartz, one of the top basketball recruits in the state that has committed to play at the University of Colorado next school year, was on hand as a coach for the Scorpions.
“This is my first time,” Schwartz said about helping with Adapted Athletics. “We had one practice and then came out here. It’s pretty fun. It’s cool.”
A couple of teachers at Sand Creek told Schwartz about the tournament and he decided to be apart of it. Schwartz has helped lead the Scorpions to a 13-1 record this season averaging more than 26 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game.
“It’s different, but it feels good to get away from competition,” Schwartz said about being a coach on the basketball court instead of facing a box-and-one defense. “I can just come out here and be loose.”
Arvada and Standley Lake high schools had members of its basketball teams on hand too as referees and scorers for games. Jeffco will hold its Adapted Athletics Basketball Day for Jeffco schools Friday, Jan. 20.
“We want to keep more kids involved in sports. It’s a win-win for everybody,” Mendenhall said. “They see the other kids in sports and it gives them the opportunity to be in sports. It gives them great self-esteem. They can be a part of a team.”
At the end of the day Thursday, Gateway lifted the first-place trophy.
Gateway was crowned the first-place champions in the first Colorado High School Adapted Basketball Tournament. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
The 2016 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 entirely from the results of the coaches’ vote.
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Class 5A
(Kai Casey/CHSAANow.com)
Player of the year: Dylan McCaffrey, Valor Christian
ARVADA — Chad Dines had quite the varsity debut, throwing for 407 yards and six touchdowns as No. 5 D’Evelyn beat Arvada 45-0 on Saturday.
Dines, a junior, connected on 23 of his 29 passes, and also rushed for 49 yards and a score. Two receivers, Cody Bell and Justin Kehoe, each had two receiving touchdowns for the Jaguars.
Kyle Klataske had 158 yards on the ground for D’Evelyn.
D’Evelyn is now 4-1 this season, while Arvada fell to 2-3.
Arvada has hired Luke Orvis as the school’s new football coach.
The school announced the the hire on Twitter on Tuesday morning. Orvis comes to Arvada from Oklahoma, where he was an assistant coach overseeing the defensive line for Edmond Memorial.
Edmond plays in Oklahoma’s highest division (6A-I), and went 4-7 last season. Orvis has been coaching there since 2005.
At Arvada, Orvis will take over for Richard Bortner, who was 1-9 in his lone season in 2015. He will be the program’s third coach in four seasons after Matt Cisneros led the team in 2013 and 2014.
Orvis is charged with turning the program around. The Bulldogs are 2-28 since 2013, and have gone .500 just once since 2004, when they finished 5-5 in 2012.
Arvada returns a deep team with a lot of experience in 2016. The school has been playing in Class 3A, but will play down to 2A in the next two-year cycle.
Follow all of this offseason’s coaching movement in our tracker.
LAKEWOOD – Seventh-ranked Berthoud scored early and often in cruising to a 53-7 win over Arvada in Class 3A football on Saturday afternoon.
Jackson Hall starred for the Spartans, with two receiving touchdowns, a punt return for a score, and also an interception.
“My first game I didn’t do as much as I wanted to do, I played pretty lackluster,” Hall said after the game. “So I was kind of just looking for a little taste of everything. It was just nice to come out here and do well defensively, offensively, and on special teams.”
Arvada (1-2) was coming off its first win since the 2013 season, having spanned an 18-game losing streak with a 27-14 win over Sheridan last week. But this week, the Spartans’ defense kept Arvada scoreless until the last few minutes of the game.
Berthoud actually got off to a pretty slow start on Saturday, punting away its first possession and losing its second to a fumble. Arvada appeared to be a difficult defense to score against early in the game.
Then, all of sudden Berthoud’s Hall, a receiver, returned a punt 80 yards for a touchdown — creating the spark the team needed for the rest of the game. Berthoud quarterback Cody Braesch was able to get in a rhythm with running back Chad Ellis, who ended the drive with a 21-yard rushing touchdown.
Arvada had a chance to get points on the board in the first quarter but fumbled a field goal snap, causing a turnover on downs. Shortly after that, it got the back following a fumble from Braesch. But the Bulldogs quickly gave the ball back on the next play with an interception from Hall.
