2013 Sports Archive Stories

Don’t tell any of the players that Friday’s Southern Colorado 3A/2A Classic didn’t mean anything. Or to the coaches, either. “I’m very intense; it doesn’t matter,” CSCS boys’ coach Mark Engesser said. “I tried to call timeouts and draw up plays to get us going. It didn’t’

DENVER • It was Wasson coach Damion Copeland’s and senior DJ Hanes’ first appearance at The Show, Colorado's high school all-star game. And it was their school’s last. Under his coach, Hanes was held scoreless, while Lewis-Palmer seniors Jordan Scott and Justin Smith combined for 17 points for the White tea

With a starting lineup that featured four seniors, Lewis-Palmer used its talent, depth and experience to again rule the roost in 4A boys’ basketball. But when the Rangers needed a big basket or defensive stand, Jordan Scott found a way to make a game-changing play. The 6-foot-6 senior came up big in clutch situations. His 1

In his final year as head coach at Peyton, Brian Green saw his team reach elite status in 2A, earning a No. 1 seed in the state tournament after a 22-2 regular season. Four years earlier, Green’s team, led by his son, Brett, reached the state 3A championship game but fell short. When Brett was granted a fifth year of eligibility at

Ethan Abello shatters the mold of what some people think about home-schooled student-athletes: Non-social. Lacks competitiveness. “People think home-schoolers never talk to anyone,” Abello said. “That can be true, but that’s the biggest misconception I’ve seen and heard. In sports, some people think we&

Damion Copeland was the steadying influence in a turbulent time at Wasson, where the district’s decision to close the school came just before the team's league opener. With the distractions circling the 54-year-old school, Copeland found a way to keep his senior-laden team focused as the Thunderbirds advanced to the 4A semifinals f

The Gazette's 3A-A all-area teams. FIRST TEAM Click here for an upclose look at the first team SECOND TEAM Jason Anderson —

The Gazette's 5A-4A Peak Performer all-area teams. First team Click here for an upclose look the the first team

5A Metro League Co-Players of the Year: A.J. Bohuslavsky, Libety, jr.; Al Davis, Fountain-Fort Carson, sr. Coach of the Year: Greg Williams, Fountain-Fort Carson First team Al Davis, Fountain, Fort Carson, sr.; A.J. Bohuslavsky, Liberty, jr.; Anthony Davis, Fountain, Ft. Carson, sr.; El

In four years as a member of the varsity boys’ basketball team at Coronado, guard Eric Rayer took part in playoff games each season but couldn’t celebrate victory afterward. That changed quickly when he joined national powerhouse Metro State. In not quite three weeks, the 6-foot-1 freshman business marketing major wit

March Madness extended to the Doherty High School gym Thursday night. Wasson senior Richie Perea hit a jumper from the free-throw line with 3.5 seconds left to give the 5A All-Stars a thrilling 107-105 win over the 4A All-Stars. Perea – who played with the 5A squad along with fellow Wasson senior D.J. Hanes to even out the ros

Jordan Scott found himself in a familiar situation Saturday night at the Coors Events Center in Boulder: celebrating a 4A state championship with his teammates and his brother. The circumstances surrounding Scott’s two championship game experiences were different, but the constant was a sense of family. A year after being big broth

BOULDER – For three quarters Saturday at the Coors Events Center, Lewis-Palmer’s attempt at defending its 4A boys’ state title teetered on a most delicate balance, knocked off its axis by key injuries, foul trouble and lousy long-range shooting. For the 8 minutes that mattered the most, the Rangers responded like champi

BOULDER – Josh Scott was nibbling on his fingernails. A year ago, he was carrying Lewis-Palmer to the 4A state title, but on this night he was reduced to a mere spectator. On the court, Jordan Scott calmly weaved through Wasson’s ferocious press. He was, as usual, comfortable on a night that would have crushed most teens, or

LEWIS-PALMER (24-3) vs. VALOR CHRISTIAN (22-4) 4A Boys' State Championship, 6 p.m., Saturday Coors Events Center, Boulder Last year, Lewis-Palmer ended three years of semifinal-loss frustration by dispatching the Eagles, 70-59. On Saturday, a repeat ending would give the Rangers back-to-back st

BOULDER • It’s over. No feel-good, movie-script ending. Just triple zeroes and too few points. Time ran out on Wasson’s final playoff journey Friday at the Coors Events Center. It took a defending 4A state champion in Lewis-Palmer to finally hold off the Thunderbirds, 61-54 in their last basketball game as the cl

It started nine years ago, a group of third-grade boys and girls working their collective hearts out trying to learn the fundamentals of basketball. For Richie Perea, DJ Hanes, Monico Morin and Dominic Garcia, they had no idea of the journey ahead. Their team, Little Harlem, traveled through the state and around the country. Through bask

PUEBLO – Peyton picked the wrong time to revert to its jump-shooting ways. The Panthers, the top seed in the 2A boys’ state tournament, suffered through one of their worst offensive spells of the season en route to a 59-46 loss to No. 8 Sierra Grande's Panthers on Thursday at Massari Arena. It ended a 17-game winning streak f

Want some adversity? Perhaps no one in recent years knows it better than Lewis-Palmer and Wasson. Far different types of adversity, though. Before it won last season’s 4A boys’ state championship, Lewis-Palmer fell in the semifinal round three consecutive years. Then there’s Wasson, a team on a mission f

3A Girls At Moby Arena in Fort Collins No. 4 St. Mary’s (21-4) vs. No. 12 Kent Denver (20-4), 5:30 p.m. Thursday After losing three of its last four games to end the regular season, St. Mary’s is firing on all cylinders at the right time. The Pirates demolished Estes Park by 36 in the fir

The Peyton boys’ basketball program wants to exorcise some demons this weekend. Four years removed from the best team in school history – a team which let a late lead slip away in the final minute of the 3A state championship game in 2009 – this new crop of Panthers is trying to do what no other Peyton team has done bef

After an extra day was needed to complete 2A regional play due to adverse weather, the Colorado High School Activities Association on Monday released times and matchups for this week’s 2A state basketball tournaments at Massari Arena at Colorado State University-Pueblo. Peyton (22-2) is the area’s lone boys’ representat

DENVER • Jordan Scott didn’t mean to, but the Lewis-Palmer senior artfully found a way to weave Saturday’s snowstorm into describing what it took to keep league rival Cheyenne Mountain at bay and return to the 4A boys’ semifinals for the fifth year in a row. “We believe that we just keep playing, weather the