Post Preps Insider is your daily source for news, story lines, top games and more information on Colorado high school sports — brought to you by Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman.

Changes are afoot in School District 27J, with a four-day week coming this fall while the communities within the district — namely Brighton and Thornton — continue to adjust to rapid growth that’s brought rush hours to agricultural towns.

Also coming this fall is the opening of Riverdale Ridge High School at 136th Avenue and Yosemite Street — where the Ravens have already taken huge steps to ensure athletic success.

First, Riverdale Ridge named Harry Waterman a big-name hire for a school that was only approved for initial CHSAA membership at January’s Legislative Council meeting. Prior to his appointment at Riverdale Ridge, Waterman served as a CHSAA associate commissioner for a decade and as the athletic director at Greeley West for eight years before that.

“This is a really unique opportunity to open a brand new school — and it’s something I’ve never experienced before, to build from the ground up and make something completely our own,” Waterman said. “I think our coaches are seeing the same opportunity I am.”

Since Waterman took the helm, he’s wasted no time in making flashy hires, a number of which were previously 5A coaches. The Ravens will enroll ninth and tenth graders for the 2018-19 school year, starting out as Class 2A in football and 3A in all other sports.

The thought of moving to a lower classification didn’t seem to mind Wayne Voorhees, the former Legacy coach who will oversee Ravens football, or Ray Garza, the current Brighton baseball coach who will head up Riverdale Ridge softball.

Other notable hires include former Brighton assistant Scott Neitenbach for wrestling, former Pomona assistant Seth Mattern for track and Laura Watling for volleyball. Watling won a state championship

And all of those coaches know it won’t be long before the Ravens are competing against some of the best big schools the state has to offer.

“The district’s expanding so rapidly,” Waterman said, “so I would be surprised if we’re not at least a 4A school by the next cycle in 2020.”

Post Preps Insider is your daily source for news, story lines, top games and more information on Colorado high school sports — brought to you by Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman.

Ask anyone sitting in the stands that May day at All-City Stadium in 2010, when Rocky Mountain southpaw Marco Gonzales became the first and only player in Colorado prep history to earn four state championship wins, and they’d tell you the pitcher’s professional success seemed preordained.

The sensational 11-2 freshman season that followed at Gonzaga — which earned Gonzales co-West Coast Conference player of the year honors — seemed to cement his destiny toward greatness, and he was selected in the first round (19th overall) of the 2013 draft by the Cardinals.

Then, after a quick ascent to the big leagues, adversity came that called the Fort Collins native’s hardball fate into question. First it was shoulder inflammation that limited him in 2015, and then

But two years removed from that surgery, Gonzales made his 2018 debut for the Mariners on Tuesday where he followed up by limiting the Giants to three runs in 6 ⅓ innings in Seattle’s 6-4 win.

for the 26-year-old for a number of reasons, as Gonzales never lasted more than five innings in his seven starts with the Mariners last year after being traded

Seattle believes in Gonzales, considering general manager Jerry Dipoto in the offseason — a clear vote of confidence for not only veteran ace Felix Hernandez to regain his Cy Young form, to become a bona fide major league starter.

Gonzales showed that potential against San Francisco with an arsenal that included a fastball, changeup, curveball and cutter, a pitch he recently reacquainted himself with in spring training.

And as the pitcher emphasized to The Denver Post shortly after his arrival in Seattle last summer, Gonzales is finally pitching with peace of mind about the health of his arm — something that showed in his dominance Tuesday, especially through the first five innings in which he allowed just one run.

Gonzales, whose eight total starts last year were a career high, is next on Sunday against Minnesota at Target Field. He was one of nine Colorado products on Opening Day rosters.

Last year, Colorado placed seventh, and there are expected to be upwards of 24 teams this year.

The Colorado team is headed up by Mountain Range coach Todd Sandman as well as Charlie Pipher, an assistant at Western State.

Thursday will consist of workouts, registration and coaches’ meetings at Knowlings Fieldhouse, while the competition fires up on Friday at 7 a.m. mountain time.

