Rocky Mountain college and pro team schedule

Josh Schumacher poses with medal

Josh Schumacher competed in the Rockies Baseball Skills Challenge in Berthoud on June 9. He won first place in his age division of 10 and 11-year-old boys. This gave him the chance to go onto the Sectional Final in Longmont on July 11. He won first place in that event and will be competing in the State Final on August 14 at Coca-Cola All Star Park in Lakewood. All State Finalists receive three Colorado Rockies tickets for the game that evening. This is Josh’s third year to participate in the Rockies Skills Challenge. He finished in third place in the state as a 9-year-old and won the State Final last year as a 10-year-old. He hopes to win again.

The Baseball Skills Challenge Program consists of boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 13 competing in the fundamentals of batting, baserunning and throwing. The Rockies Baseball Skills Challenge is produced by the Colorado Parks and Recreation Association with the support from the Colorado Rockies.

The Berthoud Team, AVATAR, took first place in the U14/15 girls division in the 3-v 3 LIVE soccer tournament held on Saturday, July 10 at the Fort Collins Soccer Complex.  AVATAR team members are Cherokee Walker, Lindsey Loberg, Megan Loberg, Erin Briggs, Chloe Murray and Sam Alexander.  The AVATAR started the tournament out by winning against Tres Buenos 6 to 4; next they played Soccer Rocks and won 3 to 2.  The third game was played against the Grass Burners and the AVATAR won that game by a score of 4 to 2.  This put the AVATAR team into the championship game where they once again faced the Soccer Rocks team.  The AVATAR team came away with the win by a score of 5 to 2.

Left to right; Lindsey Loberg, Cherokee Walker, Erin Briggs, Chloe Murray, Megan Loberg, Sam Alexander

It was five years ago today, July 6, 2005, but it seems like twenty……….. more than 4,000 people had jammed into a mini-stadium at Rockefeller Center in New York City early on a muggy morning before 7:00 to watch on a pair of giant screens as the International Olympic Committee selected the city that would host the 2012 Olympic Games……….. on the night before, our small stadium setting was electric, with thousands of spectators, music, Olympic athletes, food, and the NBC-televised presentations from Singapore by the finalist cities- London, Paris, Moscow, Madrid and New York……….. it ended after midnight, and as the seats emptied and Rockefeller Center quieted, I sat on the lip of the stage, drinking in the sights and sounds of the majestic city…….. it was clear that it was never going to be any bigger or better, and if New York was eliminated the next morning, life commonplace to me and a long career in the Olympic movement would hit a wall, but, if the city won, it would be the start of a seven-year magic carpet ride…….. after retirement from the USOC at the end of 2002, my next opportunity came when NYC2012, the group leading the city’s bid, selected me as its Senior Communications Counselor, one of five senior advisors to the leadership of the bid, headed by Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and Executive Director Jay Kriegel, along with my former USOC boss, Harvey Schiller……….. over the next thirty months, it was inspiring to be part of a tremendous endeavor that involved thousands of passionate New Yorkers bent on bringing the Games to the greatest city in the world………we knew from the start that it was going to be a battle for the Big Apple because of factors that were inescapable………Salt Lake had just hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 2002, a jolting Olympic bid scandal in 1998 centered around the leadership of the Games in Utah, there was anti-American bias to deal with in the world, and most of all, a contentious issue centering around the proposed $2.2 billion tab for a new West Side stadium, expansion of the Javits Convention center, and the overall development of that part of the city, a hot-button for the citizens and politicians for years……….. the majority, 79 percent of New Yorkers, supported the bid, but not the new stadium………. the owners of Madison Square Garden not only opposed the new stadium and development around it, but spent thousands of dollars in advertising to try to kill it………and the powerful New York Times opposed it editorially…………yet there were so many marvelous people involved, including 1,700 Olympic and Paralympic athletes from the USA and 45 nations around the world in the NYC2012 Circle of Olympians and Paralympians………. Muhammad Ali, Bob Beamon, Mary Lou Retton, Nadia Comaneci, Michael Phelps, Jeff Blatnick, Mia Hamm, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Bruce Jenner, Magic Johnson and hundreds of others…….. the inspiring “Nations of New York, ” thousands of men and women from 400 organizations representing the city’s rich, diverse international population and neighborhoods, and a superb venue plan that embraced the city’s historic sports landmarks as proposed Olympic sites—Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden, National Tennis Center, Giants Stadium, the historic 369th Regiment Arena in Harlem, Central Park, along with many new or refurbished sites in what was called the “Olympic X” configuration, plus a gorgeous, proposed Olympic Village for the athletes on the East River in Queens West………. but there were challenges besides the West Side Stadium issue, including a period of turmoil and dysfunction within the United States Olympic Committee that led to the departure of CEO Lloyd Ward in 2003 and the naming of interim President Bill Martin as the organization steered its way out of the mess………. New York had been selected by the USOC on November 2, 2002, defeating San Francisco by a vote of 132-91 among its Board of Directors at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs………the search for a candidate city began in 1999 under the leadership of USOC President Bill Hybl, and the original roster of cities competing for the nod included New York, Houston, Washington, Dallas, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Francisco and Tampa…………. Doctoroff, a charismatic leader who first conceived the idea of a New York Olympic Games while watching a Soccer World Cup match in 1994 at Giants Stadium, blew away the field with his dogged pursuit of USOC officials, along with sidekick Kriegel, and once they had secured the right to become America’s candidate city, there was no looking back or hesitation………it was a costly bid, some $3.1 billion for the Games’ budget, a guarantee to the IOC of some $250 million, and $924 million alone in capital costs for improvements…….. in fact, the five finalist cities spent a reported $150 million on their bids, $35 million alone by NYC2012…………on May 18, 2004, at Bryant Park in Manhattan, the announcement was made that New York would be a finalist in the chase for the Games, and all of us who were part of the effort were thrilled.