Berthoud capitalized on that turnover with a 72-yard touchdown pass by Braesch to tight end McCallan Castles.
Berthoud began to pull away after blocked punt was recovered on Bulldogs’ own 7-yard-line. On the next play, Braesch’s rushing touchdown made it 27-0.
By halftime the score was 40-0.
In fourth quarter, it was 53-0. Arvada was determined to not get shutout. Quarterback Ian Coleman led his team down the field for their only touchdown with three minutes to play.
Berthoud coach Troy Diffendaffer said that his team is very explosive but still have things to work.
“We threw up a lot of points,” he said, “but we’re still trying to work a couple things outs. Way too many penalties. Ee can’t shoot ourselves in the foot, especially once we get in our league.”
After last year’s experience — Berthoud lost to top-seeded Discovery Canyon in the first round of the 3A playoffs — the Spartans know they can’t be satisfied with two blowout wins to open the year.
“Offensively not too well, defensively we played as well as we can any other game,” Hall said. “Most defiantly need to clean up those penalties and be able to move the ball on first and second (down), and not have to try to go deep on third down.”
For the second week in a row, Pomona football is playing the No. 1-ranked team in 5A. Last week, the Panthers beat Valor Christian. (Pam Wagner/CHSAANow.com)
Colorado Preps‘ Kevin Shaffer looks at Week 2’s big football matchups around the state.
This week, the show includes comments from Pomona, Longmont, Arvada, Platte Canyon, and Cheraw.
We’ll be following Week 2 action on Friday night, including our live coverage.
It was not a good week to be ranked as the 2015 football season began in earnest.
When the dust settled on Friday night, here’s what we were left with:
Three No. 1 teams lost on Friday night. 5A’s Valor Christian was clipped by No. 3 Pomona. 2A’s Brush, the defending champion, last to 3A No. 2 Fort Morgan, and 8-man’s Caliche fell to unranked Kiowa.
Ranked teams are just 35-23 so far in Week 1. That includes three ranked 4A teams which lost to unranked opponents on Friday alone.
In all, there have been 16 upsets so far in Week 1, including 13 ranked teams losing to unranked opponents.
To the games.
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3A/2A: (2) Fort Morgan 47, (1) Brush 7
Fort Morgan controlled this rivalry game from start to finish — a game that had a new twist with new Brush coach Reid Kahl, who graduated from Fort Morgan.
“I consider Reid Kahl one of my good friends. When I got to Fort Morgan, the Kahls took me in,” Fort Morgan coach Harrison Chisum told Colorado Preps’ Scoreboard Show. “I’m glad it’s over. It’s tough coaching against friends. He’s an outstanding coach and I have a lot of respect for him. … I’m just glad it’s done and we’re still friends.”
Brush had won five consecutive games in the rivalry.
“It was a little more enjoyable this year,” Chisum said. “Five years in a row, they’ve had our number. To finally come out on top, it feels good. The boys did a good job.
“I didn’t realize it was five years. I think I was trying to forget some of those years. … It’s pretty nice to be able to start off with a win.”
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8-man: Kiowa 12, (1) Caliche 6
In a rare low-scoring game, Kiowa knocked off the No. 1 team, and defending champions.
Kiowa led 12-0 after the first quarter, and it turned out to be all the points it would need.
The win avenged last season’s 49-6 loss to Caliche. Kiowa went on to finish 2-7 in 2014. This win actually snapped a six-game losing streak.
Conversely, Caliche had won nine games in a row — including a Zero Week game against Soroco.
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4A: Loveland 36, (5) Denver South 18
Quarterback Ayden Eberhardt had four total touchdowns to lead Loveland to the upset of Denver South.
“Our quarterback is just a great, nifty little runner and can do things,” Loveland coach Wayne McGinn told the newspaper. “You don’t know where he’s going. I don’t know where he’s going half the time.”
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6-man: (3) Arickaree/Woodlin 58, (5) Peetz 50
Arickaree/Woodlin, the defending 6-man champion, out-gunned Peetz in a shootout despite having a young roster.