Follow along alive

Weight — Name, School, Year (2018 state performance)

106 — Jacob Gonzales, Pueblo Centennial Jr. (4A runner-up)

113 — Alejandro Santillan, Grandview Soph. (5A third place)

120 — Ethan Andrade, Lamar Jr. (3A runner-up)

126 — Joe Chavez, Alamosa Jr (3A state champion)

132 — Cameron Lucero, Pagosa Springs Fr. (3A runner-up)

138 — Austyn Binkley, Berthoud Jr. (3A state champion)

145 — Trevor Singleton, Pueblo County Jr. (4A third place)

152 — Dylan Raneri, Grandview Jr. (5A fifth place)

160 — Drake Engelking, Longmont Jr. (4A state champion)

170 — Jayson Davis, Pueblo County Jr. (4A runner-up)

182 — Joe Renner, Grandview Soph. (5A fourth place)

195 — Alec Hargreaves, Rocky Mountain Soph. (5A runner-up)

220 — Logan Thompson, Alamosa Jr. (3A fourth place)

285 — Sy Spitz, Lamar Soph. (3A fourth place)

Post Preps Insider is your daily source for news, story lines, top games and more information on Colorado high school sports — brought to you by Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman.

It seems to happen almost every spring, but it’s worth another reiteration: beware of the local baseball teams that take early season lumps out-of-state.

Last season, Rocky Mountain started the season 0-4 at the hands of national competition, yet the Lobos used those tests of confidence to build the base for an eventual sixth state championship.

The Class 5A No. 6 Lobos (1-4) are off to a similar start this spring, with all of Rocky Mountain’s losses coming to non-Colorado competition in the

“The early season always prepares us in a lot of ways — over the years we’ve found some really good teams to play and it’s humbling in a good way, especially coming off championships,” Rocky Mountain coach Scott Bullock said.

“What’s most important when you play good out-of-state teams is that they expose you and point out your weaknesses. I want to find out the things we need to work on early on.”

And while surely Bullock would like to see his team have more preseason success — the Lobos have lost at least three of their first four games each of the past five seasons, including 2018 — the program’s also won two state titles and averaged over 18 wins a year in that time frame.

It’s proof that the model of taking early lumps against top out-of-state competition is the best way to mold a team for the playoffs.

Other 5A teams with recent notable warm weather performances include Grandview (5-1), at the Anaheim Lions Tournament, and No. 2 Pine Creek (5-2), as the Eagles were 2-2 in

Plus, don’t overlook the play of the two top-ranked 4A squads, as No. 1 Evergreen while No. 2 Valor Christian posted a 2-2 mark on their California trip.

And as conference play fires up across the state this week, also keep an eye on the effect of out-of-state trips on those that chose to travel to warm weather to practice, scrimmage and build team chemistry over Spring Break.

No. 3 Cherry Creek (4-2) held their ‘Spring Training’ camp at while No. 1 Mountain Vista (6-0) used their break to practice on high school and college fields around Phoenix while holding the ‘Green and Gold World Series’ intrasquad scrimmage.

Long story short, the prep baseball programs that make a habit of heading out of state in March are the ones usually playing their best ball come May.

Post Preps Insider is your daily source for news, story lines, top games and more information on Colorado high school sports — brought to you by Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman.

I awoke this morning to two valid yet vastly contrasting Twitter responses to yesterday’s story on the CHSAA transfer rule proposal, which would require all transfers to sit out from their sport for 365 days if they didn’t move or weren’t granted a hardship waiver.

The first perspective, offered by Lakewood girls basketball coach Chris Poisson, is in line with the association’s belief that athletically motivated transfers are bad for teams, bad for schools and bad for high school sports overall.

This is good for Colorado. Other states have a similar rule and do not have a problem of transfers. Our next problem will be club coaches recruiting middle school athletes to the school where they are head coaches.

— Chris Poisson (@coachpoisson)

However, as Poisson notes, there’s still the issue of middle school recruiting considering that as eighth graders, students can open enroll at whatever high school they want — even if it’s athletically motivated — without penalty.

Which brings us to a second, distinct outlook that local quarterback coach Warren McCarty offered.

High school athletes are held to an unfair standard vis-a-vis the issue of transferring, and it should be an open market for players to go where they want without having to sit out — even if that means changing their mind on a school midway through their prep career.

Yet coaches’ can take a “better” job at a different school??? Kids transfer for better academic programs at other schools. Why can’t they do the same for sports??? needs to consider the storm that is heading for the NCAA, and take note.

