The Denver Post is proud to announce the creation of the April Heinrichs Award, which will be presented annually to the top high school senior girls soccer player, scholar and citizen in Colorado. The inaugural honor will be awarded this June, following the conclusion of the high school soccer season in late May.

Like the newspaper’s Gold Helmet Award in football and Roy Halladay Award in baseball, the April Heinrichs Award will factor in achievements and impact outside the field of play. In addition to skills on the pitch, candidates for the award will also be evaluated by their GPA and their community service.

“It’s great for girls soccer to be on par with the boys sports (The Denver Post) is recognizing at the highest level,” said longtime Broomfield soccer coach Jim Davidson. “And while it’s great from a gender standpoint, it’s also awesome that we’re recognizing a player from a state that has had great success on the girls side of the game at the college, national, international and professional level.”

An explosion of soccer talent

While Heinrichs set the bar for Colorado high school girls soccer players — the 1982 Heritage High School graduate was the captain of the U.S. Women’s National Team that won the inaugural FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 — many other notable players have followed in her footsteps.

As of late, the state has produced USWNT players such as captain Lindsey Heaps (née Horan), Mallory Swanson (née Pugh), Sophia Wilson (née Smith), Jaelin Howell and Ryan Williams. Plus, the state has churned out other stars such as Canadian national team pillar Janine Sonis (née Beckie) and three-time National Women’s Soccer League champion Jaelene Daniels (née Hinkle).

That Colorado talent pipeline of world-class players is why, when The Denver Post evaluated which girls sport to honor with an annual award, girls soccer was the clear decision.

“The state’s talent has really exploded in the last 15 years,” said Davidson, who coached the Broomfield girls for 25 years, with 385 wins, two state titles and six state runner-ups. “When we saw Lindsey Horan and Mallory Pugh rise to stardom, Colorado girls soccer was really making breakthroughs at the youth national team level and the national team level.

“We’ve since maintained that, and it’s incredible to see these Colorado women on television, representing our country, playing in the NWSL, playing major Division I and having such great success.”

The April Heinrichs Award is backed by a nonprofit, the Colorado High School Girls Soccer Player Award Corporation. The award is made possible by donations, including a sizable donation from Arvada resident Adam Stevinson. Additionally, new NWSL franchise has committed to an annual donation to support the award.

The winner of the award will be profiled in The Denver Post, receive a trophy and have a celebratory banquet in her honor. Plus, Summit FC will recognize the player during a Denver home game this summer.

Heinrichs gave her blessing for the award to take her name. The first female player inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame embodies the talent and lasting impact of a local player that the award seeks to honor.

After starring at Heritage, where led the Eagles to two state titles in 1979 and ’81 and was an All-American, she was a three-time first-team All-American , where the Tar Heels made four Division I championship games and won three of them.

After playing for the USWNT and professionally in Italy, she was the head coach at Maryland and Virginia. She was an assistant coach on the 1996 Olympic gold medal team in Atlanta, and was the head coach for the USWNT that claimed silver at the 2000 Sydney Games and gold at the 2004 Athens Games. After that, she oversaw the USWNT’s youth program.

“As a new women’s professional soccer franchise launches in Colorado, it feels fitting to launch an award that recognizes one of the state’s best female prep players and carries on the legacy of a trailblazer in the sport,” Denver Post sports editor Nate Peterson said. “Colorado has such a rich history of great players, coaches and teams in the women’s game, and April Heinrichs embodies that tradition. We couldn’t be more proud to partner with her to give out this award each year to a deserving player.”

Denver Post sportswriter Kyle Newman is the chairman of the award’s nonprofit, and he is joined on the board by Stevinson and Davidson as well as other longtime Colorado girls high school soccer coaches in , and .

A 17-person selection committee to decide the winner will consist of community members with an extensive range of girls soccer insight and influence, as well as Heinrichs herself and Denver Post staffers.

• Theresa Echtermeyer, longtime Mountain Vista coach
• Reagan Kotschau, CU player/All-American at Broomfield
• Dave Cope, retired Battle Mountain coach
• Nikki Marshall, ex-Mead/CU star and retired pro
• April Heinrichs, former USWNT player/coach
• Gary Gustafson, Heinrichs’ coach at Heritage
• Kia Gudewicz, longtime Heritage coach
• Jim Davidson, retired Broomfield coach
• Dan Watkins, longtime Jeffco girls coach
• Adam Stevinson, award’s first donor
• Lori Punko, Denver Post deputy sports editor
• Matt Schubert, The Athletic digital managing editor
• Kyle Newman, Denver Post sportswriter
• Jen Millet, Denver Summit FC president
• Nate Peterson, Denver Post sports editor
• Patrick Saunders, Denver Post sportswriter
• Joe Nguyen, Denver Post sports digital strategist

Nominations for the award and will be accepted through May 24, following the CHSAA state championships earlier that week. Ideally, players with a strong case for the award would be nominated by their head coach or athletic director.

The Post encourages any individuals or businesses who want to get involved in sponsoring the award with tax-deductible donations to reach out to board chairman Newman at knewman@denverpost.com.

2026 April Heinrichs Award nomination form

Nominations are open from March 1 through May 24 for the honor recognizing the state’s top senior girls soccer player.

The returns to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park this spring, taking on Japan on April 17 in Commerce City during the FIFA window.

One of three consecutive USWNT matches against their longtime rival in that time frame, it will be the 10th national team game at Dick’s. The USWNT is 8-0-1 at Dick’s, having first played there in 2008 and most recently a 4-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland last summer.

