When we last left our heroes in December, Alamosa’s Mean Moose had completed a 14-0 season to rule Class 3A, and Wheat Ridge (4A) and Columbine (5A) capped the 86th campaign in Colorado schoolboy annals with rousing victories at cold Invesco Field at Mile High.
We start playing for keeps statewide again today as the Rocky Mountains are alive with the sounds of signals, collisions and emotion.
Kick it off on kickoff weekend with The Denver Post game of the week, which visits Highlands Ranch in football-happy Douglas County, where Mountain Vista’s Golden Eagles, ranked No. 5 in The Post/9News Class 5A poll, will welcome rival Ponderosa in Continental League action Friday, 7 p.m.
However, ample offerings of interest are available and noted below for your viewing pleasure:
Today
The 5A Continental’s Chaparral-at-Arapahoe matchup is worthy in multiple ways, including for the visitor, which sports a new head coach and the host all but beginning anew after the 2006 season began with player removals and suspensions.
Big 5A Continental order for new Gateway coach Justin Hoffman, who will have his Olympians in Castle Rock to meet Douglas County, which has won 24 of its past 27 games.
A year ago, Lakewood stunned Columbine 18-3 in an opener. As you may know, the Rebels, who are top-ranked in 5A, won their next 13 games to take it all, including a 50-6 waxing of the Tigers in the playoffs. They’ll do it again – it’s Lakewood’s third time against the Rebels over 13 games – in South Metro play at Jefferson County Stadium.
5A No. 9 Legacy, in some ways as eager as any team to start the season, will open at 4A Niwot.
Friday
The Highlands Ranch-Heritage affair will involve two teams planning on making a move to the higher end of the 5A Continental, which is already crowded.
Two to view in the 5A South Metro – No. 6 Bear Creek will be on the road at Lewis-Palmer in Monument, and Doherty, which received multiple preseason votes as a big-school sleeper, will be at Arvada West.
In 5A nonleague, Montbello and new coach Shawn Feldman have an early (4 p.m.) date with Jack Elway and No. 10 Cherry Creek, and the unusual 4A Grand Junction at 5A Overland will be the nightcap. Both games are at Legacy Stadium, as Stutler Bowl has yet to solve track problems.
5A No. 7 Grandview will open at Thomas Jefferson, which may have a leg or two up – the Spartans downed 4A Green Mountain six days ago, the only 5A team to play in Colorado’s strange Zero Week (I have vowed not to explain it again).
They once faced each other for nine consecutive decades, from 1904-93. In 4A nonleague, Delta and host Montrose will add another entry.
4A No. 7 Pueblo South, which has recently been tops in the Steel City, will take on Pueblo Centennial at fabled Dutch Clark Stadium.
Westminster’s Adams 12 North Stadium will be christened with host Mountain Range against Ridge View Academy in 3A nonleague.
Defending 2A champion and No. 4 Faith Christian has a nonleague meeting at home with 3A No. 6 Kent Denver, which fell last week to 3A Steamboat Springs.
It’s 1A nonleague, but who cares? No. 8 Wray will be at No. 2 Burlington.
The top-ranked squads in smaller schools, Granada (8-man) and Eads (6-man), will face Swink (on the road) and Arickaree (at home), respectively.
Saturday
What should be a skilled Palmer team is at Chatfield, and Sand Creek, winless a year ago, has a difficult roadie at No. 4 Pomona in the 5A South Metro.
ThunderRidge, preseason No. 1 and probably in its final season of 4A, will give 5A Fruita Monument one of its six nonleague games (of nine for the season).
Pueblo County, defined by its physical play in recent 3A seasons, begins its run as No. 1 with a visit from Pueblo West.
2A public-school coaches have been getting louder grousing about private-school advantages, even after breaking up the Metropolitan League, but state the following: They still try to play each other in nonleague. Example: No. 7 Denver Christian will host Denver Lutheran.
ON TAP
Denver Post staff writer Neil H. Devlin looks at the weekend ahead in high school sports:
FOOTBALL
IDALIA
Wolves’ show set to run in Texas
Here’s a novel, feel-good form of schoolboy football. For openers, Idalia, No. 2 in The Denver Post Class A 6-man poll and winner of five Colorado Class A 6-man championships in the 2000s, including the past two, will travel to face Rule, Texas, at McMurry University in Abilene on Saturday, 5 p.m. Rule is ranked No. 2 in the higher of Texas’ two 6-man divisions. And get this – the Texans, who eat up any and all football with a spoon, are anticipating a crowd of 6,000, which any local school would love to have for a debut.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS
Sail on, sail on, you 3A Sailors
Sailors may not be the first mascot to come to mind concerning Steamboat Springs. They’re in the mountains and landlocked. However, it has real relevance when considering the Sailors’ schedule in just about every sport – they have to sail around for competition, including in nonleague. They opened in Zero Week by downing host Kent Denver in Cherry Hills Village and Friday (7 p.m.) will welcome Laramie before heading into an eight-game Class 3A Western Slope League.
SOFTBALL
WINDSOR
Regular grind for girls on diamonds
Throwing out first softballs happened a couple of weeks ago as in-state girls were in one of three sports to get the jump on the school year (boys golf and boys tennis also started earlier this month), but a regular rotation begins in earnest today for three classifications. Defending 4A champion Windsor and 2006 player of the year Mallory Duran will be at Mountain View in Loveland to play Northern League ball at 4 p.m.
VOLLEYBALL
TOURNAMENTS
First serves for the 33rd time
Battle Mountain (4A) and Hoehne (2A), two of the five defending champions, will have first serves today as Colorado’s most-popular girls sport takes flight for a 33rd season. Battle Mountain will be at Summit, and Hoehne has a date in Trinidad in nonleague. The early season’s series of tournaments will open Saturday with day-long round-robins at Aspen, Buena Vista, Ellicott, Glenwood Springs and Grand Valley.
CROSS COUNTRY
ARAPAHOE
Boys, girls headed out for fun runs
There they go … the search for lungs on fire begins with a variety of offerings throughout the state and into the weekend. Fridays in late summer and into fall long have been the big cross country days for in-state boys and girls trying to cover 3.1 miles (5K) as fast as they can. However, their after-school specials are frequently overlooked by spectators and followers in favor of football’s Friday Night Lights. One such gathering that warrants attention is Friday’s annual Morris Vogel Invitational at Arapahoe, named after the former longtime coach that have a couple of dozen boys and girls set to race at deKoevand Park.
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
