With the new year upon us, Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman breaks down the top five things preps fans need to watch for over the course of the remainder of the winter sports season:
1. Girls wrestling at the Warrior Invitational
The first girls-only tournament of the season — at Frederick High School on Jan. 14 — is to be held as the Colorado High School Activities Association begins to determine whether it would be feasible to add girls wrestling as a sanctioned sport. At Frederick and the four other girls-only tournaments scheduled so far, wrestlers must already be a member of their high school team, can compete in one of seven different weights (101, 111, 121, 131, 143, 160 and 189) and cannot be “double-bracketed” in the boys’ tournament.
2. The talent-laden Top of the Rockies Wrestling Invitational
Defending 5A champion Pomona headlines the field at Centaurus High School from Jan. 20-21, with potent Legacy, Grandview and Poudre also competing in what has become the premier in-state tournament for high school wrestling. The top team placers at Centaurus will be frontrunners for the CHSAA 5A title come February, while individual placement at the tournament is a sure sign a wrestler is on the right track to make the podium at state.
3. The CHSAA wrestling state championships
With mats covering the Pepsi Center floor from end to end, whole communities of raucous fans in the stands and hundreds of dreams of a state title hanging perilously about the air, there simply is no atmosphere quite like the three-day CHSAA state wrestling tournament.
4. 5A/4A basketball championships return to the Denver Coliseum
The move of the final rounds of the state’s big-school hoops playoff games — March 9-11 — from the Coors Events Center in Boulder back to the Coliseum should boost the atmosphere in the arena. Less seats (the Coliseum holds about 10,000), a more centralized location to the Denver metro area and the rustic nature of the digs will make the games more intimate and should have prep players feeling like pros out on the court.
5. Most major basketball titles are up for grabs:
Aside from 5A girls basketball, where reigning Player of the Year Michaela Onyenwere and uber-deep Grandview are the clear favorite to capture the crown, the title chase in the other three large classifications remains wide open. Any team in the latest Post Preps Power Rankings could win the 5A boys title, and while the Pueblo West boys are surely the favorite in 4A, the likes of Valor Christian, Sand Creek, Vista PEAK Prep and more could also challenge. And, in 4A girls hoops, Pueblo South, Evergreen and Valor Christian headline a field ripe with postseason darkhorses.