The April 17 match will kick off at 7 p.m., and will be broadcast on TNT/truTV/HBO Max. Ticketing presale will begin Monday, Jan. 26, and general sales for the game open on Thursday, Jan. 29.

The match at Dick’s could feature two Denver Summit FC players in midfielder Lindsey Heaps, the USWNT captain, as well as Ayo Oke. The defender was recently for matches against Paraguay and Chile.

Summit FC will open its season on March 14 at Bay FC, with its home opener on March 28 at Empower Field. The club will play two matches at Dick’s in its inaugural season on April 25 against San Diego Wave FC and on May 16 against the Orlando Pride.

And when she gets here, the global soccer superstar from Golden will be the crowd-drawing headliner for Colorado’s inaugural professional women’s soccer team.

Lindsey Heaps — U.S. women’s national team captain, Olympic and World Cup champion, NWSL champion and MVP, and one of the best players in the world — signed with Denver Summit FC through the 2029 season, the club announced Monday.

The seismic signing, the possibility of which had been floated since the moment Denver was officially awarded a team by the NWSL on Jan. 30 of last year, came to fruition after a months-long process between the midfielder and Summit FC.

“Going back to when Denver won the expansion bid, and before I even was GM, I remember thinking, ‘The perfect player for this team, if you’re going to pick one in the whole world, is Lindsey,'” Summit FC general manager Curt Johnson said. “She was one of the key players to build this roster around that we’ve been targeting all along.”

Heaps (née Horan), who has played with Lyon in France since 2021, is expected to make her Denver debut following the conclusion of the current Première Ligue season. With Lyon, Heaps has been part of a dominant side as a pillar in winning numerous titles, including three in Première Ligue and a UEFA Women’s Champions League crown.

Her acquisition by Denver is the biggest roster splash yet for an expansion franchise that has made waves from the moment owner Rob Cohen and his ownership group plopped down a record $110 million expansion fee to land the club.

In the year since, Summit FC has broken ground on a training facility and temporary stadium in Centennial and also achieved Denver City Council approval for an initial $50 million subsidy to clear the way for soon-to-start construction on its permanent home, a 14,500-seat stadium at Santa Fe Yards at Broadway and I-25.

All of those moves, in addition to the hiring of the accomplished Nick Cushing as head coach, were considered in Heaps’ decision to return to the NWSL.

“In listening to the ownership group, listening to Curt, seeing (ownership’s) details on this project and their view on everything they wanted to do, I was very excited about the opportunity,” Heaps said. “It’s a special project that I wanted to be a part of, especially being my hometown.

“And I looked at the next few years and I looked at my goals, and I wanted to make sure that it was the right opportunity for me to put myself in the best place possible to hopefully make a World Cup roster (in 2027) as well. I knew that I needed a good coach, I needed a good environment. And so hearing (Cushing) announced as coach obviously made me very excited.”

Heaps, 31, has played in Denver as a pro only when the national team has come to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for friendlies. The previously starred in the NWSL for the Portland Thorns from 2016-21, after spending the first part of her career with Paris Saint-Germain when the 2012 Golden graduate became the first American woman to sign a pro contract straight out of high school.

Financial terms of Heaps’ deal were not disclosed, but Johnson said “her compensation package is in line with the level of player that she is, her accomplishments in terms of her resume and the fact that she’s got many more good years ahead of her.”

At the time of the last World Cup, in 2023, Heaps’ salary with Lyon was $900,000. Johnson said the club is planning to designate Heaps as a High Impact Player, a new compensation mechanism that was but has since been the subject of a rebuttal by the

the NWSLPA said the mechanism should’ve been “a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion.” As it stands, the new rule says each club can exceed the league’s $3.5 million salary cap in 2026 by up to $1 million for High Impact Players, an additional allotment that can be used on one or multiple players who meet certain commercial or sporting criteria.

Johnson noted the club intended to sign the midfielder regardless of that provision. If it’s enacted as currently written, the cap charge of a High Impact Player must be a minimum of 12% of the base salary cap, meaning Heaps would make $420,000 that would count against Denver’s cap and the rest of her salary would be pulled from the $1 million allotment pool. Johnson said it’s possible Summit FC could sign another High Impact Player in the coming months.

All that aside, Heaps said her focus before she dons a Summit kit is to “win everything possible with Lyon, which there’s four trophies to win.”

“And then furthermore, I just want to come into Denver and … raise the standard in my own way,” Heaps said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t going to be emotional (when I step on the pitch for) the first time.”

Cohen is counting on both of those things to be true to get the club closer to its lofty goal of competing for a league championship in its first season.

“You couple Lindsey’s skill and leadership with some of our younger women that are just coming right out of college, to have that opportunity to sit in a locker room with a player of her stature, it just it raises the level of our team in addition to being a marquee player who can get the fanbase excited,” Cohen said.

Summit FC now has 14 players , and has commitments from 21 total. The team expects to sign a couple more players beyond that, Johnson said. The GM added that another signing of a Coloradan will be announced this week; the club is currently at four locals with Heaps, midfielder Jordan Baggett, defender Janine Sonis and forward Ally Watt.

Denver Summit FC signed , the club announced on Friday. The Highlands Ranch native and Valor Christian alum is the third Coloradan to join the local side, in addition to forward Ally Watt (a Pine Creek alum from Colorado Springs) and midfielder Jordan Baggett (a Chatfield alum from Littleton).

