Monte Thelen planned to step away from football when he announced his retirement as Cherokee Trail football coach last November.But it took only a few months for the 55-year-old veteran coach to reconsider. After taking a call from Legend Athletic Director Kevin Boley, Thelen accepted the position as the Titans' new head football coach."It's funny how that has worked out," Thelen said. "Yeah, taking some time off was kind of the plan for me but that changed three weeks ago when Kevin got in touch with me and we started discussing this."Thelen was Cherokee Trail's first coach and spent 13 seasons at the Aurora school after also coaching at Rangeview, Strasburg and out of state. Cherokee Trail lost to Valor Christian in the 2012 state championship game."When you look at his reputation and success at Rangeview and Cherokee Trail and what everybody said about him about what a quality person he is, it was exciting for us," said Boley, who also is the basketball coach at the school. "Any time you have a chance to hire a coach with that kind of success and experience, you have to jump on it."Thelen takes over a program from Robert Doyle that went 4-6 last season and has only had one winning season in its eight-year history. However, the Titans do have starting quarterback Marc Muma returning, plus a promising freshman class ready to contribute."There are a lot of positives," said Thelen. "I don't have any specific plans until I start meeting the kids, the coaches and the talent we have coming back. We definitely want to play hard-nosed football, be good on defense, solid in the kicking game and it would be very nice if we could be explosive and have big play potential on offense."Green Mountain grad gains honorsGreen Mountain graduate Ryan Stephan, a 6-foot-10 senior at Mesa State University in Grand Junction, was named the Division II Player of the Year.Stephan, who averaged 25.6 points and 11.4 rebounds a game in addition to leading Division II with 23 double doubles this season, was also the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Player of the Year, the South Central Region Player of the Year, a Division II Bulletin first team All-American choice and recently played in the 2016 Reese's NABC Division II All-Star game.He is also one of 25 finalists for the Bevo Francis Award, which is presented to the best small college player in the country.Pitch-count scoreboardDouglas County and Prairie View played a 12-inning baseball game April 9 and it was nice to see a pitch-count scoreboard to track the number of pitches thrown by the teams.Eliot Hardy, an assistant softball coach for Douglas County and the baseball team's statistician, knew the pitch-count limitations would be put into effect this year by the Colorado High School Activities Association and looked ahead.He formed a company, Ontraksports, and has pitch-count scoreboards available for Colorado high schools. CHSAA assistant commissioner Bert Borgmann is hoping to have the scoreboards available for all state playoff games next month.The scoreboards, with 6-inch or 8-inch displays, cost either $950 or $1,100 and are portable. They can be mounted near a dugout and controlled by a remote from the dugout or press box. There is a 500-foot radio frequency."If there is a dispute that might arise during a game, it is better to catch it during the inning where the discrepancy arises rather than waiting until the seventh or eighth inning of a tight game," said Hardy.Sixth national title for HundleyMaria Hundley, a Seattle Pacific senior from Heritage High School, won the vault event at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships in St. Charles, Missouri, on April 9.Hundley had a winning score of 9.850 to capture her second national vault title, which gave her six national gold medals in her collegiate career.Jim Benton is a sports writer for Colorado Community Media. He has been covering sports in the Denver area since 1968. He can be reached at jbenton@coloradocommunitymedia.com or at 303-566-4083.
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.comhttp://douglascountynewspress.net/stories/Veteran-coach-takes-on-new-job-at-Legend,211263?branding=15
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