Flash! The Centennial League won another big-school championship in 2007.
Grandview joined the fraternity of league members with first-place trophies, 18 in all, held by six schools. It’s a fact: Since 1978, no other league has been close to the Centennial.
However, the popular league born in the Denver suburbs in 1964 went through a face-lift in anticipation of 2008 and now appears to have less wrinkles and more life in Aurora, Centennial, Denver and Greenwood Village.
With Boulder and Fairview opting to head north to the Front Range, the natural inclusion of Cherokee Trail as well as the rejoining by Arapahoe (for the first time since 1988) may also make it the deepest, most complete group.
Before a down was played, the defending champion Wolves (Matt Tucker) deserved consideration to repeat through their defense, which could be considerable. In many ways, it will be a different Grandview — i.e., rushing by committee — yet similar in that it has stout fronts and solid talent at nearly every position.
As usual, Mullen (Alex Logan), which has advanced at least to the semifinals the past five seasons, will challenge with an array of talent, younger and seasoned.
The race to at least third place in the league should prove interesting. Pick a team, any team.
Alphabetically, Arapahoe (Devin Pullara) welcomes the new opportunity, particularly after competing in the Continental, which turned very rugged the past three seasons.
Cherokee Trail (Kendall Gregory) is generally regarded as the next statewide power ready to happen despite the fact the Cougars have yet to face a 5A foe.
Cherry Creek, which hired boys basketball coach Mike Brookhart as its new coach, has returning material as well as Boulder transfer Kain Colter, a junior quarterback.
Eaglecrest (Terrell Thompson) has an opportunity to emerge and employed John Pounder to take over the offense.
Overland is intent on fixing one of its worst defenses in program history and sports veer quarterback Devon Connors at the controls.
As for Smoky Hill (Ervin Ferris), it seeks to end a generational thing. The program’s last winning record was in 1990, or shortly before most of today’s Buffaloes were born.