“Our starting six or seven have a lot of experience, but they’re in some different positions this year,” Arickaree/Woodlin coach David Saffer told the Scoreboard Show. “And we’ve got a bunch of young kids and they’re just kind of learning high school football and adjusting to the speed and learning what it takes to win at this level.”
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Notables
Arvada beat Sheridan 27-14, and in doing so, snapped an 18-game losing streak which dated to 2013. The Bulldogs’ last win came on Sept. 13, 2013, in overtime against Skyview. The program had been 1-22 over its past 23 games going back to 2012.
Manitou Springs recovered five onside kicks in its game against Faith Christian. Faith Christian, however, won 46-32.
It was a top-5 matchup in 2A as No. 5 Platte Valley beat No. 3 Strasburg 30-7.
In 3A, Mitchell beat Widefield 34-28 in double overtime. It wasn’t the night’s only extra time. 1A’s Olathe beat Hotchkiss in overtime, 29-27, and in 5A, Cherokee Trail beat ThunderRidge 22-15.
In 1A, No. 1 Paonia beat No. 7 Monte Vista 21-7.
Dakota Ridge, ranked No. 3 in 4A, opened with a big 38-9 win over 5A Monarch. “We challenged our kids all week that they needed to play physical and play tough,” coach Ron Woitalewicz told the Scoreboard Show. “Our kids really rose to that expectation.”
Eaglecrest led 5A No. 9 Ralston Valley 14-13 at halftime, but the Mustangs stormed back to take a 33-27 win. Ralston Valley nearly fell victim to a comeback of its own, as it held a 33-14 lead in the fourth quarter but had to hold on.
5A No. 6 Fairview led Grand Junction 21-0, but had to hold on for a 21-12 win.
Lakewood handed 5A No. 8 Fountain-Fort Carson its second straight loss, this one a 31-21 decision.
Chaparral played 5A No. 7 Grandview tough early, but the Wolves pulled away for a 29-12 win.
Six more Colorado teams played out-of-state opponents on Friday, going 4-2. Durango, Holly, La Junta and Sedgwick County all notched wins, while Wray and Montezuma-Cortez lost on Friday. So far in 2015, Colorado teams are 8-2 against out-of-state foes.
The 4A Jeffco League, led by teams like Wheat Ridge, is very, very good this season. (Dennis Pleuss)
Life in baseball’s Class 4A Jeffco League is cutthroat. It borders on cannibalism.
Within this ecosystem, 10 teams are battling for three automatic berths into the 4A postseason field. As of Monday, five of them are ranked. That includes three in the top five, and the No. 1 (D’Evelyn) and No. 2 (Evergreen) teams — who meet on Tuesday evening.
And they’re all beating up on one another.
For example: On Monday, No. 6 Wheat Ridge upset No. 1 D’Evelyn. It was the second-consecutive week in which a top-ranked 4A Jeffco team fell to a league foe.
“It’s tough, man,” said longtime D’Evelyn coach Dan Porreco. “I mean everybody is really good. We ran into Wheat Ridge last night, and they did a nice job. They’re good. Every day, you’ve got to be ready and do your best. It’s crazy.”
Added Evergreen coach Steve Jones: “It’s like a heavyweight prize fight each time you take the field.”
Last week, Jeffco had the top three teams in the poll, with Green Mountain, D’Evelyn and Evergreen. But then Valor Christian — another 4A Jeffco team — upset No. 1 Green Mountain.
Shortly, the Eagles, too, found themselves ranked. They are No. 9 this week. Green Mountain is now No. 5.
“It does put a little more emphasis on the games, but it makes the regular season fun,” said Wheat Ridge coach Adam Miller, who is in his 13th season with the Farmers. “I think the kids look to it as a challenge, and if you present it that way to them, every day is a fun day.”
D’Evelyn is currently ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, leading five 4A Jeffco teams in the poll this week. (Dennis Pleuss)
The league placed three teams in the Final 8 last year — but that doesn’t include current league member Valor, which played independent schedule last season and also reached that stage. And Green Mountain won last season’s 4A title, the first for a team in the league since Golden won in 2003.
Is this the start of a shift in power?
