Not to be lost in the parade of state championships won in the last couple of weeks for Aurora prep teams is the Cherokee Trail boys volleyball team.
Coached by Terry Miller, the team with a mix of players from several Aurora schools and others in the Cherry Creek School District finished off an unbeaten season in Colorado Boys High School Volleyball Association play with straight set victories over Ponderosa and Ralston Valley on May 10.
The two victories in the championship tournament at Colorado Springs Christian School finished off a perfect 25-0 season for the Cougars.
“What a season!” said Miller, who coaches the Cherokee Trail girls team in the fall.
Cherokee Trail faced its toughest test in the semifinals, where it outlasted Ponderosa 26-24, 31-29 to set up a meeting with Ralston Valley.
The Mustangs didn’t have much left after defeating the other Aurora team in the field — coach Laura Dunston’s Regis Jesuit team — in the other semifinal and the Cougars rolled to a 25-12, 25-8 victory. The match was punctuated by a big kill from senior outside hitter Matt McLaren, a Grandview student who is headed to play men’s volleyball at Penn State.
Cherokee Trail’s roster included primarily volleyball players along with a sprinkling of multiple sport athletes such as Ryan Swan, who was a key member of the Overland boys basketball team that advanced to the Class 5A semifinals in the winter.
Faith Christian won the CBHSVA’s 3A state championship by defeating The Classical Academy.
Boys volleyball remains unsanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association, but holds out hope of inclusion in the governing body’s list of approved sports in the future.
— Courtney Oakes, Sports Editor
Hmm, you forgot to mention that Cherokee Trail had a starting line up of seven club players with two more club players sitting the bench, while Ralston Valley had exactly one club player, who isn’t even 18 yet. Also, while Cherokee tTrail is able to pull from the whole Cherry Creek School District, Ralston Valley could barely pull a team of 8 players together because so many interested kids were turned away because they lived too far from Ralston Valley High School. So who really showed the most adversity? Cherokee Trail who was expected to win from the beginning or Ralston Valley who had never made it past the first round before?
Cherokee trail showed the most adversity, they won.