“Returning home to Colorado and joining Denver Summit FC is really special for me,” Sonis said in a statement. “I’m excited to contribute on the field and help build a team that the fans can be proud of. I can’t wait to play in front of a home crowd and be part of the growth of professional soccer in Denver.”

Summit FC acquired Sonis via a trade with Racing Louisville FC. Sonis has also played for the Houston Dash and the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League, helping the latter win the league title in 2022, and for Manchester City for four seasons in the Women’s Super League in England.

In exchange for Sonis, Summit FC sent $120,000 to Louisville, a sum that could rise to $160,000 if Sonis hits certain performance conditions. Sonis is now signed to a three-year deal with Summit FC through 2028.

Sonis is an accomplished international player as well. She has over 100 caps for the Canadian Women’s National Team (Sonis’ parents are Canadian), with 36 goals and 17 assists. She was a member of Canada’s gold medal team in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was on the country’s bronze medal team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and has played in two FIFA Women’s World Cups.

“Off the field, she’s going to be outstanding with her leadership and because she has that Colorado DNA,” Summit FC general manager Curt Johnson told The Post. “And then when you look at her on the field, she can play a number of different positions from an outside back to a winger-type of role.”

Summit FC’s roster is now at 12, and the 2026 NWSL roster limit is 26.

“In my mind, they already had a preconceived document they wanted you to sign if you were willing to do it and willing to be considered,” Shotts, CEO of the Colorado Soccer Association, told me recently. “There was a time where I thought there was more that we could’ve done. But when FIFA gives you that paper, it blows everything out the door.”

The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team was in town to take on Australia in a friendly Tuesday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park — a match the Americans won 2-1. Sadly, that will likely be the last time Denverites see the Stars & Stripes up close for a while.

The 2026 World Cup is coming to 11 U.S. cities next summer. But Denver, which bid for the event, won’t be one of them.

When Empower Field hosted the CONCACAF Nations League final between the United States and Mexico in 2021, the building stomped and shook like a Saturday at College Station, Texas, or Madison, Wis. Concacaf officials repeatedly praised the atmosphere and the venue. Where did it all go wrong?

“I think at the end of the day, it just became a financial situation,” , one of the big swingers on the Denver World Cup bid committee, told me by phone Tuesday. “We were between owners on the Broncos, and obviously, Empower Field was a huge part of the bid. So, not having clarity on where we were and where we weren’t just made the economic hurdle a little bit too much. It was just, unfortunately, timing.”

If it takes a community to host a World Cup, it takes a village, in retrospect, to lose one. The Broncos were at the listless, rudderless end of The Bowlen Trust Years. The Kroenkes, who own the Rapids, were stretched between hosting bids in Colorado and Los Angeles. Denver was the right town at the wrong time.

I reached out to four individuals who were part of that Denver 2026 bid committee. Three got back. The one thing they all independently circled back on, to a man, was money.

Long story short, FIFA kept demanding more and more of it. World soccer’s largest organizing body wanted the city and county to agree in writing, up front, that they would take on whatever future additional costs piled up.

“FIFA’s demands became very outside the lines,” Shotts said. “Essentially, they wanted you to sign an open document that says you’ll do it, but at whatever cost.

“And our folks were smart enough to realize to go and say, ‘Here is what our offer is. Here is what we can put into it. Accept it or don’t accept it.’ And as you know, they didn’t accept it. Because they wanted more.”

Reports said Denver’s bid was budgeted at $45 million and privately funded. Cohen said the committee went to the state to see if they “could try and fill the gap … and it was something they decided they were uncomfortable with at that time.”

‘I think we did a good job’

In July 2019, Gov. Jared Polis and Denver Mayor Michael Hancock stood in front of Empower Field and announced their charge to land the World Cup.

Three years later, that dream was denied.

Confetti cannons stood ready at a watch party for the World Cup announcement in LoDo in June 2022. They were never fired.

FIFA announced 11 host cities in the United States for 2026. Denver didn’t make the cut. Kansas City did. As did Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles.

Let’s cut to the chase, here. Why is Kansas City getting the World Cup next summer, and we’re not?

“The Hunt family stepped up big-time,” Bob Contiguglia, former president of U.S. Soccer and the Denver’s bid committee co-chairman, told The Post.

Clark Hunt, CEO of the Chiefs, is part of a family whose soccer ties run almost as deep as their football ones. The Lamar Hunt Cup, this country’s equivalent of the FA Cup, is named in his father’s honor.

“Kansas City, which was our main competitor, had (their) ownership in place with the Chiefs, who could step up,” Cohen said. “I think it was more leadership than it (was) our dollars, per se.

“… You need somebody up front who obviously has an economic interest in the game leading the (charge) and getting other people to come to the table. It’s a community lift, at the end of the day. But without that leadership piece in place, and clarity as to what the commitment (was), it just made it a bit rough.”

Which is a shame, as Denver had veteran hands on-side. Contiguglia was one of the pillars behind the women’s World Cups in 1999 and 2003 — two major drivers of the sport’s popularity in the U.S. He’s called the Front Range home since 1972. When I asked if he had any regrets about the 2026 bid, in hindsight, he stood firm.

“Not at all,” Contiguglia said. “And with all the news that’s coming out — there are a lot of stories about the host cities struggling to raise money. And so maybe it was the right thing that we did not get it.”

