There are the shouts of TWWWOOOOOOOO!!!!
There is yelling and crying, the repetitive shrill of whistles across 10 mismatching mats.
There are coaches motivating, consoling, cussing. There are wrestlers alternating across the full spectrum of human emotion, from elated to crushed, amid one of the biggest moments of their young lives.
There are nosebleed plugs that keep the matches going. There’s sprinting and meditating in the dimly-lit recesses of the cavernous arena. There is that tingling feeling that creeps through close to 15,000 bodies when the Parade of Champions begins on a Saturday night in late February.
This is the Colorado high school state wrestling tournament, a sensory-overloaded mecca in its 22nd year at Ball Arena. After a year off from Denver last year, when the tournament was moved to Pueblo due to COVID attendance restrictions, state wrestling returned to its full glory this year in a venue that has gilded CHSAA’s marquee event.
“It’s a lot of hype, a lot of lights, and there’s not many places in the country where high school kids get to wrestle in front of close to 15,000 people in the finals,” Centauri coach Cahlen Keys said. “I won my two titles here (as a wrestler), and at this point, it’s nostalgic to this sport in this state and the individuals in it.
“You see these kids’ dreams come true, you see the roller-coaster ride because there’s so many of the opposite emotions, too. But it’s magic, man. This tournament, this arena… it makes for an atmosphere that’s the stuff of dreams.”
***
The state tournament first went prime-time in 1987 when it was moved to McNichols Sports Arena, with all of the classifications under one roof. A crowd of 34,400 turned out for that three-day tournament, and the correlation between the buzz of the tournament and the state’s premier arena instantly became clear. The model has held up even as the venue has changed, with the tournament switched to the then-named Pepsi Center in 2000.
“It is our best event,” CHSAA wrestling commissioner Adam Bright said. “You get all five classifications underneath one roof — counting the girls — that’s special. We don’t have a lot of places we can do that. The passion and energy that comes with wrestling, and where some of the smallest schools are on the mat right next to the largest schools in the state, competing for the same thing, it’s unmatched.”
The all-class format within the venue known colloquially known as “The Can” is a setting where CHSAA has been able to stage a championship feeling for 1,056 qualified wrestlers — then store that feeling and replicate the “magic” each winter.
Within Ball Arena, it’s all colors, creeds, ethnicities and now gender (the girls are having their first sanctioned tournament here this year) on equal footing, in equal 16-person brackets. Win four matches, and you’re a state champion.
In any other venue, the “magic” of the tournament might leak out into the sky. But “The Can” chambers the emotion and journey of every student-athlete, coach and fan; it builds drama and allows tension to mount over three loud days, like red rising on a decibel meter. Last year’s detour to Pueblo’s Southwest Motors Event Center, where the tournament clearly lacked the same oomph, amplified the important connection to its longtime Denver home.
“Last year in Pueblo, (the vibe) was just sad,” said CHSAA wrestling historian Bob Smith, who attended his 71st consecutive state tournament this year and led the push to move it to McNichols in 1987. “The brackets cut in half, the attendance limit — it wasn’t like a true state tournament experience. Credit to CHSAA for pulling it off (amid the COVID pandemic) and at least having a tournament. But (Ball Arena) is the only place for this camaraderie, and the proper place for this annual community reunion.”
“It didn’t feel normal and it didn’t feel right in Pueblo,” Bright added. “So yeah, it’s great for everyone to be back home in Denver.”
***
Only Ball Arena is big enough to house the crowd and emotion the tournament produces. There are whole sections of stands occupied by fans from small towns that drove into Denver from across the state, while Saturday night’s finals have typically been one of the biggest one-day attendance draws in Colorado preps.
It’s also an atmosphere that continually seeds the next generation of wrestlers, elementary-aged kids and younger whose eyes get wide at the roar of the crowd and the fierce competition.
As local wrestling expert Tim Yount of On The Mat explained, “the culture of wrestling in this state, it all starts right here. This is the experience the young kids dream of and chase.”
“I saw my brother win the title here when I was a kid, and that was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Pomona senior Jakob Romero said. “From that moment I wanted to copy what he did… Winning (an individual title) in Pueblo last year, it was different. The dream has always been to win it here, because nothing matches this place.”
Now the question becomes, can CHSAA hold state wrestling at Ball Arena in perpetuity? Despite rising costs, Bright said that’s the association’s goal.
“As long as it remains a fiscally responsible venue for us to participate in, we absolutely want to be here,” Bright said.
According to internal audits, it cost CHSAA $351,409 to put on the tournament in 2020, while the association made $422,568 in revenue. So while state wrestling is CHSAA’s most expensive event annually, it’s also one of its biggest money-makers along with the district/state basketball tournaments as well as football.
Ball Arena charges CHSAA $27,000 to rent out the facility for three days, but the association also has to foot an annual bill north of $300,000 for staffing and security costs to run the tournament. Hence, the facility fee is less than 10% of CHSAA’s overall cost of putting on the tournament.
But as long as attendance continues to hover around 30,000 for state wrestling each February, the financial part — and the “magic” — will take care of itself.
“This setting gives the kids the big stage, and people love to come here from all corners of Colorado,” Smith said. “I fought for years to get it to McNichols as chair of the wrestling committee. We had to prove to (CHSAA) we could do it, logistically and financially. We’ve done all that, and more. We’ve created the best experience in Colorado high school sports.”
History of CHSAA State Wrestling Tournament Venues
Multiple locations for a particular set of years indicates the tournament was held at different sites across one weekend, with classes split.
1936-40 — Gunter Hall (Greeley)
1941-46 — Denver East High School
1947 — Denver West High School
1948-49 — Denver City Auditorium Annex
1950-52 — University of Denver (on the ice)
1953-55 — Denver City Auditorium
1956-60 — Aurora Central High School
1961-62 — Englewood Fieldhouse
1963-64 — Englewood Fieldhouse/Aurora Central High School
1965-68 — Denver City Auditorium/Hinkley High School
1969-75 — Greeley/Hinkley High School/Denver City Auditorium
1976-79 — Greeley, Auditorium Arena
1980 — CU Sports Center/Auditorium Arena/Denver Coliseum
1981 — Denver Coliseum/Auditorium Arena
1982-86 — Denver Coliseum/Auditorium Arena (all class finals at Coliseum)
1987-99 — McNichols Sports Arena
2000-20 — Pepsi Center
2021 — Southwest Motors Event Center (Pueblo)
2022 — Ball Arena