Joy! May 18, 2004, Bryant Park, New York City as the Big Apple was named a 2012 Olympic Finalist by the IOC. The event included Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Olympian Donna De Varona to my left, along with Olympic and Paralympic athletes and more than 4,000 cheering New Yorkers

The next 14 months became a whirlwind of effort and energy on the part of the bid leadership, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the scores of young, talented men and women on the NYC2012 staff……. there was no time for sleep, deadlines were everywhere, visitors to welcome every week……. my favorite junket was to take journalists and broadcasters from international outlets on a carefully-crafted ferry tour on the water that wound around Manhattan, showing them the spectacular views and venues of the city, passing Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, with a presentation now ingrained and the confidence of a tour guide………. so, too for treks to the top of an office building that looked down on the rail yards on the West Side adjacent to what would be the site of the new Olympic Stadium and the future home of the Jets……… in 2004, a series of conversations with new USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth, the genius who made the 1984 Games in Los Angeles a smash success, convinced him to come to New York and tell the city’s tough media why he thought New York could win………he spoke at a lunch at the posh ‘21’ Club and he was compelling….. the next morning, the New York Times carried a column by the estimable George Vecsey, who was not in favor of the bid, that was extremely fair and positive, and the piece was accompanied by a picture of Doctoroff watching Ueberroth speak, next to a big NYC2012 sign on an easel that had been strategically placed for optimum photo benefit……. the next day, at an NYC2012 Board meeting, Doctoroff held up a copy of the Times’ piece and he was glowing, and surprised……………later, invitations were accepted by some 35 Olympic beat journalists and broadcasters from across the country who came to New York and our offices, where they got the full presentation from Doctoroff and the staff, with positive followup and exposure for the bid…… a dinner that evening at The Palm for the writers was a big success, and my memory reminds me that the lobsters were very special that night.. …….. everything seemed to be rocking. The IOC Evaluation Commission made its visit to New York in February, 2005, and the city responded as only New York could……..a full-scale advertising blitz met the IOC commission, Olympic signs were posted on 13,000 taxis, 7,000 busses and 4,000 subway cars………storefronts at Times Square and Grand Central Terminal had 2012 Olympic window displays……. so did windows at Saks, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s, and as the IOC leaders toured the 27 venue sites by bus, thousands of New Yorkers greeted them along the routes……on board with a busload of media tagging along, it was awesome to witness this response, even with some if it staged………but on June 6, just a month before the IOC’s decision in Singapore, two powerful politicians on the state’s Public Authorities Control Board, Joseph L. Bruno and Sheldon Silver, jettisoned their support of the West Side Stadium project, driving a dagger into the heart of the bid…….. NYC2012 quickly trotted out a backup plan that included a new stadium for the baseball Mets in Queens that would be the Olympic Stadium, but the message made its way to the IOC Members who would vote, and it was not a good one…….. so on that humid July 6 morning in Rockefeller Center, we watched as Moscow