“When you’re looking at the Northern League … they’ve produced a few state champions over the last number of years,” said Valor Christian coach Keith Wahl. “At some point in time, when you’re looking at the best league, you’re looking at the best playoff record, you’re looking at the state champions coming out of the league, and (the 4A Jeffco is) right there. But I think for us to be considered (the best), you’ve got to continue to hold up the trophy at the end.”
This season, the strength has been evident. Teams from the 4A Jeffco are a combined 25-4 against other 4A leagues this season. The includes an astonishing 17-0 mark from the current top eight teams in the league standings.
Shoot, the 4A Jeffco is 20-10 against 5A teams to this point.
Consider for a moment just the top five:
Wheat Ridge is 11-3, but one loss is to a team from Arizona, and the other two were one-run losses to 5A teams.
Evergreen is 12-1, with the lone loss coming to a team from Oregon.
D’Evelyn was 13-0 before losing to Wheat Ridge on Monday.
Green Mountain? 10-4, with three out-of-state losses, and a fourth to Valor, a league foe.
Even Valor’s 7-6 record is deceiving. The Eagles have four out-of-state losses, one loss to a 5A team, and their other loss came to Littleton — which, yes, plays in the 4A Jeffco.
“It prepares our kids for the every day,” said Wahl, now in his seventh year at Valor. “Today we go against Golden, we have to bring our best. Tomorrow we go against Evergreen, we have to bring our best. It helps our guys. And ultimately, it does season you for playoff time.”
“There’s lot of good teams, and I think the better pitching you see, the better it makes you come playoff time,” added Green Mountain coach Brad Madden. “Because you’re not getting any (No. 3 or 4 pitchers) in the playoffs. It’s all 1s and 2s.”
Said Jones, the Evergreen coach: “It’s like the old saying from the Bible: ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ Playing the toughest competition day-in and day-out, it’s just going to make you better.”
But there’s one catch: You’ve got to make the playoffs first.
“It pays off,” Jones said. “It does pay its dividends — if you can survive.”
Because the league only gets three automatic qualifiers, it leaves the other seven fighting for five at-large berths with the rest of the teams in 4A. One of those berths will almost certainly go to Ponderosa, which will automatically qualify if it wins 10 games. The Mustangs already have nine wins.
So, really, the 4A Jeffco teams are fighting for four at-large berths, which are based upon standings in the Wild Card points. That’s tough.
“If we don’t keep winning, we could be on the outside looking in. If Golden doesn’t keep winning, they could be on the outside looking in,” Wahl said. “I mean, it’s a tough deal to stare down the barrel of that gun.”
If the season were to end today, the league would get five teams in the postseason, including two at-large berths. One of those berths would go to Littleton, meaning Valor Christian — currently the ninth-best team in 4A, according to voters — would stay home.
Valor Christian is eyeing one of the 4A Jeffco’s three automatic berths to the postseason. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com)
The Eagles have some ground to make up in terms of Wild Card points. They are currently six spots outside of an at-large berth, so their focus right now is on securing an automatic spot.
“This group this year is young for us, they’re inexperienced, but what they’re getting an opportunity to experience is every game matters,” Wahl said. “I don’t think they’ve ever had that before.”
And in the 4A Jeffco this season, that feeling is only magnified.
“There’s no breathers, especially when we get backed up (by weather) like this,” Madden said. “There’s no chance to go get a JV guy some work on the mound. You’ve got to go with your guys the whole way through.”
Added Jones: “There are any number of teams in the Jeffco 4A league that are worthy to be in the playoffs, and some of them aren’t going to make it. It’s a tough thing to embrace. But, of course, that’s the system and we’re going to live under it and do our best to qualify.”
Porreco, now in his 20th year at D’Evelyn, said this is as good as he’s ever seen the league.
“I mean there’s been some great teams in the past — you know Golden when they won the state tournament (in 2003); Wheat Ridge when they dropped down (from 5A), they’ve been good every year, and Evergreen’s always really good,” the coach said. “This is, I would say, might be the best the league’s been in a long time.”
“I don’t think there’s an easy team in our league,” added Miller, the Wheat Ridge coach. “You’ve got to rev it up pretty much every day.”
