Aurora – Colorado’s high school grand finale this weekend will be grand in multiple regards, as more than 1,000 team and individual medals, ribbons and trophies are dispensed.
Saying goodbye to the 2006-07 high school sports season may prove difficult for competitors in six spring sports, but the sheer magnitude of the finish is matched only by schools yearning to have it completed.
“That’s what they want,” Colorado High School Activities Association commissioner Bill Reader said.
What they want – and will get – Friday and Saturday is an ultimate whirlwind of championship activity unrivaled by any other period in a school year.
In Denver, Englewood, Fort Collins, Lakewood and Pueblo, the team titles include five in baseball, eight in track, two in boys swimming and one each in boys lacrosse and girls soccer.
If you’re wondering about the rest of the soccer, it will be held Tuesday at Englewood, and girls golfers will settle two team and individual winners Monday and Tuesday in Colorado Springs and Windsor. In addition, Reader said as many as 500 workers, volunteers and officials at sites will be used – 125 at each track site – and thousands of fans will be there.
“We don’t get a lot of complaints,” Reader said. “It’s not optimal for fans and schools, and it would be nicer if it was split up. But this is what schools want.”
Reader knows schools like to extend their seasons to the last possible date, but few administrators want spring sports running into or beyond Memorial Day weekend and moves to extend some seasons into June have been squashed by the CHSAA board of control. Permitting a student-athlete to compete after receiving a diploma long has been taboo, though many states allow it.
Like the no-contact rule over Christmas and New Year’s holidays, this whirlwind practice is as firmly in place as the Rocky Mountains.
“It’s the same mentality. Let’s get away from it, we’ve had enough,” Reader said.
The jam-packed schedule is well-received in most circles.
“I think it’s great,” said Randy McCall, athletic director at Cherry Creek, the state’s largest school. “Obviously, you can end up spreading around some of your students in terms of what to see, but I still think it’s great.
“We have a chance to win multiple trophies; then again, there’s the risk of getting shut out. But it’s a neat way to end the year, exciting on so many levels.”
Mullen girls soccer coach Jay McClain said he’s “OK with it. It definitely comes down fast” but added it can be “kind of tough on the players.”
Columbine athletic director Ed Woytek wouldn’t mind having some change, but wondered: “Then what do you have? They don’t want it after graduation.”
Even with smaller schools, which depend more heavily on multisport athletes in the same season, there hasn’t been much crossover into the finale. Earlier rounds this school year have weeded out most competitors who would have a conflict on championship day. They may have advanced in track, but been eliminated in baseball, generally their only two spring sports.
And with small-school baseball and track championships held in the same city, Wray baseball coach John Cure said, “It’s not a big deal, they get to stay in Pueblo. Extending seasons is a solution, but probably not the best with graduation.”
As opposed to spring sports beginning during inclement weather and working their way toward the best conditions of the year, the fall boys golfers, boys tennis players and softballers don’t dare get too deep into October, when there can be drastic weather changes that last for weeks. Gymnasts and volleyballers compete inside, although those in cross country, field hockey, soccer and football generally gut out less-than-ideal conditions to finish the season.
Ray Van Heukelem, a longtime figure at Denver Christian who recently was named head boys basketball coach at Littleton, wants the schedule redone. “Spring sports in Colorado need to be reworked,” he said, adding he’s in favor of extending the season. “It’s crazy when you try to get all those sports done in April.”
Early in the season there are safety issues with rock-hard fields and weather issues, particularly for the teams from the mountains.
“I think it’s a shame we can’t come to some conclusion to hold the state tournament past Memorial Day and play in the best months of the year,” Van Heukelem said. “Spread it out, do justice to the sport, do justice to the kids.”
At least one kid, Columbine first baseman Curtis Cunningham wouldn’t change a thing.
“It’s cool the way it is,” he said.
Reader estimates more than 50 percent of the states have some form of spring state titles beyond Memorial Day.
“The bottom line is, in Colorado, we have a better perspective of high school athletics,” he said. “In a lot of states, it has become an obsession. It’s educationally-based (here) when people make their decisions. We let kids do their own thing. I don’t think that’s all bad.”
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
