2014 was quite the year for athletics in Evergreen. State championships were won, and teams went on amazing runs. A pitcher was drafted to the majors, and a legendary coach was honored. Though some of those journeys came up short in the end, they will be memorable nevertheless. Without further ado, let’s take a look back on the year that was 2014.
GIRLS SWIMMERS FINALLY WON AN ELUSIVE STATE TITLE
If one wants to look at how the Evergreen Lady Cougars finally won a 4A state girls swimming championship on Feb. 15 in Fort Collins, just look at the numbers. Evergreen took up 18 spots in the 12 championship races, resulting in a dominant performance. EHS finished with 332.5 points, beating three-time defending state champion Thompson Valley by 88.5 points. The Lady Cougars won three individual/relay state titles, including the 200-yard medley relay. Lindsay Morrow, who was a member of that relay along with Josie Pearson, Bailey Smith and Kamryn Holland, also won the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.
COUGARS POSTED FIRST FOOTBALL POSTSEASON VICTORY IN 15 YEARS
It took 15 years, but the Evergreen Cougars finally got the proverbial monkey off their back. On Nov. 8 at Lakewood’s Trailblazer Stadium, head coach Rob Molholm’s team, coming off an undefeated regular season and another 3A Metro North Conference title, upended Glenwood Springs 24-7, behind seven sacks of quarterback Dante Sparaco. In the process, EHS ended a 15-year drought, not having won a playoff game since a 39-34 win over Eaton in the 3A state semifinals on Nov. 27, 1999. Evergreen (11-1) was ousted the following week in the quarterfinals 13-7 by host Fort Morgan.
PAC RUGBY RETURNED TO THE TOP AS THE STATE’S BEST
In 2014, PAC Rugby returned to the top of the heap after a one-year sabbatical. For the second time in three seasons, Hugh Miller’s team won the Division II state championship again against the Jr. Gents of Aspen. This time, it was a 31-3 demolishing on May 10 at Infinity Park in Glendale. The win not only completed a 10-0 season, but it helped PAC to avenge a 20-19 upset loss to the Jr. Gents in the 2013 state semifinals. Kip Nilson scored a pair of tries and Alex Wormer booted three penalty kicks in the championship game. In 2012, PAC Rugby won the state title by a 27-7 score.
LADY COUGARS REACHED SWEET 16
Behind the play of Emily Elmgreen and Samantha Kisiel, who combined to average 29.4 points and 11.3 rebounds per game, the Evergreen Lady Cougars’ girls basketball team returned to the 4A Sweet 16 in 2014. EHS (17-9), which finished third in the 4A Jeffco League with a 10-4 conference mark, handed eventual league champion D’Evelyn its only conference loss 61-57 on Feb. 7. In the state tourney, EHS posted wins over Eagle Valley (56-38) and Windsor (42-32) before falling to Sand Creek, 66-56, on March 1.
EVERGREEN HIGH PITCHER DRAFTED BY TAMPA BAY RAYS
At 6-foot-4 and left-handed, Brock Burke has an imposing physique on a baseball mound. The Tampa Bay Rays thought as much, so they drafted the 17-year-old Evergreen High School graduate in the third round of the 2014 amateur draft on June 6. He was the first of 12 Colorado high school players to be drafted and the first EHS alum to be selected since Kevin Kouzmanoff was taken in the sixth round of the 2003 draft by the Cleveland Indians. Burke was 5-2 with a 1.04 ERA during the high school season, while going 0-3 with a 10.80 ERA in two months with the Rays’ Gulf Coast Rookie League farm club.
BASEBALL TEAM OVERCAME CHANGES, MADE RUN TO STATE
In the span of a year, the Evergreen Cougars had three baseball coaches. Matt Erholtz resigned at the end of the 2013 season for personal reasons. Tim Wulf, the program’s JV coach, stepped in, but was relieved of his duties early in the 2014 campaign. Dale Hutchings, who had been an assistant for 14 years, took over on an interim basis for the remainder of the season, and EHS turned that into an 18-5 season, second place in the 4A Jeffco League, a regional title and a berth in the 4A state tournament. Led by the batting of Daniel Gibbins and a stellar pitching staff, the Cougars won the 4A District 2 tournament before ending the season with back-to-back state losses to Palmer Ridge and Green Mountain.