Remember that agreement about open-ended costs? Kansas City’s Wyandotte County, where Sporting KC plays, is now . Houston and Dallas have had to go back and ask for millions from state funds. Add-on expenses for infrastructure, entertainment and logistics are tacking on up to an additional $150 million for each host city, the report stated.

Contiguglia said the Broncos, even with interim ownership, were amenable to making Empower Field more World Cup-friendly. But their ownership transition didn’t ease any doubts about who would foot the bill for any potential makeovers. The Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group finalized its purchase of the team from the Bowlen Family Trust in August 2022 — not long after the 2026 World Cup cities were announced.

“I think,” Contiguglia said, “we did a good job.”

‘It was mostly a timing thing’

Fortunately, Denver gets a second chance to make a first impression. The United States and Mexico are sharing the Women’s World Cup in 2031, and Cohen, Shotts and Contiguglia also expect Denver to bid for one of the hosting slots.

Summit FC will be up and running by then, giving FIFA another example of what a fantastic soccer town Denver really is. Summit’s Santa Fe Yards home is slated to open in 2028. The Broncos’ new stadium at Burnham Yard is targeted to open by 2031.

“The men’s teams in town have been incredibly supportive of the Denver Summit,” Cohen said. “And we’ve got great working relationships across the board. I think that bodes well for the future.”

Next summer, though?

Next summer’s going to be hard.

“Sometimes, you get an offer from somebody to go do something, but it doesn’t align with your calendar,” Cohen said. “Even though it’s something you really want to do, but you can’t make it work. I think that’s the best analogy I can come up with on this. It was mostly a timing thing with us …

“We had a proverbial gun to our head to make our decision and didn’t have the financial support in place in order to (secure) a bid.”

In the first camp since falling just short of a Concacaf Gold Cup victory, head coach Mauricio Pochettino called in another batch of mostly MLS players to give them one last shot at joining the fold for next summer’s World Cup.

The decision was met with criticism, especially after an uninspiring 2-0 loss to South Korea. But then the Americans impressed in a 2-0 win over Japan — 19th in FIFA’s world ranking compared to South Korea’s 23rd — and opened its latest camp with a 1-1 draw against Ecuador in Austin, Texas.

Now, the Americans can make it three unbeaten matches in a row Tuesday night against Australia at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park — the USMNT’s first trip to Colorado since 2017 — and show clear advancement in another international friendly.

“Progression is progression. It����ap difficult to measure,” Pochettino said. “(Australia) beat Canada in Canada, I think we need to respect and we will respect (them). (It) will be another good test like Ecuador.”

Striker Folarin Balogun got back to his scoring ways against Japan after his team was blanked by South Korea, which marked progress for player and for country. For October camp and friendlies, Pochettino called in more big guns — a squad that looks a lot closer to what the World Cup roster will look like than in the September camp.

The USMNT deserved better than a 1-all draw to Ecuador (FIFA’s No. 24 team), but to come away with that conclusion also signals progress. Balogun scored in his second consecutive match to level the match in the final 20 minutes after Ecuador struck in the first half.

“All the strikers that we have are really top players, and they’re scoring goals in their respective leagues and doing a great job at the moment. To pick out (Balogun), he’s a great striker,” Leeds United and USMNT midfielder Brenden Aaronson said on Monday. “I’ve watched his games in Monaco; he’s always going off the back shoulder. He’s really difficult to deal with because he’s always dribbling, going at players, and also going in behind. He’s got two different things that he can play: He can hold up the game, and he can also go in behind and create chances by himself.”

Balogun was the most dangerous player all night against Ecuador at Q2 Stadium on Friday, leading the match in shots and shots on target (3, 2), as well as touches inside the opponent’s box (8).

The striker is getting hot at just the right time, with the Americans most in need of a clear No. 1 at the position. Josh Sargent was the man in 2022 and started the EFL Championship season scorching for his club, Norwich City. But he hasn’t scored in a U.S. jersey since 2018.

Balogun had to wait for his chance, but the Brooklyn-born forward is looking more and more like the answer at striker for 2026.

“It����ap always nice as an attacker, you always want to score. I think the most important thing is to just continue to learn under (Pochettino) and as a group, for us to continue to progress,” Balogun said. “I think no matter how small the progression is, the most important thing is to continuously progress.”

Aaronson reunion: Aaronson got to visit with his brother, Rapids midfielder Paxten Aaronson, at his Denver apartment for the first time since Paxten joined the club for a record fee from Eintracht Frankfurt.

“I’m really happy for him. I think it����ap a huge step in his life, and I think that he’s doing amazing,” Brenden said of Paxten. “He’s trying to do the best that he can, and that����ap what he’ll always do every game. That����ap something you can always count on him for doing. I think it����ap continuing to build and (the Rapids have) got two big games coming up which I’ll be tuning in for.”

More on Zack Steffen’s absence: When the October camp roster was released, Pochettino told reporters he doesn’t tell players why they do or do not make the USMNT squads. Tuesday, he was a bit clearer when it came to Steffen’s omission.

“All the positions are open, but of course, Zack, we know very well, and he’s on our radar,” he said. “Of course, it����ap about competition, it����ap about performance, it����ap about (being) fit — he was a bit unlucky in different camps, he was injured. But for sure, he’s on our radar and, of course, if he performs, he will have the chance to be with us again.”