was eliminated in the first round of voting………moments later, IOC President Jacques Rogge appeared after the second vote on the big screen to announce that “New York will not move forward. ” The seats and stands at our venue emptied in seconds, and a car with the Governor of New York parked nearby sped away in traffic………I remained to face the scores of cameras, television lights and journalists with their notebooks and recorders in an attempt to explain what happened, the only senior bid executive not in Singapore that morning………for the next twelve hours, telling the story and the disappointment of those who had worked so hard for this day, I went by car to radio shows, TV shows and to the offices of newspapers, ending at midnight in Times Square with a live piece on ESPN from its signature “ESPN Zone. ” London had upset favored Paris, 54-50, to win the Games, and the next morning, 52 people died in the horrendous London train bombings………returning to my bedroom that night, there was a message from Singapore that Doctoroff would host a party for the staff at his home on Monday after the leaders returned from Singapore……….. but on Sunday, after packing up my clothing and personal things, and making one last visit to our offices at One Liberty Plaza, just above the site of Ground Zero of September 11, 2001, to grab my nameplate and some stationery, I took a taxi to LaGuardia Airport and left…….. returning to Colorado Springs and a depressing, empty home, waking the next morning without a job for the first time in my life and without a plan for what would come next.

Postscript—- A few weeks ago, in New York with my friend Ford McClave, walking in Times Square before heading to see the hit new musical, “American Idiot” at the St. James Theatre on 44th Street, we decided to stop at the Swatch store and see some of its displays……. I heard somebody say, “Hi, Mike, ” and turned around to see Nadia Comaneci and husband and Olympic gold medalist Bart Conner………they, too were going to see a show on Broadway, and we stood for a few moments and made small talk about their son, Dylan, how much time had passed since they were on the podium at the Games, and the events staged at Times Square for NYC2012 and the dream shared of a New York Olympic Games. When we parted and walked outside to the familiar din and crowds, I think we shared a common thought. “What if? ”

None of us will ever know

But the dream remains, click on the video link below to “Imagine” for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=pIdYMDm7QH8

Front row from left: Calvin Mondragon (Fossil), Patrick Boddicker (Windsor), Andrew Eckhardt (Windsor), Cody Wellman (Windsor), Nick Grindy (Loveland), Christian Johnson (Windsor). Second row: Jacob Aas (Windsor), Joe Dennis (Thompson Valley), Andrew Woodward (Loveland), Luke Bender (Berthoud), Axel Ayala (Berthoud), Jano Beltran (Berthoud). Standing: Ty Miller (Thompson Valley), Christian Buendia (Thompson Valley). Coaches (not pictured): Nathan Mondragon and Brett Boddicker.

The Club United Black soccer team from Thompson Soccer Association finished their season by winning the Rushmore Cup. The under 15-years of age team has players from Berthoud, Loveland, Windsor and Fort Collins, The team finished the Spring 2010 Season with a record of 5-3-1 earning fourth place in a field of 10 teams in its Colorado division. The boys traveled to Rapid City, South Dakota in late June to compete in the Rushmore Tournament where they took the top spot. The team played in two tournaments this summer and did not lose a game. The overall summer tournament record was 5 wins, 3 ties, 0 losses, and one championship.