EHS GIRLS SOCCER TOOK TO THE ROAD TO REACH STATE QUARTERFINALS
Evergreen’s girls soccer team may have been the No. 24 seed in the 4A state tournament, but the Lady Cougars were anything but an underdog, and they proved as much. Peter Jeans’ team, coming off a tie for third place in the 4A Jeffco League, scored back-to-back road wins at No. 9 Pueblo Centennial and No. 8 Air Academy by identical 2-1 scores. A third road game — at top-seeded Cheyenne Mountain in the 4A state quarterfinals — ended EHS’ season with a 1-0 loss, but not before the 11-5-2 Lady Cougars proved they were a better team than their seeding suggested.
EVERGREEN BOYS GOLF TOOK SECOND PLACE AT REGIONALS
It had been three years since Evergreen qualified four golfers for the 4A state meet and even longer since it had done so as a team. But behind four underclassmen — sophomores Mark Champine, Liam Short and Lenny Urbas and freshman Bridger Tenney — carded a 16-over-par 232 at the 4A Metro Regionals to finish second on Sept. 18 at Raccoon Creek Golf Course. The Cougars beat Golden for second place by one stroke. At state on Sept. 29-30 at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, EHS tied Discovery Canyon for eighth in the 13-team field with a 64-over-par 496 total.
EHS CROSS COUNTRY DOUBLED UP ON LEAGUE, REGIONAL TITLES
It’s becoming a familiar scene: Evergreen High has dominated both the 4A Jeffco League and regional cross country championships in recent years, and things didn’t change in 2014. The Cougars won both team titles — boys and girls — in the league and at regionals, starting Oct. 10 at Clement Park. The boys beat out Golden, 54-67, while the girls held off Wheat Ridge, 54-61. They repeated their feats a week later at regionals at D’Evelyn High School. At state on Oct. 25 at the Norris-Penrose Event Center in Colorado Springs, the girls placed fourth with 144 points, led by Caitlin Schmitt’s ninth-place run in 20 minutes, 21.1 seconds. The boys team finished ninth with 294 points.
EVERGREEN TOOK SECOND IN STATE SPIRIT CHAMPIONSHIPS
Not even turnover — a lot of it — could derail the Evergreen Lady Cougars’ poms team in 2014. No, EHS didn’t repeat as the 4A state champions, a title it had won the three previous years and nine times overall. Ponderosa took this year’s championship. But with 13 performers, including six new members, and a finals routine that included 12 jumps and five turn sections, the Lady Cougars placed second on Dec. 6 at the Denver Coliseum.
EHS DEDICATED COURT IN HONOR OF LO HUNTER
Her list of accomplishments could fill up multiple resumes, much less just her own. So it was a no-brainer when Evergreen High School and athletic director Tony Barnett dedicated the school’s gymnasium in honor of Laurice “Lo” Hunter, the school’s long-time volleyball coach, on Oct. 17 prior to the annual Evergreen-Conifer match. The 82-year-old Hunter coached EHS to nine state championships from 1971 to 1995. She concluded her career with a 503-83 record, which included 16 state tournament appearances, seven undefeated seasons and a national record 182 consecutive victories from 1978 to 1984.
OTHER TOP STORIES
• Evergreen High’s boys ski team took first place in slalom with 167 points and finished fourth overall with 603.5 points at the state skiing championships on Feb. 13-14.
• Though the Evergreen Cougars’ boys soccer team underwent a coaching change, the team saw postseason success, winning a first-round game, 3-1, over Denver West.
• Madison Tenney and Natalie Holley represented EHS at the 4A state girls golf championships. Tenney tied for 27th with a 35-over 179, while Holley tied for 51st with a 50-over-par 194.
