Tag: Denver West

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.

Lewis-Palmer, ranked No. 1 in the latest CHSAANow.com 4A poll, moved to 19-0 with a 3-1 win over 5A No. 7 Chaparral on Tuesday.

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.
• The football and basketball championships are moving to Altitude TV.
• When La Junta won the 3A softball championship on Saturday, it ended Strasburg’s 51-game winning streak in the title game.
• Eaton raised $2,200 in its Kills for a Cure night earlier this month.
• Eaglecrest is inducting its inaugural class into its hall of fame in December.
• 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.