COLORADO COACH- SPRING 2018 FROM THE SPORT PRESIDENTS UPDATES from the Sport Presidents GIRLS’ BASKETBALL President Erik Melgoza Wow, another great year of high school girls’ basketball is in the books. Many memories have been made, championships have been won but most importantly - educational lessons have been learned. No better place for this to happen than high school sports, and no better teachers than the fine coaches that we have in our great state of Colorado. I salute you all, regardless of the sport you coach or the size of your program; you take time to influence our future leaders and I appreciate that. I want to extend a congratulations to the girls’ basketball champions for each classification: 1A- Sara Crawford- Kit Carson (Back to Back Champion) 2A- Bob Rahm- Yuma 3A- Mike Burkett- St. Mary’s 4A- Amy Bahl- Evergreen (Back to Back Champion) 5A- Josh Ulitzky- Grandview (Back to Back Champion) I would also like to take this time to recognize the girls’ basketball Coach of the Year and Ceal Berry award winner. The 2018 Coaches Association Coach of the Year is Mr. Josh Ulitzky (Grandview) and the 2018 Ceal Berry Award winner is Mr. Dick Peecher (retired coaching icon from McClave). As one season comes to a close, many of us are busy planning for the next. Coaches are planning for summer camps, are busy fundraising and are trying to work around family vacations, club teams, elite camps and multi-sport athletes. I encourage you all to share your athletes. They will learn to compete in a different realm and could quite possibly take some of your team culture to their other sport, and spreading a positive culture is always a good thing. Important dates to remember are June 5-9, CHSCA All- State Games in the beautiful San Luis Valley on the campus of Adams State University. The most important date coming up in the near future is the multi- sport clinic that will be held July 27th and 28th. It will be held at the Radisson Hotel Denver Southeast (3155 S. Vaughn Way); many top names will be presenting and it will give us all an opportunity to pound our skill as coaches and learn new techniques from other outstanding professionals in the field. The last item I would like to share is more of a challenge: I challenge us all to try to get at least two new coaches from our buildings to become members of the coaches association. Not only would this increase our membership, it would present a like-minded culture to all athletes regardless of sport or geographic location in the state. It would help show our athletes that we care about them and are willing to put in the extra time to get better. CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK President Brett Shanklin Fellow Coaches, By the time you read this you will be at the end of your track season. I hope that the season has gone well for you and you have been able to lead your student athletes to newfound success in track and field. With that hopefully your student athletes have learned more about themselves and continued to develop positive character traits that will last a lifetime. As you prepare for the final weeks of the season enjoy the journey and remember the lasting impact you will have on your student athletes. I wish you all the best at State. As you prepare for State remember state qualifying declarations happen through MaxPreps. According to the CHSAA Track Bulletin, “The process for declaring your student athletes will open May 3rd at 3:00 p.m. and will close May 13th at 12:00 a.m. (All qualifying meet results must be in by 9:00 p.m. on May 13th). Note: if you have any changes to your state declarations-you must go in and make those corrections prior to the