Alumni reports are always difficult because you don't want to overlook somebody who should have been mentioned.
But here goes an attempt to highlight some former area high school players who are doing well in collegiate athletics.
Wyoming's football team has numerous Colorado players on its roster, including sophomore free safety Andrew Wingard from Ralston Valley.
Wingard leads the Mountain West Conference with 9.9 tackles a game and is 12th nationally. He is the NCAA's leader in career tackles per game at 10.05 and career solo tackles per game at 6.36.
Connor Cain, a sophomore from Heritage, has started nine of 10 games at defensive tackle and Drew Van Maanen, a junior from Chaparral, is listed as the starting fullback when the Cowboys have one in their offensive formation to start a game.
Senior offensive guard Alex Kozan, a Valor Christian graduate, has started 37 games at Auburn.
Olabisi Johnson, a sophomore from Bear Creek, is Colorado State University's second leading receiver this season with 20 catches for 340 yards and two touchdowns.
Sophomore Wyatt Bryan from Douglas County is the Rams' placekicker and senior Paul Thurston, an Arvada West graduate who transferred from Nebraska, is the starting left guard. Jakob Buys, a junior from Ralston Valley, is a starting defensive tackle for CSU. Junior Jake Bennett from Bear Creek is the Rams' standout center.
The University of Colorado also has several players from area high schools who have seen game action, with senior Auburn transfer Shane Callahan of Chaparral, who played in 13 games in 2015, starting on the offensive line for the first time Nov. 12 against Arizona.
Valor graduate Christian McCaffrey, the 2015 Heisman Trophy runner-up, remains the all-purpose player to watch this season at Stanford. And former Valor quarterback Luke Del Rio, a redshirt sophomore, sprained his knee, but the Gators starting quarterback expects to play Nov. 19 against LSU.
According to an October story, MaxPreps listed the Colorado high schools with the most players on 2016 college football rosters at the D-I, D-II, D-III and NAIA levels. Valor topped the inventory with 31 players followed by Cherry Creek with 30, Grandview with 24, Columbine with 18 and Pine Creek with 17. Ralston Valley and Cherokee Trail had 16 each.
And looking ahead to basketball, keep an eye on CU senior Derrick White, a Legend graduate who transferred from CU-Colorado Springs.
At the University of Denver, junior Jake Pemberton from Mountain Vista and sophomore Thomas Neff from Arvada West could be a couple of the area players that could have an impact.
Ciera Morgan, a junior from Highlands Ranch, will be one of the leaders for the Pioneers' women's team.
More recommendations
All the Colorado High School Activities Association's sports committees are coming up with recommendations about such things as exploring changes to postseason formats and ugh, possible adding another class, which would be awful.
Last spring, baseball was the first to use the Ratings Percentage Index for postseason berths, but the committee recommended a welcomed change in the formula to put more emphasis on a team's winning percentage.
Regional tournament recommendations in Class 5A include having only two teams from the same league host tournaments.
No changes were made to the pitch-count rule in baseball, but hopefully CHSAA will come up with a way to avoid the couple conflicts that occurred last season. Having small pitch-count scoreboards like the one used by Douglas County High School sure seems like a way to avoid disagreements in games before the final out.
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.com/stories/Local-athletes-excel-at-next-level,239409
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