The “movie” has come to an end for John Reyes, but it had an exceptional run for a decade.
Reyes’ memorable 10-season stint as head boys and girls track coach at Grandview High School concluded at Jefferson County Stadium May 20 with a near miss for the Wolves in the chase for the Class 5A girls state championship, which came down to the final race.
Reyes had to settle for three state championships — the girls in 2017 and boys in 2021 and 2022 and a trio of runner-up finishes — plus double-digit individual and relay titles as he helped usher a good program in the state’s elite.
“The last three years I’ve coached — since COVID — I felt like I’ve been living a movie,” Reyes said. “I don’t know how it happened or what, but I always tell the kids ‘I don’t pump my chest because I’m your coach, I’m just glad to be part of this group.’”
The 45-year-old Reyes noted that when he and his wife and assistant coach, Natalie, came to Grandview in 2014 after 11 seasons at ThunderRidge (which followed a season as an assistant at Broomfield, his alma mater, plus two as head coach at Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas), Grandview was the only program in Cherry Creek Schools that hadn’t won a state championship in boys or girls track.
Now, when the duo departs, it is the program that has jockeyed with rival Cherokee Trail for tops in the district over the last decade.
“It’s really hard to build a track team because it’s basically built on a lot of individual performances,” Reyes said. “You’ve got very different athletes. Your distance group is nothing like your throwers, your throwers are nothing like your sprinters, hurdlers or jumpers, so it’s not easy.
“I get asked that question a lot, how do you get everybody onboard as a team? I wish there was a magic answer to be honest. I’ve definitely had years where that happened and years where it didn’t.”
High jump coach Dylan Baumgarten has recorded and cataloged data at the 5A state track meet since 2014 and the numbers show that Grandview has had the most successful overall run in the state’s largest classification in that span.
The Wolves scored a combined 924 points (562 for the girls, 362 for the boys), which is the most in 5A for any program since 2014, with only the 916.2 of Cherokee Trail — which won the 2023 boys 5A crown — coming close.
The Grandview girls team piled up a stunning 120 points at the 2017 meet (the most since George Washington scored 124 in 2000). That has been the only girls team other than the 2015 Cherokee Trail (99.5) to even approach 100 points at state in that span.
Under the Reyes’ watch, the Wolves won a combined 11 relay championships — after the school only had one previously — and had 13 individual state championship victories, capped by a trio of titles at the 2023 meet with 100 and 300 meter hurdles crowns for junior Gabriella Cunningham, who also teamed with sophomore Leiava Holliman, junior Makiya Singleton and senior McKenzie Droughns to win the 4×100 meter relay.
Reyes had success finding athletes from other sports in an athletically gifted school to join the team. He and his staff found a way to help those athletes maximize their abilities in ways they didn’t expect.
“I was thinking about doing baseball my freshman year, but he made it sound too good to be true,” senior Gibby Leafgreen said after two trips to the medal podium in hurdles events.
“But it wasn’t too good to be true. I had a great time and I’m very glad he got me out here running.”
The numbers stand for themselves, but the intangibles carry much more weight.
That was evident at the end of the meet when a parade of athletes spent time in embraces with Reyes, some of them overcome with emotion.
“That’s the greatest track coach in the state by far and maybe in the country,” Leafgreen said. “The man knows his stuff and he gets it done. I owe everything to that man, we all do. I love that man with everything in my heart.”
Senior sprinter Luke Trinrud — who was part of one of Reyes’ most special memories when he teamed with David Maldonado, Charlie Dick and Evan Johnson to set the Colorado record in the 4×100 meter relay in 2022 — echoed the sentiment.
“He’s given me this love for the sport and I don’t know if I could repay him,” Trinrud said.
“He does so much for us. He took us to extra meets this year because we had so many canceled by weather. On Wednesdays, we’d be at some random track meets an hour away and I was like ‘I don’t know what I’m doing all the way out here and I’ve never heard of these schools, but here we are, we’re running it.’ It was about trying to get some times and get us into state.
“He does everything he can to give us the best opportunity to succeed, so there’s nothing more you want to do than to go out and thank him by doing your best and performing.”
Added Cunningham: “He’s created a family within our sport. I can’t give enough gratitude or words of expression to that man. He’s taught me so much.”
With this chapter at its conclusion, Reyes is ready for a bit of rest and deservedly so.
He has worked often as a race starter during the cross country season and served as an official, while he poured himself into the promotion and execution of the Stutler Twilight meet, which had one of the most loaded fields during the season.
Reyes believes his successor is set up to continue where he left off.
“Whoever it is will get a really good job with some really good kids and really good people around them,” he said. “There will be lots of chances for success.”
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
GRANDVIEW STATE TRACK CHAMPIONS UNDER JOHN & NATALIE REYES
Team: Class 5A girls (2017); Class 5A boys (2021 & 2022)
Individual state championships: Gabriella Cunningham (Class 5A girls 100 and 300 meter hurdles, 2023); Melody Nwagwu (Class 5A girls triple jump, 2021); Darrian Leu-Pierre (Class 5A boys high jump, 2019); Lily Williams (Class 5A girls 400 meter dash, 2018 and 2019); Alisha Davis (Class 5A girls high jump, 2019); Kylee Harr (Class 5A girls high jump 2017 & 2018); Brie Oakley (Class 5A girls 3,200 meter run, 2016 & 2017/Class 5A girls 1,600 meter run, 2016); Triston Sisneros (Class 5A boys 300 meter hurdles, 2015
Relay state championships: Leiava Holliman, Makiya Singleton, McKenzie Droughns, Gabriella Cunningham (Class 5A girls 4×100 meter relay, 2023); Luke Trinrud, David Maldonado, Charlie Dick, Evan Johnson (Class 5A boys 4×100 and 4×200 meter relays, 2022); Conrad Casebolt, David Maldonado, Charlie Dick, Evan Johnson (Class 5A boys 4×100 meter relay, 2021); Charlie Dick, Malique Singleton, Evan Johnson, David Maldonado (Class 5A boys 4×200 meter relay, 2021); Saniya Craft, McKenzie Droughns, Amber Davis, Molly Skurcenski (Class 5A girls 800 meter sprint medley relay, 2021); Saniya Craft, Gabriella Cunningham, Amber Davis, Molly Skurcenski (Class 5A girls 4×200 meter relay, 2021); Kaitlyn Mercer, Kameryn Brown, Saniya Craft, Lily Williams (Class 5A girls 4×400 meter relay, 2018); Kylee Harr, Jordyn Moore, Kameryn Brown, Lily Williams (Class 5A girls 800 meter sprint medley relay, 2017); Kameryn Brown, Lily Williams, Kennede Brown, Michaela Onyenwere (Class 5A girls 4×200 meter relay, 2017); Lily Williams, Kaitlyn Mercer, Kennede Brown, Michaela Onyenwere (Class 5A girls 4×400 meter relay, 2017)
