LAKEWOOD — In the future, when Kaitee Ard is having lunch with former classmates or, better yet, attending a Dakota Ridge High School reunion, she will be ready when the conversation inevitably turns to recalling glory days.
This much is certain: She won’t be the one with athletic remorse, no lamenting she should have played this sport or tried that one.
Now an 18-year-old senior, Ard will be able to look back with the knowing satisfaction that she gave high school sports what she had and they gave her what they had.
And both are winning.
Ard already is a dinosaur — she’s in the process of completing her final schoolgirl year as a four-sport athlete, including two this spring.
Remember, this is Class 5A.
“We don’t have three-sporters anymore,” Eagles athletic director Matt Heckel said.
Certainly not as many as we used to as specialization, other activities, participation fees, apathy, after- school jobs, cellphones, computers and who knows what else have combined to take a big-league bite out of the high school athlete who used to live to play and compete in all seasons.
While that type of Colorado kid still resides at the smaller schools in the Rocky Mountains and surrounding high plains, where coaches constantly scan sparse halls for bodies in order to keep certain programs up and running, few have company in upper classifications.
“I just really thought that this was my last year, and I decided to go for it,” Ard said. “I thought it would be great to try.”
Having played two sports over her first three years as an Eagle — basketball and lacrosse the past two — a third led to a fourth. She joined the cross country team the past fall, then became convinced she would fare better running a shorter distance. So she embarked on the 800 meters individually and as a member of the Eagles’ relay team.
She chuckles now at her ignorance.
“I didn’t even realize you could try two sports in a season,” Ard said.
So here she is, balancing workouts, practices, meets and games, and loving every minute of it.
“Definitely,” Ard said. “There are kids out there who have an aptitude for a sport, and they should do it. But I like to do a variety of sports. The kids out there focused on one thing is outstanding, but that’s not me.”
Sure, she was a starter in basketball, but about the eighth- or ninth- best Eagle in cross country. She’s good for a couple of goals per game in lacrosse, and the jury remains out on her track prowess.
No matter. Ard gets it. It’s about being involved and experiencing enjoyment while she’s young.
“I think that’s why I’m doing it,” she said. “I realized a lot of kids were just talking about it, but that I would do it. I’ve heard people say that they’d pick up this sport or that sport . . . No one ever really follows through. This is really fun.”
Ard’s 3.76 grade-point average will take her into the University of Colorado, probably within its science field. And so be it if she never makes it into a Buffaloes uniform.
However, Ard’s mother was a track star at North Dakota. Mom wants her to consider making it at CU as a walk-on.
When asked if it was a possibility, Ard could only laugh and offer, “I don’t know.”
Either way, Ard has plenty to remember.
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
