There’s still plenty of gold in the hills of Cripple Creek.
Only it comes not from the restored gambling town’s old mine shafts, but in medal form. And a long-legged, thinly built eighth-grader named Katie Tapia has claimed her stake to just about all of it.
Katie competed in 20 track and field events over five multiteam junior high track meets this spring. She went 20-for-20 in finishing first.
She won all five meets in the 100 and 200 meters, high jump and long jump, her best event. At the 16-team Pimero League track meet May 7, Katie jumped 16 feet, 7 1/2 inches.
For perspective, Norwood’s Lindsey Stindt won the state’s Class 2A girls high school long jump competition with a jump of 16-6 3/4.
To cap a perfect season, Katie has been named The Denver Post’s Youth Excellence in Sports award winner for May.
Despite her advanced athleticism, Katie’s future goals remain innocent. She dreams not of the Olympics, or of a college scholarship, but of something closer to home. “To take state next year for long jump,” she said.
A realistic goal, even for an upcoming freshman at Cripple Creek-Victor High School.
Doug Rempp, the track coach at Cripple Creek-Victor Junior High, knew he had something special the first time he saw Katie run as a seventh-grader.
“I thought, ‘Raw gazelle with great possibilities here,’ ” Rempp said. “I knew the speed was natural.”
According to Katie’s grandparents, Katie’s mom, Jeannie, once outraced Yolanda Johnson, a great Colorado sprinter of the mid-1980s.
“My mom was really good in track, and I wanted to be like her,” Katie said.
And Katie’s brother, Kyle Tapia, is heading off to play running back at Chadron State College in Nebraska. So there is some athletic genes running and leaping through Katie’s lean frame.
“My brother helped make me aggressive,” said Katie, who made her league’s academic team, which requires a 3.6 grade-point average.
She is learning to channel that aggressiveness to the track, field and courts — Katie also excels in basketball and volleyball. As a seventh-grader experiencing success for the first time, Katie admits she could have been more coachable. Her attitude changed, she said, as she grew closer to Coach Rempp.
“This year, it was amazing, she would look at me with those little puppy eyes like, ‘OK, coach, what do I do?’ ” Rempp said. “Last year, she would win at a certain level and wouldn’t try to go any higher or longer. This year, she wanted to push those levels. She really wanted to get better and she became very coachable.”
Katie said her favorite track athlete is Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt. Asked if there was a Colorado track athlete she wanted to measure up to, much as her mom did with Johnson, Katie said: “Sydni Riley. She’s going to be a junior at Cripple Creek next year. She’s really good.”
Katie was born in California but moved to Cripple Creek as a kindergartner after her mother and father divorced. For years, Katie, her mom and brother lived with their grandparents, and they now live nearby. Katie said she wouldn’t consider moving to a bigger school in Colorado Springs or Denver as a way to further develop her athletic talents.
“No, I’d rather stay here,” she said. “Smaller schools are good because you get noticed more.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
Honorable mention
Northern Colorado Select: The baseball team — a combination of the Longmont Lancers and Loveland Hitmen coached by Jay Kearns and Trent Feauto — defeated the Fort Collins Sabres 6-5 to capture the 13-under D1 “Battle at the Fort” championship May 9 in Fort Collins. Select trailed 5-4 entering the bottom of the seventh, but Garret Smith’s two-strike, two-out hit with the bases loaded brought home the winner and capped a 5-0 run through the Triple Crown tournament.
Know a top athlete?
Youth Excellence in Sports (YES!) honors those 17 or younger who have excelled in any athletic endeavor unaffiliated with the Colorado High School Activities Association. To submit your choice for the top individual or team achievement that occurred during June, visit for an online form or fax a brief description of the achievement to 303-866-9004 (Attention: YES!).