— Warren McCarty (@warriorqbcoach)

The contrasting viewpoints offered by Poisson and McCarty are just a few on a hot-button issue that has proved complex. Here’s what others are saying about

What do you think? Tweet us , or , or give us

https://twitter.com/CoachTDorsey/status/979455747380494336

https://twitter.com/CoachTDorsey/status/979501070476103680

you have this whole transfer thing wrong. You make it seem like every situation is the same.

Again..regression

— Josh Turner (@CoachJTCO)

CHSAA must put more legislation behind transfer rules. Especially if they want to increase the penalty. Strict rules with weak legislation…

— Bill Edell (@1Undrpar)

https://twitter.com/ACTrojansTrack/status/981018702836514816

Hate it…in the end it����ap still a 15,16,17 year old kid that may just need a change of scenery. People wanna act like pursuing a brighter future is a crime, it isn’t

— TLee (@TonyML522)

No competitive balance if athletes can just transfer purely on a sport related decision. If you live in that community you should go to the that school. It����ap the reason some schools in the metro area can’t even field teams while others are 6 deep on the depth chart.

— Coach Franz (@CoachFranz56)

https://twitter.com/TeamdoddDodd/status/980806665120440320

https://twitter.com/ACTrojansTrack/status/981018702836514816

Meanwhile, Rebels star attackman Gabe Mein sprinted by himself to the far corner of the field to collect a handful of balls — a duty one would expect to see from a freshman newcomer, not a University of Utah commit and senior captain who’s been a primary force in building the Class 5A No. 2 Rebels (5-0) into a state title contender this spring.

It’s that sort of “servant leadership” that Columbine coach Henry Sulzbacher says is behind both Mein and the team’s success, with a pair of wins on the Rebels’ recent Washington road trip to match three notable victories over Grandview, Monarch and Arapahoe to open the season.

“Gabe’s not the vocal leader at all, but if you want to know what the right thing to do is, then just watch him,” Sulzbacher said. “Whether it’s in practice, a game or off the field, he does all the right things, and he does everything extra that he can do to help his teammates get better.”

Last year, Mein led the Rebels to a 12-5 record and quarterfinal appearance with 31 goals and 42 assists, while his 73 total points ranked fourth in 5A. He has 13 goals and nine assists so far this year.

And as Mein works with fellow captains in goalie Gavin Beilman (Westminster College), midfielder Nick Darrow (Mercer) and defender Brock Harmon (Colorado Mesa) to build on Columbine’s 2017 postseason, he noted they’ve grown close with key members of the school’s 2012 team that set a program best for wins (15) while making the Rebels’ lone semifinal showing.

“The legacy of those 2012 guys was big — we’ve tried to carry that on and we’ve met with them and talked to them quite a bit,” Mein said. “We never went to school together obviously, but they’ve really led us into those leadership nuances we didn’t know about in terms of getting a team to work together and how to get a team to listen.”

And while Mein has already left an indelible mark as one of Columbine’s greatest players ever, upon his arrival in Salt Lake City he’ll also have a chance to be one of the foundational building blocks of Utah’s Division I program.

The Utes, which are currently a club team, as the westernmost team in Division I men’s lacrosse as well as the first Pac-12 school to adopt the sport.

“That’s something that drew me to Utah — the opportunity to be a pioneer of the program and to be one of the first ones to play Pac-12 lacrosse west of the Rocky Mountains at the Division I level,” Mein said.

Mein is one of over a half-dozen Class of 2018 locals committed to the Utes, a list that includes Cherry Creek midfielder Jimmy Erickson, Monarch attackman Jackson Rose, Valor Christian midfielder Easton Cecil, Mountain Vista goalie Jonah Hirshorn and Mountain Vista midfielder Ryan Nunes.

But college will come calling soon enough — for now, the 18-year-old is focused on helping the Rebels fulfilling their potential, which is a first state championship.

“I think we’re the real deal,” Sulzbacher said. “With what we have in line — the maturity of the team, the senior leadership with Gabe and 14 others — there’s pressure to do things this year.

“But we’re not gimmicky, and we’re not scoutable. If you look at our goal sheets, we’ve got five guys usually scoring, and if it’s not Gabe leading, it’s always someone else.”

Under the current rule, mid-season and summer transfers are viewed differently. Summer transfers are eligible for the last half of the regular season, plus playoffs, while mid-year and “athletically motivated” transfers are ineligible for one calendar year from their transfer date.

