Notebook: Four Highlands Ranch-area high schools gathering in sportsmanship

In a neat showing of sportsmanship, four Class 5A Highlands Ranch-area football teams will meet Thursday to watch When The Game Stands Tall, a movie based on a high school football team in California.

Players from Mountain Vista, ThunderRidge, Rock Canyon and Highlands Ranch will gather at the AMC Highlands Ranch 24 to watch the movie on Thursday night. The event was organized by the schools’ head football coaches — Ric Cash, Joe Johnson, Brian Lamb and Mark Robinson, respectively.

When The Game Stands Tall focuses on De La Salle High School’s success over 12 years, which included 151 straight wins from 1992-2003. It is based on a 2003 book of the same name.

In recognition, said Pat McCabe, athletic director at Mountain Vista, “These programs have collectively earned the Continental League Sportmanship Award for the month of August.”

Here’s a trailer for the movie:

Short stuff

• With the season starting, we’ve completed our previews of every classification of every sport. You can find them all here.
• Plenty of good news coming down the pipe for hockey. Stay tuned.
• Our weekly live chat will be heading on the road to kick off the football season this Friday. We’ll be at Montrose vs. Grand Junction.
• There was an intriguing meeting at the CHSAA office on Wednesday night where a panel of experts sought to find solutions to the arm injury problems which have plagued youth baseball of late.
• Quarterback Dante Sparaco, who is just set to start his sophomore season at Glenwood Springs, has received a scholarship offer from Colorado State, according to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. He’s already 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. According to the Post-Independent, Sparaco has also been receiving interest from Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Arizona, USC and Florida State. Sparaco threw just five passes last season, but is expected to start this season, according to the paper.
• Erie has new turf for its all-purpose field. The old turf was damaged in last September’s flooding.
• Lewis-Palmer’s Alexa Smith and Eaglecrest’s Jordyn Poulter were both named to MaxPreps’ preseason All-American volleyball team.
• Last week we wrote about Highlands Ranch’s new football jerseys.
• MaxPreps compiled the longest road trips of the 2014 football season. Trips to Florida for Littleton, Dakota Ridge and Columbine check in at No. 7. (Other Colorado schools, such as Monarch and Chatfield on Thursday, are also going to Florida, but they did not make the list.)
• The NFHS released 2013-14 participation numbers this week. As excepted, they grew once again, this time to 7.8 million. Our Bert Borgmann did some research and found that while Colorado ranks 25th in number of member schools, the state is 20th in students who participate in high school sports.
• Here’s a nice feature on Regis Jesuit graduate Missy Franklin in The New York Times.
• Two Colorado products were named to Athlon Sport’s preseason All-Freshman Team. JK Scott, a 2014 graduate of Mullen, is the first-team punter, while Daniel Carlson, a 2013 graduate of The Classical Academy, is the first-team kicker. (The team includes redshirt freshmen, as well.) In a somewhat related note, Mullen has new goalposts.
• High praise (I think?) for former Denver South standout Phillip Lindsay: CU football coach Mike MacIntyre said “he is the Tasmanian Devil.” Lindsay is turning heads during fall camp, according to the Denver Post. Here’s another detailed feature on Lindsay.
• More high praise, this time for 2014 Valor Christian graduate Christian McCaffrey. He was called “the most exciting player” at Stanford’s practice, and is expected to see time as a true freshman.
• A must read on the national level: Here’s how a small town in Indiana used sports to preserve its school and perhaps itself.