Watching the U.S. National team blitz the Republic of Ireland 4-0 on Thursday night it provided a soothing balm on concerns. Several top Americans were missing, including Coloradans Mallory Swanson (pregnancy), Lindsey Heaps (rest after European schedule) and Sophia Wilson (pregnancy). Swanson, Wilson and Trinity Rodman, out with a back issue, form the Triple Espresso of USWNT.

But the team remains caffeinated with an infusion of youth. Credit coach Emma Hayes for building out age classes in the federation and debuting 21 players over the last year — creating a bright future.

“Honestly our biggest strength could be our depth. The Ireland coach was saying it the other day, that you could make 15 to 20 changes on the U.S. team and be fine,” Julie Foudy, legendary U.S. player and current analyst for TNT Sports, told The Post. “I would have said a year ago, I don’t know if that����ap true. Now, she is actually right.”

There is something charming about the women’s team. While we have been told for five decades how the U.S. men would take over the world, the women continue to do it. They are in a transition period after moving on from high-profile players, yet they should be favored to win the FIFA World Cup in 2027 in Brazil.

“Our standard is always the same. That is what has made this team so good over so many years even with so many new faces coming in,” USWNT standout defender Naomi Girma said. “When you wear this crest, you understand that is your responsibility and you always want to live up to that.”

It is clear women’s sports are a movement not a moment. And it goes beyond USWNT. Denver’s pro team begins play in the NWSL next March. The franchise, whose ownership group includes Peyton Manning, has secured more than 10,000 season tickets, setting a new league record.

“It����ap been fantastic. This is such a good soccer community. They are crushing it. I am an owner with Angel City, so I love it,” Foudy said. “It����ap just buzzing from the go. It����ap a really good time.”

Nuggets’ nuggets: The Nuggets press conference for co-executives Jon Wallace and Ben Tenzer was underwhelming. Nickelback would blush at the amount of clichés spewed. This tandem could work, with Wallace excelling at player relationships and Tenzer crunching numbers. But here is what is important: Teams need to know who to call to get business done. If there is confusion on who is in charge and opposing GMs decide to phone Josh Kroenke instead, then this risky arrangement will backfire.

On the Rox: After advising Walker Monfort to push for the firing of GM Bill Schmidt, a flurry of texts came in, panning the Rockies’ business model. The front office is like a hot dog. The more fans know, the tougher it is to swallow. One call I would make is to Dodgers vice president and assistant GM Alex Slater. He is known for his high baseball IQ, while operating with toughness and honesty. He is the type of executive the Rockies need to change their future.

That’s not His Name: Mets reliever Richard Lovelady requested to be called by his nickname, Dicky. He later flip-flopped, saying he preferred Richard. Then, the Mets cut him. Time to go back to his first choice, and if the big leagues don’t work, join the Savannah Bananas.

By the end of the night, those were the teeth of a champion. As confetti rained on the Boston Celtics, a fantasy football group text of former college basketball teammates was buzzing. Andrew Bucholtz could relate to White’s situation. After they were done playing together at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs in the mid-2010s, Bucholtz transferred to Whittier College, where he once chipped his front teeth during a (much less meaningful) game.

First, he poked fun at White by asking in the group chat who did it better. Then he offered advice on how to handle a broken tooth. “Not a fun time,” Bucholtz attests.

White has maintained friendships with many of his teammates from Legend High School and Division II UCCS, where he got his humble start before blossoming into a first-round draft prospect at CU.

A product of Parker, he has made the NBA All-Defensive team in consecutive seasons. Now he’s a first-time champ after averaging 15.2 points on one of the best statistical starting lineups in recent memory. During a week of celebration, several of his former teammates shared memories of White’s Colorado beginnings.

“I think he’s the new Chauncey Billups,” high school teammate Avery Carlson said. “He’s the new face of Colorado sports that really takes pride in where he’s from.”

1. Volunteering for fouls

Cleverness and a sense of humor were essential traits during White’s unorthodox prep basketball experience.

He was in the first graduating class at Legend High School, which opened his freshman year with inaugural sports teams made up entirely of athletes in his grade. The varsity basketball squad was a few sizes too small for most matchups, especially that first season. Carlson was a self-described “way undersized center” on a roster that had only a handful of players capable of faking their way through the position.

“We were sort of deer-in-the-headlights against those (bigger) teams,” Carlson said. “But D-White didn’t really have that. He kind of just shrugged it off.”

Hacking was often an unavoidable defensive strategy for Carlson, but Legend couldn’t afford frontcourt foul trouble. So the shorter, skinnier White developed a habit of trying to fool referees into counting fouls against him instead.

“I probably had more fouls than points in our basketball games. I would commit the foul, and then he would put his hand up and be like, ‘That was me,'” Carlson recalled. “The ref would kind of laugh. But sometimes they would give it to him. Really, he was just trying to keep me in the game. I think he was like, ‘Oh, this dummy fouled again.'”

2. Un-redshirted

White’s well-documented lack of college offers led him to a $3,000 scholarship as a preferred walk-on at UCCS. His talent and IQ were evident, but the team’s vision was for him to fill out his frame while redshirting the first year. Preseason workouts forced a change of plans.

“It was like he was born to play basketball,” said Jordan Carter, who was entering his junior year at the time. “He was just so much better than the rest of us. There was no way we could stop him. We were much bigger and stronger. It didn’t matter. His team would win every drill.”

Carter had first played alongside White earlier that summer in a pro-am league at Highlands Ranch High School. White had just graduated from Legend. Their first game went to sudden-death overtime, and White drained a step-back 3-pointer for the win. As Carter watched the shot, he thought to himself that he was never confident enough to try anything like that fresh out of high school.