But should CHSAA commissioner Rhonda Blanford-Green said it would simplify the transfer rule while also protecting the credibility of the Ratings Percentage Index used to determine playoff seeding.

“We adopted the 50 percent transfer system prior to the RPI, which is obviously based on wins and losses throughout the whole season,” Blanford-Green said. “But an incoming summer transfer who’s an impact player can actually skew the RPI — and if you get two or three good summer transfers who come on midway through, it’s a different team than it was at the beginning of the season.”

While hardship or “bona fide move” exemptions would still be considered, now all transfers would be treated the same, regardless of when they joined the team, and “will be ineligible for varsity competition for 365 days from the date of their transfer, in the sports they participated in during the last 365 days.”

There are three obvious ramifications should the proposal pass, which is likely considering it was recommended by the association’s 21-member handbook committee in February.

Most clearly, the proposal makes the transfer rule much more stringent. If you transfer without moving homes into a new district or not due to hardship, you must sit out a year in your sport, no exceptions.

This is to eliminate the rising number of the summer transfers across many sports, but most notably football and boys/girls basketball, who repeatedly (and gladly) paid the price of sitting for 50 percent of the regular season in exchange for playing in the biggest games for a new program down the stretch.

Secondly, the proposal doesn’t change that Colorado is still an open enrollment state — and in fact, the proposal makes the choice of open enrollment more visible by moving the language up in the bylaw. As eighth graders, athletes and their families can choose whatever school they want, even if it’s outside their district and even if it’s athletically motivated, and there are no CHSAA consequences.

Hence, no matter how stringent the transfer rule, recruiting by coaches and school-shopping by families for middle-school students is still going to be the norm.

And finally, the proposal will likely only increase the contentiousness between local families who embrace the concept of athletic capitalism — i.e. that it’s an individual’s right to go play at whatever school they want, whenever they want — and an association that wants to put a lid on athletically motivated transfers.

Blanford-Greene said CHSAA’s received about 1,200 so far in the 2017-18 school year (only a small percentage are approved each year), and she expects that number to go up substantially should the more stringent transfer proposal pass.

“We knew we just had to get the language in place to be able to have people maybe think twice about transferring,” Blanford-Green said. “This new bylaw may keep some of those kids more stable, help some of those local programs be more sustainable and reach competitive equity and maybe stop some of the athletic-based transfers.”

Post Preps Insider is your daily source for news, story lines, top games and more information on Colorado high school sports — brought to you by Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman.

As Louisville prepares to take on Mississippi State on Friday in the Final Four, Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman caught up with the Cardinals’ 6-foot-4 sophomore forward and Mesa Ridge graduate Kylee Shook to discuss the NCAA Tournament run.

��:��What’s it been like to be a part of this Final Four ride?

��:��It’s been an incredible experience. What we’ve been able to accomplish this year, and getting is a credit to the talent and work ethic of this team. In the Elite 8 win over Oregon State, you really saw our energy as a whole while (guard) Asia Durr shot really well from outside and inside. With our play in the conference and NCAA tournaments, I feel we’ve definitely proved we belong on this stage.

��:��How are you making the most of your time off the bench?

��:��Our two starting forwards, Sam Fuehring and Myisha Hines-Allen, are really solid and they bring a ton of intensity and scoring to the floor. So when I get in the game, I need to make sure to keep up that intensity. Sometimes that’s by scoring, and sometimes that’s by getting every rebound I can and making sure we’re staying disciplined in the paint on the defensive end.

��:��How important is it for you to represent your state?

��:��I love Colorado, so it’s important for me that I play well for the state and for Colorado Springs. It’s great to hear from former coaches and teammates who helped me get to this point, like (Mesa Ridge coach) Jeff Beatty — he and I talk sometimes and we did this season again. It was also awesome to hear about how they beat the number one-ranked team in the (Class 4A) state tournament, even though they lost in the Final Four.

I obviously couldn’t see any of the Mesa Ridge games so Beatty would text me and let me know how the season was going. And I follow other Colorado women who are playing, too, like (Grandview graduate) Michaela Onyenwere at UCLA. We played for the same AAU team one summer, so I know her, and I think we all kind of root for each other, especially when it gets to the NCAA Tournament.