Coach Nathan Mondragon describes the action in the final game on June 29:

The Championship game was against a club team from Scottsbluff, Nebraska consisting of players from western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. Our boys started out the game very strong, working hard to win and keep possession of the ball from the beginning. They were rewarded with a very quick goal scored off a throw in near mid-field by Patrick Boddicker (Windsor) to Axel Ayala (Berthoud) who moved to open space and placed a through ball down the center of the field to Jano Beltran (Berthoud). Jano dribbled by one defender and skillfully placed the ball by the goalkeeper to put us ahead 1-0 at 3.5 minutes into the game. Nebraska recovered and starting gaining some momentum and put pressure on our defense forcing our central defenders Joe Dennis (Thompson Valley) and Cody Wellman (Windsor) to run down the Nebraska strikers on artful through balls. About 20 minutes into the game Jano and Christian Buendia (Thompson Valley) worked the ball out of our mid-field into the penalty box when a Nebraska defender knocked the ball away which landed near Andrew Woodward (Loveland) who controlled the ball and placed a nice shot into the back of the Scottsbluff goal for a commanding 2-0 lead. Not long after, Nebraska pressed again and received a free kick from about 30 yards out near the sideline. The Nebraska player crossed the penalty kick across our goal toward the back post and one of their mid-field players timed his run perfectly behind our defender and knocked the ball into our goal with a beautiful header. The momentum had swung to the Nebraska team and the play went from goal-to-goal with exciting opportunities for both teams. However, Club United answered the Nebraska goal with a through ball from Jano down the left side of the field to Andrew Woodward. Andrew saw the keeper coming out to challenge him and he skillfully dribbled to the near post and slotted a shot on the near post to give us a commanding 3-1 lead at halftime.

The temperature was about 90 degrees and the boys were getting very fatigued, playing their second game of the day. We only had three substitutes the entire tournament. The Nebraska team did not have an earlier game that day and had five substitutes to rotate through the lineup. They definitely had the fresher legs. At halftime, we discussed the need to keep pressuring them into early turnovers, which would lessen the number of times we had to cover back on defense (thus limit our long sprints). We discussed a strategy of how we would alter our lineup if the score remained the same or if we went up by another goal. With 25 minutes to play, the score had not changed and we were giving up too many scoring chances to the Scottsbluff team. They had two great scoring opportunities; one a high shot toward the back post which our goalie Ty Miller (Thompson Valley) artfully dove backward to tip the ball over the crossbar as he fell into the back of the net. On another break down the right side their striker had a 1-1 chance to score and Ty made a great diving saving stretching across the face of the goal to snag the ball before it rolled inside the back post. At this point we rotated our lineup putting some of our mid-field runners back on the defensive line and moved some defenders into mid-field. Defenders Jacob Aas (Windsor), Andrew Eckhardt (Windsor) and Calvin Mondragon (Fossil Ridge) all worked into mid-field and began controlling the middle third of the field essentially taking the possession of the ball back into our favor. This worked very well as we did not give up another scoring opportunity to Nebraska in the last 15 minutes of the game. We then rotated players into our sole striker position up top and with great effort Christian Buendia, Nick Grindy (Loveland), and Christian Johnson (Windsor) created scoring chances on their own and kept the Nebraska defense on their heels for the final 10 minutes. We also got a solid performance in the mid-field from Luke Bender (Berthoud Goalie) as he created plenty of scoring chances for our strikers while covering on defense as needed.

In the entire tournament, our two goalies only allowed the single goal scored on a great set play by Scottsbluff. Ty Miller (Thompson Valley) and Luke Bender (Berthoud) shared goalie responsibility each playing two games in the net and giving excellent efforts on the field as a substitute. Luke Bender even scored our first goal in our third game against a Rapid City, South Dakota team. Another notable effort was Christian Buendia’s five goals in our first game against a Pierre South Dakota team in a 6-0 route and an excellent way to start our tournament play.