“Once practice started and scrimmages started, (White) was just destroying the first team, the starters,” teammate Dalton Patten recalls. “Getting anything and everything he wanted. And we had exhibition games at that point, and redshirts could play in those games without it having to occupy a whole season of eligibility. So he was playing, of course, and it was just the same thing. After that, he was no longer redshirting.”

By the end of the season, White was crowned Freshman of the Year in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

3. Cereal and Oreos

White and five of his UCCS teammates lived together in a house across the street from campus, spending their free time playing video games and Ping-Pong. After early-morning practices, they would return home, and White would prepare his daily bowl of cereal then hang out in the living room. His friends were often baffled by how methodical his routine was.

“He took forever to eat his bowl of cereal,” Alex Koehler said, laughing. “He would be sitting on that couch, scrolling on his phone for like 30 or 45 minutes before he finally finished that bowl of cereal.”

“Seemed like it’s just sitting in the bowl, getting soggy,” Patten added. “He’s probably spending all of his time joking around.”

White’s dietary habits also included keeping a specific snack in his car. One of his UCCS teammates was recently contacted by a Celtics fan who was brainstorming potential gifts to present to White at the championship parade in Boston. He suggested that they buy him Oreo cookies.

“I remember him driving us to practice, and he had Oreos in the glove compartment,” Carter said.

4. The Kobe Bryant of video games

White is known to be unflappable on the court and mild-mannered off it. He and the Celtics were businesslike in their clinical dominance of the NBA playoffs. His presence was exactly the same as an amateur player in Colorado. Stoic, mature, laid-back. Not much of a trash talker.

Except in pretty much everything else outside of competitive basketball.

“If you get him started on FIFA …” Bucholtz warned, trailing off.

“That guy just wants to beat you. He just wants to destroy you,” Patten said. “But you can never be mad at him, because he’s such a good person.”

White played intramural softball with Koehler and a few other teammates during the offseason. Whenever they won, he always made sure the rest of the basketball team knew about it. He was a fierce yapper on that Ping-Pong table, and even more competitive at Xbox games such as NBA 2K and his beloved FIFA. Whenever one person defeated everyone else in the house in the soccer video game, he earned the title of “The Sheriff.” White reveled in it. He still talks trash in a fantasy football group chat with his former teammates.

“He had a remarkable ability to recall what kind of scoring run his team was on,” Carter said. “Some of the things that you hear Kobe Bryant and those guys would say in NBA games, that’s the kind of stuff Derrick would say in 2K.”

5. Derrick White’s first epic block

In an NBA Finals that generally lacked memorable last-minute theatrics, White was responsible for one of the signature moments of the series when he and Jaylen Brown chased down P.J. Washington for a clutch block with 50 seconds remaining in Game 2. White finished the playoffs with 23 blocks — the most by any non-center — bolstering his reputation as the best shot-blocking guard in the NBA.

It all started in Colorado.

At UCCS, Bucholtz remembers White getting yelled at for chasing blocks, occasionally overzealous in his weak-side help defense.

“He would kind of do what he does now and just try to block stuff,” Bucholtz said. “He wasn’t really a defensive guy at UCCS, just because he had to carry most of the offensive load. The one game we put him on the best player, he got two fouls right away, and then he never guarded the best player the rest of that year, it felt like. But you could tell he was a good shot-blocker.”

The precise origins of that skill are murky — “I have to admit, I don’t remember him blocking a single shot in high school,” Legend teammate Brad Dalby said — but they can at least be traced to one specific rejection.

Carlson remembers it vividly, probably because he was on the wrong end of it. During a one-on-one fast-break drill before their junior year at Legend, just as White was growing marginally taller, Carlson attempted to confront him at the rim.

“We’re all trying to dunk on each other,” he said. “But (White) just absolutely bundled me. I mean, he palmed the basketball, ripped it down and just dribbled away. I kind of ended up on the ground. That moment, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s in a different tier.’ It was just surgical, his body position.”

6. The superstar role player

White and Bucholtz used to get into dozens of silly semantic debates about various sports. Most of all, they were both big Nuggets fans. White’s freshman year at UCCS coincided with a 57-win Nuggets team that featured Andre Iguodala in his only season in Denver.

Bucholtz once posited to White that Iguodala was a “superstar role player” for his team, filling the gaps however he was needed.

There’s no such a thing, White would say. Superstar role players don’t exist.

“I should probably text him in the next couple of days,” Bucholtz said this week, “and be like, ‘Hey, remember that argument we had 15 years ago?'”

Only a handful of tickets were left after Memorial Day for the at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday. Any other summer, Miranda Spencer and Annie Weaver would’ve snapped those puppies up.

“We’re pretty sad we’re not going,” Weaver told me Tuesday with a rueful chuckle.

“We would definitely be there,” Spencer added.

They’ve got a good reason, though. The best. Spencer and Weaver can’t make one of Front Range’s premier women’s sports events of the year because they’re still burning the midnight oil getting a premier women’s sports bar for Denver up and running.

The 99ers Sports Bar, Spencer and Weaver’s passion project, is aiming for a July grand opening. But if you want a taste of what’s to come at 909 E. Colfax, Miranda and Annie are holding a on Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. at Lady Justice Brewing in Englewood.

“(The pop-up) gives people a chance to watch it,” Spencer said. “Especially for those who couldn’t make it to the game or couldn’t afford tickets to the game.” Ave.