��:��This year’s team has already racked up the most wins in school history — what’s it going to take for you and your teammates to advance to the title game for another crack at the program’s first national championship?

��:��Mississippi State is a great team with a great coach, so we have to be ready to play from the opening tip. (Coach Jeff) Walz puts a lot of emphasis on defense, playing for each other, getting stops when we absolutely need them and not giving up easy baskets. That’s all going to be really important on Friday night.

Kylee Shook stats at-a-glance

— Averaging 14.1 minutes over 38 games played (one start this season; started 13 games as freshman)

— 5.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game in 2017-18

— Scored in double digits seven times this year

— Posted a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds)

No. 1 Louisville (36-2) vs. No. 1 Mississippi State (36-1), 5 p.m. Friday — Nationwide Arena, Columbus, Ohio (ESPN2)

The reigning CHSAA state champion Raiders suffered a  in overtime of the Division I championship. Regis Jesuit yielded the game-tying goal with two seconds to play in regulation.

“We played almost a flawless third period, and didn’t give up many shots — and we had chances of our own, including hitting the crossbar,” Regis Jesuit coach Dan Woodley said.

“But we dumped the puck in their zone with 12 seconds left in the game, and their player stepped out and flipped it to center haphazardly. It bounced past our coverage and landed right on their guy’s stick, and he managed to make a pass across the middle to another guy, who one-timed it.”

Monarch also fell in its championship showing, while Valor Christian took third place in Division I after falling 3-2 to the two-time national champion Raiders in the semifinals.

In all, the collective showing by the state’s three best prep teams — even sans a national championship — once again affirmed Colorado’s place as an elite hockey state, especially considering Regis Jesuit, Monarch and Valor Christian don’t bring in AAA players for premier tournaments.

“(Other teams) don’t play their pure high school team in these tournaments — they have a tournament team where they pick up some AAA players to add to the team,” Woodley explained. “They keep a large roster during the year and those AAA players fill out their roster and make them competitive at national tournaments, whereas Monarch didn’t pick up any players, Valor Christian didn’t pick up any players, and we lost players.”

“We’re competing against the best these out-of-state teams can put together, with enhanced lineups, and the Colorado teams are doing fantastic.”

In individual performances of note, Regis Jesuit senior Shane Ott with 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists), while Monarch’s Connor Akerson (12 points) and Leo Felt (11) ranked second and third, respectively, in Division II offensive production.

Editor’s Note: Per USA Hockey, all athletes participating in Division I high school nationals must have fulfilled playing requirements for their team even if they are dual-rostered with a AAA club. That includes attending the high school you play for, and playing a minimum of five games during the high school season.

Updated 4/1/18 8:35 a.m.: Santa Margarita hockey coach Craig Johnson responded to Woodley’s comments about “enhanced lineups”:

“All of our players qualified for Nationals under USA Hockey rules, attend Santa Margarita Catholic High School full time, and are in good standing academically with Santa Margarita. We did not bring in any outside players.

“Every game against Regis has been a tight game. They’re a phenomenal program, one we have a lot of respect for. They’re incredibly talented, well coached, and they play the game the right way, just as our kids do.”

Post Preps Insider is your daily source for news, story lines, top games and more information on Colorado high school sports — brought to you by Denver Post preps editor Kyle Newman.

With Colorado State hiring Niko Medved as its next men’s basketball head coach, what does that mean for the Rams’ recruitment of standout local players?

Medved, who served as the Rams’ assistant coach from 2007-13, returns to Fort Collins after head coaching stops at Drake and Furman. And during his first stint at Colorado State, he was

Whether Medved can convince top-tier local ballers to come to Colorado State — as he did with Ralston Valley star Pierce Hornung — remains to be seen, but there have only been two Colorado players on each of the past three seasons.

Most immediately, the future of Golden forward comes to mind, as the senior is committed to Drake but was also offered by the Rams.

Matt Langley, who is as plugged into Colorado’s high school basketball recruiting scene as anyone, offered an interesting perspective on how Medved’s hire will get more local players quality looks from the Rams:

This hire will impact recruiting in CO. CSU will actually be active in the state and will want to know about in State recruits

— BasketballColorado (@Bball_CO)

Doesn’t mean CSU will take every CO kid. But they will be well aware of the instate kids and they will first hand evaluate our kids. Unlike past staff.

— BasketballColorado (@Bball_CO)