Sixteen Aurora senior football players will have one more chance to show off their skills in hopes of earning a chance to play in college at the Senior Showcase event set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Trailblazer Stadium in Lakewood.
Cooper Loyd, an assistant football coach at Frederick High School, organized an event that is free for players and will put 51 of them in front of a double-digit number of schools of various sizes which could potentially offer scholarships.
Loyd hopes the event can in at least a small part help get some Colorado players more of an opportunity than they do organically, which he feels is a disservice.
“I see a need for it and if one kid gets an offer that didn’t get one before, that makes it worth it,” Loyd to the Sentinel. “I think Colorado is underrecruited for football, most sports actually, and there are definitely players here that should be getting more offers and attention.”
A decade ago, Loyd played at Ralston Valley High School under his father, Matt, a veteran coach who is now Frederick. Cooper Loyd remembers when his high school teammate, Andrew Wingard, won the Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year honors and received only one college offer. Wingard took that offer from Wyoming and parlayed it into an outstanding college career that led him to the NFL, where he is in his fifth season with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Loyd said he reached out to every public high school program in the state and he got back nominations from around 20 programs, a number he hopes grows in the future after the event gets further established. He was looking for uncommitted senior players who have Grade Point Averages of 2.7 or above and that their respective coaches believed could play at the next level.
Aurora will be heavily represented with six players from Cherokee Trail (Isaiah Jones, Alex Zamora, Jaden Smith, Cayden Sweets, Nate Granadino and Jack Sieve), four from Vista PEAK Prep (Kyron Chiku-Martinez, Kameron Harris, Jalen Payne and Alex Siby), three from Rangeview (Jah Alexander, Xion Culp and Jahbon Veasley) and one apiece from Aurora Central (Christopher Perkins), Overland (Talil Seals-Fisher) and Smoky Hill (Tyren Jordan) are scheduled to participate. Of those, a large number of them earned all-conference accolades for the 2023 seasons.
Loyd has landed some sponsorships — which is difficult in the first year with nothing but a vision to share — and Jefferson County Schools generously agreed to let him use Trailblazer Stadium free of charge, but Loyd has fielded the majority of costs for uniforms, officials and incidentals out of his own pocket.
“I want this to be 100 percent free for them,” he said. “You can go and attend college camps and things like that, but those cost money. Anybody that was invited, I didn’t want them to feel like they can’t come because of cost.”
Loyd said that Northern Colorado, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State, Western State, Colorado Mesa, CSU-Pueblo, Fort Lewis, Blake Hills State and Hastings College, plus junior colleges Coffeyville (Kansas) and Moorpark (California) will have evaluators onhand, while other schools have asked to be sent film to look at prospects.
Personnel from colleges can attend the event as it is not an official game, as it will be played without special teams (which Loyd said is primarily to avoid injury on plays where that has a high occurrence). Offensive plays will be run off an iPad (like in a scrimmage format) with an emphasis on showing off players’ abilities in the inside and outside zone systems and quick passing game, while defense will be man-to-man or Cover 3.
“We are fitting into what the college coaches told us they are looking for,” Loyd said. “They understand its not going to be the best looking because they know we have limited practices. They are coming to see what a kid does with the ball in his hands and what he does on the next play if he drops the ball. The way we are setting this up is so that even with a limited amount of time, they’ll still be able to showcase their talent.”
The players came together for a practice on Thursday and Loyd — who spent a lot of time watching video of them on the field — enjoyed getting to know them personally.
“Probably the most exciting thing for me is there are really good kids, not just football player wise,” he said. “Good people, good leaders.”
While the event is primarily for college evaluators, spectators will be admitted free of charge, however Loyd will be collecting new, unwrapped toys at the entrance as donations that will be sent to Children’s Hospital Colorado.
SENIOR SHOWCASE ROSTERS
EAST TEAM
0 — Ja’Sean Cooper (DL), Doherty; 1 — XION CULP (LB/DB), RANGEVIEW; 2 — Jose Gonzalez (WR/DB), Estes Park; 2 — Miles Johnson (TE/LB), Manual; 2 — JIBREAL JONES (DB), RANGEVIEW; 2 — Jared Runnels (RB/DB), George Washington; 3 — Tongil Ngalame (WR), George Washington; 3 — CHRISTOPHER PERKINS (RB/DB), AURORA CENTRAL; 4 — ISAIAH JONES (WR), CHEROKEE TRAIL; 4 — Ryland Reetz (QB), Estes Park; 7 — Orlando Geuvara (RB/DB), Denver South; 8 — Solomon Latimer (WR), Doherty; 8 — JADEN SMITH (LB), CHEROKEE TRAIL; 9 — KYRON CHIKU-MARTINEZ (WR/DB), VISTA PEAK PREP; 11 — JAH ALEXANDER (QB/DB), RANGEVIEW; 14 — TALIL SEALS-FISHER (WR), OVERLAND; 22 — Chevelle Early (RB), Denver South; 32 — Kemarly Davy (LB), Frederick; 42 — Noah Donovan (DB), Standley Lake; 53 — Carlos Mendoza (OL/DL), Columbine; 65 — Tucker Stinson (OL/DL), Falcon; 68 — Andrew Ossola (OL/DL), Columbine; 75 — JAHBON VEASLEY (OL/DL), RANGEVIEW; 76 — Calvin Larson (OL/DL), Estes Park; 77 — ALEX ZAMORA (OL/DL), CHEROKEE TRAIL
WEST TEAM
1 — Landen Holloway (RB/LB/DB), Denver East; 2 — Hunter Emgarten (WR/DB), Westminster; 3 — Cartail Dickey (QB/LB), Manual; 3 — Tay Williams (DB), Westminster; 4 — KAMERON HARRIS (WR/DB), VISTA PEAK PREP; 5 — Gabriel Munguia (RB/LB), Arvada; 6 — Jalen Clark (WR), Far Northeast; 7 — Joziah Barajas (DB), Arvada; 7 — JACK SIEVE (LB), CHEROKEE TRAIL; 8 — TYREN JORDAN (OL/DL), SMOKY HILL; 8 — Vincent Yarber (LB), Denver East; 9 — Christian Lake (TE/DL), Arvada; 9 — Carter Thorp (RB/DB), Falcon; 10 — Matthew Asche (WR), Estes Park; 10 — Trevor Lucero (QB), Arvada; 12 — Elias Garcia (WR/DB), Westminster; 14 — CAYDEN SWEETS (WR/DB), CHEROKEE TRAIL; 30 — Russell Patton (RB/LB), Far Northeast; 40 — Elias Goss (FB/DL), Denver East; 50 — M.J. Dailey (DL), Denver East; 51 — NATE GRANADINO (OL), CHEROKEE TRAIL; 54 — Ceezer Garcia (OL/DL), Westminster; 68 — ALEX SIBY (OL/DL), VISTA PEAK PREP); 73 — JALEN PAYNE (DL), VISTA PEAK PREP; 76 — Aiden Sheehy (OL), Northglenn
Coaches: Matt Loyd, Cooper Loyd, Colton Loyd, Ben Patenaude, Andy Cannizzaro, Scott Jones, Leabre McNeal, Stan Hornung, Coach Ken, Josiah Hall, Daryl Gallegos
— Sports Editor Courtney Oakes