After all, they wouldn’t be there without them. Or rather, they wouldn’t not be there without them.

The 99ers is named for, and inspired by, the legendary USWNT that won the 1999 World Cup, a benchmark moment for women’s sports — and for how women’s sports have been watched and covered since.

“I think for women’s sports, they showcased it, they started it,” Spencer said. “Without them, there is no this. Without the ceilings they broke and continue to do so, there is not an us.

“They paved the way for us to feel empowered to do what we’re doing. It gave young athletes something to aspire to be and to believe in something that was achievable.”

Spencer’s from Idaho. Weaver’s from Iowa. Seeing The Stars & Stripes on the pitch a Mile High is especially near and dear to Annie’s heart. She was 6 years old when Brandi Chastain rocked the Rose Bowl in ’99, shattering another glass ceiling along the way. Fast forward 15 or so years, she grew up to become , a Division III program in tiny Pella, Iowa, a burg probably best known to locals as the home of Pella windows and

“We were young, but we both remember (’99),” Weaver said. “It was one of those moments in history, especially being a young female athlete.”

It was one of those moments that didn’t just open eyes. It brought them back. And kept them. Especially on the broadcast front, where the big checks get written. You haven’t really made it in American sports until TV networks decide they love you. Or because TV advertisers will pony up the cash to hang with you, whichever comes first.

Per WorldSoccerTalk.com, averaged 338,400 viewers per match, which ran pretty close to the men’s national team’s average ratings over its 10 linear-network appearances (380,300). The USWNT’s 2023 TV ratings were reportedly its highest since 2019, with an average of 1.56 million viewers over 14 recorded data points, and a jump of 330% over 2022.

There’s an audience, all right. A tribe that’s looking for places to gather, to celebrate, to commiserate. And the growth of women’s sports in TV, fueled in part by soccer and the WNBA — paging Caitlin Clark — has given rise to the concept of sports bars themed toward women’s sports and women’s athletics. The Sports Bra, a women’s sports-centered bar in Portland, opened in April 2022. According to a recent piece at CNBC.com, its owner, Jenny Nguyen,

“I think it’s smart,” said when asked about The 99ers bar before the team’s Tuesday practice session at CU. “I think it’s smart for people to get on board with that.

“And it’s a cool concept, because still women’s sports are hard to watch. You have to have subscriptions or it’s on different streaming platforms. So if you can go somewhere and it’s on and easy to access, I think that’s amazing. And, yeah, I think it’s a smart investment for (Spencer and Weaver).”

The 24ers are out there giving love to The 99ers. How cool is that?

“I don’t think it ever gets old,” Miranda said.

“I don’t have words,” Annie said. “Soccer is my background, so even though they’re younger than me, they’re my heroes. That’s incredible.”

And if you can’t make it to Commerce City, the party at Lady Justice Brewing sounds as if it’s gearing up to be the next best thing. There’ll be items on-hand showcasing the bar to come, as well as giveaways and

As for the site itself, well …

“It’s starting to look like a sports bar,” Weaver laughed.

“There’s no instruction manual for this,” Spencer added. “There’s no ‘Opening A Bar For Dummies’ (book). We’re learning. Every single day, we’re learning two things while we also don’t know 15 things. Our list is constantly growing. The real cool thing is, within the women’s sports bar community, everyone is willing to help.”

They’ll toast the 24ers Saturday, even from afar. To every door they’ve kicked open. And to every door that’s got it coming.

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“Uncle Timmy!” Jaxon says, pointing his fingers at the screen with his eyes wide.

Some days, Jaxon will stay put and watch whatever match is on display. Other times, he’ll go back to kicking a soccer ball around or playing with toys. But the excitement never wanes when Uncle Timmy is on TV.

Jaxon might be too young to fully comprehend what Howard is talking about on TV, but there are days when Howard’s words are in part taken right from his dad. Before Howard and his “Premier League on NBC” co-hosts, Rebecca Lowe and Robbie Earle, go on the air, he’ll text Sharpe and ask for his viewpoint — especially if a goalkeeper is one of the topics on the docket — and sometimes repeats it on live TV.

When Howard is inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Saturday, Sharpe will be the one talking on camera as he introduces his star pupil and close friend on the stage in Frisco, Texas. The moment will stand as a testament to the special bond formed and nurtured during their relatively short time together in Colorado — and one that still lingers to this day.

“I think the best way I can describe (the relationship) is just the trust between him and myself,” Sharpe said.

A blessing in disguise

Of all the highs and lows of Howard’s time in a Rapids jersey, a four-month stretch between the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 is burned into Sharpe’s memory.

It began with perhaps the deepest pit of Howard’s four seasons in Colorado.

“I’ll never forget it. I can still feel it, look,” Sharpe said, pointing to goosebumps on his arms eight years later.

Howard never favored one-off performances like his 15 saves against Belgium in the 2014 World Cup. Instead, he was most driven by consistent performance, which made the pursuit of appearing in the 2018 World Cup — which would have been his fourth and final go around on soccer’s biggest stage — relentless.

The U.S. men’s national team played Mexico in a World Cup qualifier less than a week after the Rapids beat the LA Galaxy in penalties to reach the 2016 Western Conference Final — Howard made two enormous saves.

Howard texted Sharpe that week complaining of persistent groin pain. Watching from home, Sharpe noticed Howard’s kicks were short and off-target. Something wasn’t right.

