The Colorado High School State Championships took place the weekend of May 21-22 at Colorado Academy in southwest Denver. Sixteen teams from 15 schools across Colorado took part in the Championships this year. Top seeds in the four pools included number one seed Cherry Creek (the state of Colorado’s sole representative at high school westerns this year), Grandview, Broomfield and last year’s champions Lakewood High School (which was the only school to bring a b-team).

All of Saturday’s pool play games went to seed as no upsets occurred. The most highly contested game of the day was probably the match-up between top seed Cherry Creek and eight seed Colorado Academy. Played during the scheduled lunch break due to the prom that evening, the game ended up being something of a showcase game that many other teams were fortunate enough to watch. The game ended 13-11 with Cherry Creek coming out on top despite the best efforts of the Colorado Academy squad.

Sunday’s format had the bottom team from each pool compete in a four-team round robin while each of the top seeds received a bye into quarters. The two and three seeds from each pool competed in pre-quarters during the first round Sunday morning, bringing about the first upset of the tournament. Heritage, the 10 seed coming in, defeated Jeffco Open (originally the sixth seed) 13-9. In other pre-quarters match-ups, Denver East defeated Arapahoe 13-11, Arvada West pulled out a win over Fairview at the hard cap 12-10 and Colorado Academy overpowered Denver North 13-5.

Quarters saw highly contested match-ups between rivals Broomfield High School and Denver East, with East pulling off the upset at the cap 10-6. Heritage, perhaps exhausted from their upset in pre-quarters, fell to Lakewood High 15-3. Cherry Creek faced Arvada West and took advantage of their long pre-quarters game by defeating them 13-6. Grandview took care of Colorado Academy 15-7 in the final quarters game.

Both semifinals games were highly contested and featured teams that had done well in the league all season. In one semifinal, Denver East faced Grandview and quickly found themselves down in the first half. East battled back however, displaying the grit that they played with all season, eventually falling to Grandview’s more efficient offense 13-9. The other semifinal pitted Cherry Creek versus Lakewood. In a game that stayed close the whole time, Lakewood took advantage of Cherry Creek’s mistakes and eventually wore them out with their athleticism and long hucks. Lakewood prevailed 13-10 at the cap.

These games set up a finals match-up between the last two state champions, the Grandview High School Wolves and the Lakewood High School Tigers. Both Lakewood and Grandview entered the contest undefeated and relatively unchallenged, their stingy defenses having allowed their opponents an average of less than six goals per game during the tournament. Both teams featured very athletic, experienced players led by veteran club player coaches. Both teams also play hard, smothering defense and would rather turn it over on a long huck than make a risky pass near their opponent’s endzone. The finals game was extremely exciting, with layout d’s and all-out play on both sides. The teams traded points throughout the game with Lakewood usually up by one or two. Lakewood took half 8-7 after Grandview was able to tie the game at sevens. With the cap looming and both teams beginning to tire, Grandview was able to capitalize on a couple of Lakewood mistakes to take the lead 12-11. Under the soft cap, Lakewood tied the game at 12s to bring the game to double-game point. Grandview pushed through the final point despite turnovers on both sides to win 13-12.

Congratulations to Grandview High School, 2005 Colorado High School State Champions, as well as to PS1 for winning the spirit award. Many thanks to Cathy Nabbefeld and Colorado Academy for the generous use of their fields as well as to all the coaches who gave so generously of their time all season.

Final standings:

1. grandview (2)
2. lakewood A (4)
3. cherry creek (1)
4. denver east (5)
5. broomfield (3)
6. arvada west (7)
7/8. colorado academy (8) and heritage (10)
9. arapahoe (9)
10. jeffco open (6)
11. fairview (11)
12. denver north (12)
13. lakewood b (16)
14/15. silver creek (13) and monarch (15)
16. ps1 (14)