The Rangeview girls basketball program has a new addition on the bench with a proven track record, as the school hired Tony Speights as its new head coach last month.
Speights had a successful run in 16 years at Chaparral — which he led to the Great 8 round of the Class 5A (now 6A) state playoffs six times and to the Final Four once — before he took off the 2022-23 season to watch his daughter play college basketball at Regis University.
When the job came open at Rangeview with the departure of La Monte Weddle — who took the Raiders to at least the Sweet 16 four straight seasons between 2019 and 2022 and to the Great 8 in 2021 — Speights decided to try to get back into coaching a year earlier than he had anticipated.
“I think they’ve had a pretty good run on the girls side and I don’t think they’ve quite gotten to where they want to be yet,” Speights said. “It’s a good opportunity with good athletes and a good opportunity to build there.”
Speights said he is friends with Weddle and has always heard good things about Rangeview players.
He will lead the Raiders into a second season in the City League (formerly the Denver Prep League), where he will get to renew a rivalry with Denver East coach Carl Mattei, who he used to go head-to-head with for years when he was at Chaparral and Mattei was at Regis Jesuit.
In other Aurora girls basketball coaching news, Robert Dennis — a key assistant coach for the past two Class 5A state championship runs for Grandview — has been hired as Cherry Creek’s new head coach.