In the 35th minute, he watched his goalkeeper go down in pain. Howard tried to continue, but signaled to be subbed off five minutes later after laboring to make a routine save. It was later revealed that he’d suffered a significant groin injury.

Sharpe sank into the cushions of the same couch he and his son now share on Premier League match days, struggling and ultimately failing to hold back tears.

After the game, the two talked, exchanged plans for the road back and shed a few more tears. Then, it was time to get back to work.

Howard, 37 at the time, admits now that he knew the injury could have ended his career. Sharpe didn’t want to allow such thoughts to fester.

So on the walls of various rooms inside Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Sharpe posted the date of a game early in 2017 against New York Red Bulls in which he had to play to be eligible for a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica.

It was all the encouragement Howard needed.

“The work he put in was phenomenal to do at that age,” Sharpe said. “And that motivation was frightening. It����ap all the stuff people don’t see behind the scenes that make it unbelievable. Every day, religiously, he was in the gym, in the rehab facility, just constantly working at it. In the end, he did it probably six weeks shorter than anyone thought he would.”

Howard returned to play four months later on the exact date on the wall. To this day, that is what raises the hair on Sharpe’s arms.

Later that year, the USMNT’s World Cup hopes vanished with an infamous 2-1 loss at Trinidad and Tobago, and with it, Howard’s aspiration of a fourth trip to soccer’s grandest stage.

“Probably once or twice in my life have I ever felt … that pressure on my chest,” Howard said. “We failed. We lost.”

“Yes, we’ve done it”

The Secretary of Defense typically set aside a particular celebration for some of his biggest moments: Find something to kick. It didn’t matter if it was a goalpost, a stanchion or advertisement boards. When Howard made a big save, get out of his way.

Both Sharpe and Rapids president Pádraig Smith fondly remember when he brought it out for his biggest moment in Colorado, both of them touting it as one of their favorite memories of Howard in a Rapids jersey.

In a penalty shootout against the LA Galaxy in the 2016 MLS Western Conference semifinals, Howard dove to his right to save a relatively weak attempt by Ashley Cole. The stop all but clinched the contest in front of a sold-out DSGP.

After he denied former Rapid Jeff Larentowicz on the next attempt to win the match and send the Rapids to their first conference finals since 2010, Howard did not look for anything to kick. Instead, he simply wagged his finger in the air and nodded. The job was finished.

“It����ap easy to think of that game. He was absolutely terrific,” Smith said. “When I think of Tim, I think of the performances day in and day out. At training, in games, the standards he held himself to and the standards he demanded of others really helped advance the club and show the type of professional he was.

“It would have been very easy for him to come over here, as many others have done at the latter stages of their career, and take it easy. He did not. He came here to win.”

L.A. scored on just one of four attempts. Howard dove the right direction all four times, and it was no fluke. He and Sharpe worked tirelessly in the film room to determine who on the Galaxy would take penalties and where they’d go.

When he fought his way back to action after his injury in the ensuing months, Howard was quick to remind the world he was still there both physically and emotionally.

In his return match against RBNY, he made a few routine saves early. But a top-class stop against MLS legend Bradley Wright-Phillips in the 23rd minute sparked something. After sprawling for the stop, he lunged back to his goal in celebration, pumping his fists while beating his chest and forehead with his gloves.

“He looked over at me and it was like, ‘Yes, we’ve done it,’” Sharpe said. “I remember that week was just joyous because of all the work he put in, and I can take no credit for it. I was just by his side and nudged him along. … His reaction to that save was everything he worked for. It was an amazing moment in time with him and I think those four months (recovering) probably built our whole relationship.”

End of an era, start of new life

At 40 years old, Howard entered what would be his final season with the Rapids in 2019.

Here and there, he’d pick up an injury, causing him to play a match then rest for a couple in cycles.

Toward the end of the season, in a game against RBNY, he had to play “half of the second half” using only his left foot because of a lingering right calf injury, according to Sharpe. In the locker room following the match, Sharpe knew something was up.

“He walked into the dressing room after the game and I didn’t say anything to him,” Sharpe said. “But when he sat next to me — I’ll never forget it — he put his head on my shoulder and started to cry. He knew it was coming to an end. … His body just couldn’t sustain the rigors of training and the rigors of 90 minutes.”

Howard missed a month after the RBNY game and played just two more matches for the Rapids that season: a 3-0 win over FC Dallas in his last home game and a 3-1 loss away at LAFC. He came out of retirement to play six matches for USL Championship side Memphis 901 FC the following year but hasn’t played professionally since.

Howard and Sharpe never reminisced on the stretch of injury recovery that cultivated their unique partnership. But to this day, it still hangs in the background of their friendship.

“It was a time that galvanized our relationship as a coach and a player, as two friends,” Sharpe said.

As his coach, Howard learned plenty from Sharpe in four years in Colorado, particularly on the road to recovery in 2016. Not long after his retirement, Howard, a father of two, returned the favor tenfold with words of wisdom regarding fatherhood.

“When my wife and I had my son, Tim said, ‘Chris, he’s going to change your world. Football is going to become second to what the child gives you,’” Sharpe said. “Football has always been my life, but now … Tim was absolutely right.”

These days, when Sharpe and his son watch Howard and soccer matches on TV together, sometimes he can’t help but reflect on the moments, good or bad, that forged a lifelong bond.

Sharpe will not share a couch with his son this Saturday, but Jaxon will be among the many faces in Texas listening as Sharpe shares those stories on stage alongside Uncle Timmy.

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