A year after Sharon Wilch joined the CHSAA staff, girls tennis got a statewide culminating event — even while the Association still refused to name team champions.
The September 1970 Colorado Interscholastic called it a successful “racket.” District directors funneled 172 girls from 44 schools into qualifying; 32 girls from 17 schools reached the May state meet in Boulder, directed by Fran Mitchell and Wanda Leckbee of Boulder High.
Successful “Racket”
The published results read like a modern bracket sheet — without a school trophy line. Janice Freed of Cherry Creek won No. 1 singles over Ann Wampler of Aurora Central. Tisha Lopez of Pueblo Centennial took No. 2 singles. Englewood’s Patty VanHole and Gwen Bachman won doubles.
That distinction matters for the chronology. By September 1972 the Interscholastic was printing “Third Annual Girls State Tennis Tournament Result 1972”— confirming 1970 as year one of the individual meet series. Official team championships waited until scoring and titles opened for individual sports in 1974–75; Thomas Jefferson claimed the first girls tennis team crown in 1975.
Tennis thus sits in the hinge years of girls athletics: real statewide competition and published results, still short of the equal-treatment language and team titles that followed Title IX and the first official girls championships.