We had seven different players score our 15 goals in the South Dakota tournament with every other player setting up or assisting these goals. To win a tournament takes a full team effort, and each of these boys worked hard in every game to accomplish the goal the team set for themselves two weeks before we left Colorado – to win the championship and have fun”.

Congratulations to Coaches Mondragon and Boddicker and the team.

(Left to right, front row- Joseph Colton, Jack Hummel, Jake Yuska, Brogan Sontag, Josh Ekberg, Timmy Sontag; back row – Ridge Overholt, Nick Yuska, Jordan Lutz, Triston Norris, Josh Schumacher, Ryan Snow, Paul Hummel (coach), Jeff Yuska (coach), Dave Overholt (coach)

The Berthoud 11 and under baseball team finished their regular season strong by beating the Lafayette Warriors (12-9) on the Warriors home turf. The Lafayette team had only lost three games all season.

Coach Dave Overholt said, “We carried that momentum into the year end league tournament going 1 and 1 the first day.  That win against the Sliders required scoring 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to win 15-14. We continued the roll with beating Fort Morgan (10-3) in the semi-finals, which put us in the championship game.

“This is only the 2nd year this core team has been playing together,” he added.

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
By Mike Moran

“Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is”

Peggy Lee sang that in 1969 and it earned her a Grammy, but she might as well have been singing about the results of the volatile realignment game played by college presidents, athletic directors and conference commissioners…………so, Colorado and Utah head to the PAC-10 Conference and Nebraska will unleash thousands of football fans to the streets of Evanston, Columbus, State College, Ann Arbor and Iowa City in the future……..that’s it?  I guess what I have learned, along with a lot of others, is that indeed, Texas is Forever, and Bevo runs the show………..PAC-10 Commissioner Larry Scott almost scored a home run and was on the verge of creating the first Mega-Conference by adding not only CU, but Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech to the league, making it the behemoth of college sports and changing the face of television revenue forever……….in the end, Scott would not let Texas dictate what the Longhorns always wanted, their own television network, and pressure came from a number of other sources that forestalled the seismic new order………..this is not going away, fans, so sit back and wait, because in a couple of years, we will see this shake out again as the Big 10 continues to court Notre Dame, and where the Irish go, so goes the world in college football…….there is simply too much money as a lure, and college athletics faces a future where the strong will survive in some sort of gigantism, with the less fortunate huddled by the side of the road in enjoyable, modest and economical leagues and alignments………and guess what? We will finally get the playoff that so many clamor for, but limited to the giants in four Super Conferences, and who knows what role the NCAA will play in all of this, maybe none………..Colorado and Nebraska got good deals, and both schools are better off in the PAC-10 and Big 10………and Craig Thompson landed a prize in Boise State for the Mountain West Conference, despite losing Utah in the process…….the Huskers were fed up with the way that the Big 12 developed, with all that power in the Texas-oriented South Division, league headquarters and football title games in Dallas and politics everywhere………..the Buffs get a league with institutions that have similar academic missions and a huge alumni base in Southern California, which will also help recruiting in a big way……….tell me that CU fans won’t enjoy rivalries with USC, UCLA, Utah and Washington………..I cut my teeth in my game as the Sports Information Director at CU from 1968-78, and took those road trips to Lincoln, Ames, Lawrence, Manhattan, Lawrence, Columbia, Stillwater and Norman, but it was always sort of out of synch where the Buffs were concerned………the media in those towns ridiculed Boulder and its culture, and their fans viewed Colorado as a great place to spend summers, but not as a sports rival………the Nebraska-Colorado “rivalry” was never bought by the Huskers or their media, no matter what Bill McCartney accomplished, and Nebraska has never forgiven the Big 12 for ruining their true rivalry with Oklahoma in the divisional arrangement…..I saw those Nebraska-Oklahoma games firsthand after Bob Devaney took the reins in Lincoln in 1962, and they were epic, history-making clashes, like the 1971 “Game of the Century” won by Nebraska 35-31 in Lincoln, and I covered the November 23, 1963 game in Lincoln as a young Omaha TV reporter on the weekend that President Kennedy was assassinated, won by the Huskers, 29-20………..with the President of the United States dead, and the nation in shock, oranges rained down on me in the end zone during the fourth quarter in Lincoln as fans celebrated the win and an Orange Bowl berth………..the survival of the Big 12 with its ten teams has been great theater this week………Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon heralded the new Big 12 which now has only 10 teams, while dissing the Cornhuskers and  Buffaloes for leaving……..Texas A&M athletic director Bill Byrne, who was the AD at Nebraska awhile ago, got into a spat with some fan who sent him an e-mail, angered by the decision to stick with the Big 12 and not go to the SEC…………A&M fans were angry, tired of losing to Texas, but in the end, the money and politics kept the Aggies in line, prompting one pundit to remark that “In the end, though, when it came time to stand up to Texas, much like on the field in their annual rivalry, the Aggies were all hat and no cattle.”………….Missouri, which had openly courted Big 10 membership for months, also survived in the Big 12…………“If Missouri stays, that’s fine,” billionaire and Oklahoma State Uber-donor T. Boone Pickens said. “But I want them to shut up about trying to figure out someplace to go. They’re either a loyal member or they’re out with me. Nebraska has wanted to leave since the Big Six, and that’s 1940. That’s 70 years ago. What’s Nebraska got to offer? They’ve got (only) 700,000 households, and 1.8 million population.”…………….meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Texas athletic budget for this year is reported to be something around $137 million…….the United States Olympic Committee’s 2009 budget was $135 million……….Colorado spends about $45 million on sports, so there you go………..media rumors circulated earlier last week that the Big 12 was looking at adding BYU and Air Force to get back to a dozen members…………this is the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party and it’s now taking future reservations.

