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Jared Yannacito is already seeing a flashback four weeks into the future.

Yannacito, a Pomona High School graduate and the head coach at Ralston Valley, is ready for his Mustangs’ Halloween showdown against Arvada West at the North Area Athletic Complex to feel eerily familiar to his prep football heyday.

As a Panthers junior in 2004, Yannacito recalled a league title game against Arvada West that was played to a standing room-only crowd at the NAAC.

“I’ll never forget that atmosphere,” he said. “Every seat on both sides was packed, fans spilling over (into the aisles). So I know (Oct. 31) will be kind of a full-circle moment, because I think it’s going to be a really fun atmosphere. The crowd in 2004 felt like a state-game atmosphere. It’s going to feel that way for sure.”

The way Arvada teams are dominating so far this fall, it isn’t hard to see Yannacito’s prediction becoming reality.

The normal arc in prep football history is that when one program is thriving, the others can’t keep up. Local talent is siphoned off to the one dominant program, and the others suffer. But that’s not the case in 2025 as Arvada has two bonafide title contenders in Class 5A, another in 3A and one more in 1A.

Yannacito’s Mustangs are 6-0 and No. 2 in The Denver Post’s football rankings. They had a signature win over Valor Christian on Sept. 26. And No. 3 Arvada West, also 6-0, took down Fairview and Legend in successive nail-biters in mid-September.

Plus, there’s Pomona’s return to relevance in its second season in 3A. After making the semifinals last year, the No. 3 Panthers (4-1) look title-caliber again this fall. And Forge Christian (formerly Faith Christian) is a championship contender in 1A, as the Fury are 5-1 and ranked 5th in

In other words, Arvada residents should plan on clearing their weekends into late November and possibly even the first Saturday in December, when the 3A and 5A title games will be played at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins.

“Each school is a different flavor, if you will, but it’s all leading to success,” Pomona head coach Nate Johnson said. “Pomona is more of the blue-collar feel with a heavy Hispanic influence. Gritty, grinders, tough. Ralston Valley, not that they’re not tough, but they probably come across as more of a flashy team with shiny toys and talent. And Arvada West is maybe a mix of both in some ways.”

For Ralston Valley, Yannacito hopes this fall is the breakthrough the Mustangs have been working toward for over a decade. Ralston Valley, which lost in the quarterfinals last season and the semifinals the two years before that, has never appeared in the title game. But the Mustangs have long been a thorn in other 5A powers’ sides since the school opened its doors in 2000, starting with current Frederick coach Matt Loyd’s long and successful tenure.

Quarterback Zeke Andrews is the latest star for a program that has churned out several in recent years.

The senior had thrown for 1,286 yards with 72.9 completion percentage, 14 TDs and 144.2 QB rating through the team’s first five games. He’s also the team’s leading rusher, with five more TDs there. As evidenced by his play in — 215 yards and two TDs by air, and 121 yards and two TDs by ground — he can put the Mustangs on his back for a deep playoff run.

“He’s played really confident, and he’s been a great leader for us,” Yannacito said. “Never gets too high, never gets too low. And he’s been deadly this season with his arm and his legs.”

Arvada West also has a headliner in linebacker Jaxon Pyatt, a Cal pledge, plus a slew of other Division I commits in running back Adrian Symalla (Navy), defensive back Atticus Tillman (CSU) and QB Logan Duhachek (Eastern Illinois).

Pyatt’s dad, Brad Pyatt, coached the Wildcats for 11 seasons. But Brad stepped away from the program before this season, citing a job opportunity in Las Vegas that he couldn’t pass up and also his desire to watch his son play without having to coach.

The elder Pyatt, who won a state title as a player with the Wildcats in 1997, flies back to Colorado each weekend to watch A-West. He believes the team has turned the corner this year with the moxie necessary to win big games.

“Last year, there was still some lack of confidence in certain moments,” Pyatt said. “They didn’t know how to fight through adversity; they were still young. This year, they’re just different, and I see some similarities with the A-West teams (that went to title games in the 90s). The Legend game was a perfect example. It was eerily quiet in terms of their focus. …They were cerebral the whole game, confident, they stayed relaxed when the game got tight and went to overtime.”

Pyatt coached a large contingent of the current A-West seniors throughout middle school on the Arvada Renegades. Meanwhile, Ralston Valley’s varsity lineup is also constructed via a pipeline from a specific local youth team, the Arvada Panthers. Both the Regulators and the Panthers were teams in the .

The AYFA has been around since 1960 and currently consists of 470 players across 21 teams in grades two through eight. AYFA president Gary Gittins said the program “has a great relationship with the coaching staffs and administration at Pomona, Ralston Valley and A-West.” All three programs get players via open enrollment — Pomona more so, considering the Panthers’ small set of old neighborhoods that they draw from 鈥� but are largely homegrown with their rosters, much of which played in the AYFA.

“We are basically their feeder program, so they are very involved with us and help us with camps, coaching, things like that, because they know our kids are coming to them at some point,” Gittins said.

Pyatt’s Regulators won three straight Carnation Bowls (the championship game for the ) throughout middle school. But for the A-West seniors to get a title this year, certain hurdles will need to be cleared. Same goes for Ralston Valley and Pomona.

In the 5A championship race, it’s heavyweight Cherry Creek versus the field. In 3A, Windsor and Mead (whom Pomona lost to in the ’24 semifinals) are likely to be roadblocks for the Panthers.

Each team has also dealt with its own dose of adversity so far. Arvada West lost Symalla to an ACL tear against Fairview, and also lost its other running back, Jaiden Green, to a season-ending knee injury as well. Ralston Valley’s been affected by notable injuries too, including running back Colton Stratman (torn ACL in season opener against Erie) and star defensive end Brody Schaefer suffering a season-ending hip injury in the same game.

And then there were the wake-up calls for A-West and Pomona.

The Wildcats tallied 19 penalties for 180 yards against Fairview, including seven flags that were for personal fouls or unsportsmanlike conduct. First-year A-West head coach CJ Hanna said that lack of discipline was addressed via both sprints and sit-downs.

“If we just want to go out there and play with reckless abandonment, and do those things and be undisciplined, we showed we can still (sometimes) be okay and win games,” Hanna said. “But you can’t do that consistently and win games. That just doesn’t exist. So we talked about what our bigger goal is. … (those penalties) are not even an option anymore if (a state title) is the goal, because we’re just going to end up hurting ourselves in the end.”

For Pomona, Johnson said the 45-14 thrashing at the hands of 4A No. 1 Dakota Ridge was proof that some of the Panthers’ starters were going through the motions at practice. A few of them ended up getting benched for Pomona’s game against Wheat Ridge on Friday.

“It’s a challenge to them that they better start practicing harder or we’re going to find other kids who are going to replace them,” Johnson said. “They’ve responded well so far.”

As the Wildcats and Panthers make adjustments, and Yannacito says the Mustangs “still have a lot of things to clean up and get better at to get to where we want to go,” there’s a buzz about and its emanating neighborhoods. Arvada football programs have won nine state titles, and this fall feels primed for a 10th.

Many of the Ralston Valley and A-West starters go to the same trainer in nearby Westminster, and the players often see each other at lunch throughout the week. So there’s a connection there, but also a rivalry that will come to a head on Oct. 31 — especially given how RV ended A-West’s season in the second round of the playoffs last year.

“There’s a lot of mutual respect between these two teams, and Pomona, too,” Zeke Andrews said. “And there’s definitely some banter, but it’s all friendly. We want to see each other succeed — unless we’re going against each other.”

City of Arvada football state titles