CBCS Titan sports gearing up for fall season

Calling all fans

As is often the case with smaller town high schools, it’s feast or famine with athletic programs. Success relies heavily on a solid group of experienced seniors, juniors turning the corner from JV to varsity and a need for sophomores and freshmen to step into some big shoes.
All three Titan programs, cross-country, volleyball and soccer, had fairly successful programs last year. Cross-country led the way with the boys’ cross-country team winning their region and finishing second in the state. The boys soccer team had a successful run at their league title amassing a 12-0 record but were eliminated from the state tournament in the first round and volleyball hit their regular season goals only to stumble as well in the post season.
This year provides a bit of uncertainty for all three programs as they all lost key seniors. Fortunately, all three programs have athletes that either gained varsity experience as underclassmen last year or are coming from quality youth development programs. Finding the right mix of upperclassmen and underclassmen, and some serious hometown support, could be the keys to success for each of the three programs.
Cross Country
Turnover hit the cross-country team the hardest between last season and this season. They lost both head coach Connie Hayden and assistant coach Shari Sullivan Marshall as well as three of their top four runners from the boys team.
On the positive side, one of the top boys returns and several of the younger girls are poised to move from the middle of the pack last year into the throes of the lead group. Furthermore, the program picked up two quality coaches to fill Hayden’s and Sullivan-Marshall shoes.
Austin Ross is stepping into the head coaching position with Sam Van de Velde working as his assistant. Ross has a couple of years under his belt as the Nordic team head coach and spent the past two years coaching both middle school cross country and track working sporadically with the high school as well. Van de Velde is coming off a successful collegiate career at Western State Colorado University.
The two coaches are looking at 14 runners this year, a good number considering 10 graduated last year. Ross offered some optional workouts over the summer and while a couple of his cross-country athletes took advantage of them, not everyone did, making for a mixed bag when they kicked off preseason workouts on Monday, August 11.
“There are definitely some that came in more fit than others,” says Ross.
Because the fall season is so short, Ross now must find a way to prepare a base for his runners while adding in speed work all the while keeping an eye on injuries.
“I tried not to jump into things too quickly,” says Ross. We’ve done some base work, some speed work, we’re kind of doing it all while maintaining injury prevention. It’s a balance between hard practices without putting them under.”
As Ross opened the second week of preseason workouts this week, he’s starting to see some positive steps forward already.
“It was a good first week and it’s encouraging to see how well they’re moving,” says Ross.
The team opens the season with the Delta Invitational on Friday, August 29 and has added in a new race to their season, the coveted Anna Banana in Grand Junction. How things shake out this year will rely on a couple things.
“We have a good group of juniors,” says Ross. “Our depth will be interesting to watch. We’ll need some of younger runners to step up and contribute.”
Volleyball
Lady Titans Head coach Marla Covey, her assistant Heather Perry and new C team coach Dana VanMarter have worked diligently over the past several years to build a program that averages over 30 girls. It’s been an incredible growth spurt for the program and now that the numbers are consistent and quality of the youth players continues to improve, the coaching staff is now starting to shift into overdrive.
Last season the Lady Titans put together their best regular season to date since moving into the Southern Peaks 2A league finishing in fourth place. Unfortunately, fall break reared its ugly head as the team lost steam and fell short of postseason hopes.
This year poses new challenges. First of all, Covey lost almost her entire starting rotation to graduation.
“I’ve got two setters, Brittany Barefield and Courtney Kopf, returning, everybody else graduated,” says Covey.
Furthermore, while she has 31 on the roster for the 2014 season, 22 of them are underclassmen. As a result, the coaching staff spent a majority of the first week of preseason on the basics while working some of the veteran players into new positions.
“You don’t have any offense if you can’t pass and you can’t score points if you can’t serve,” says Covey. “We were working with line ups to see if anything starts to click.”
Fortunately, the younger players are proving to be a force and could act as a catalyst to the older players.
“A lot of the underclassmen are hard working and want to play and will push the upperclassmen,” says Covey. “A lot of the girls are coming along so we’ll see what happens.”
As for the league this season, three teams dropped down to 1A leaving the schedule wide open for the Lady Titans. As a result, they will get two matches against every team in the league and have several match days against two different schools.
“I’ve always loved tri-matches, it resembles the post season,” says Covey.
The Lady Titans open the season with a series of scrimmages in Montrose this Saturday and start the regular season Saturday, August 30 with a three-match tournament in Cripple Creek.
Covey has some expectations for her team this year though admits it’s entirely up in the air what will happen once the season is underway.
“I’d like us to finish over .500 and host a district game but it’s a little too early to tell,” says Covey.
Soccer
Last year was something new and something old for the Titans soccer team. The Titans finished league play with a perfect 12-0 record winning the league title and earning a spot in the state tournament. Then, as is often the case, they struggled against the bigger, more established programs from the Front Range losing in the first round of the tournament again.
The Titans lost a couple key players to graduation but have a strong returning corps of defenders and strikers and some new faces to the program this year to add additional talent to the team.
“I feel like we have a good team again,” says coach Drew Canale. “We’ve got a lot of returning players. Our defense has worked together the past couple of years and I’m really excited about the three guys who are returning. They know each other and they know what we’re looking for from them.”
As for strikers, both starters Sam Reaman and Kaleb Schultz are back. The two combined for almost 30 goals last year and hope to continue their ways this season.
“Kaleb and Sam are going to be exciting to watch on the offensive side of the field,” says Canale.
The Titans also have the luxury of Isaac Evans returning at midfield and will be called upon to bring the rest of the midfield into the fold.
“Midfield was a bit of a question mark but in the past week a couple of players showed they’ve been working hard and are filling those spots nicely,” says Canale.
Preseason has consisted of the usual, fitness and touches while remaining injury free and so far, the team appears on track.
Given the number of returners in key places and the uprising of younger players during the preseason, Canale believes a repeat league title is possible and then the Titans can give the state tournament another try.
“We hope to do the same this year but we have to put the time in to do that and then take it to the next level and compete with some of the better teams at state,” says Canale.
The Titans head to Canon City for a preseason scrimmage on Saturday, August 23 and then head straight to the lion’s den opening league play on Friday, August 29 in Telluride. They will play their first home game of the season on Saturday, August 30 against Bayfield at 11 a.m.