Mike Moran was the chief spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee through thirteen Games, 1980-2002. The Omaha, Nebraska native was the Sports Information Director at the University of Colorado for a decade before joining the USOC in 1978 as it left New York City for Colorado Springs. He was the Senior Communications Counselor for NYC2012, New York City’s Olympic bid group from 2003-2005 and is now a media consultant. Reach him at: mike@thesportscorp.org and read more of his columns at www.coloradospringssports.org .

“This is an historic moment for the Conference, as the Pac-10 is poised for tremendous growth, ” said Commissioner Larry Scott. “The University of Colorado is a great fit for the Conference both academically and athletically and we are incredibly excited to welcome Colorado to the Pac-10. ”

“On behalf of The University of Colorado students, faculty, alumni and fans, we are proud to accept this invitation from the Pac-10 and join the most prestigious academic and athletic conference in the nation, “said Philip P. DiStefano, chancellor of CU-Boulder.

“The University of Colorado is a perfect match — academically and athletically — with the Pac-10, ” said University of Colorado President Bruce D. Benson, “our achievements and aspirations match those of the universities in the conference and we look forward to a productive relationship. ”

Scott, DiStefano, Benson, CU Board of Regents Chairman Steve Bosley and CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn and others will hold the official press conference on Friday, June 11, 2010 at 11:00 a. m. MDT on the club level at Folsom Field in Boulder.

At Thursday’s PAC-10 press conference, PAC-10 Commissioner Larry Scott declined to elaborate on there being any more major moves with in the week, but in response to a question about travel distance, suggested that if the conference were enlarged further that they would look into division scenarios as a way to limit travel requirements.

In response to questions about the suddenness of the invitation and acceptance, CU President Bruce Benson said that discussions had been going on for some time. He added that academically, the university has been involved in research and collaboration with several universities in the PAC-10 and he felt that the faculty would have a favorable response to the move.

Responding to a question about how the addition of more schools would affect the financial aspects, Commissioner Scott said that a consulting firm has been studying the issues and making several models and that these factors were considered by the PAC-10 university presidents and chancellors when they authorized him to make the offer.