Small Ball

It’s that golden time in sports that everything is going on. Especially in towns that are still playing baseball, like New York, Philadelphia, and the like, there are sports abounding at every turn. Hell, pro football takes up three evenings of a week, baseball is reaching it’s apex, and long-season twins hockey and basketball are just getting things started with an almost-every-night slate that runs clear to the edge of summer. With the World Cup on the horizon, there’s bound to be big-time sports on your television nearly every night for at least the next few months. For sports-crazy Coloradans, it’s one of the best times of year, with the joys of winter sports piled on.

That sports-centric mindset plays its way out all year long in Colorado, though, with the mountains, cliff faces, rivers, altitude, and more making the state one of the most popular spots for warm-weather fanatics as well. It’s one of the rare places that you can play at whatever sports appeals to you, and that appeals to families, outdoorsy types, and those who just like to play at different things in different seasons. As a kid growing up in Colorado, my family was into everything under the sun. Dad taught me football, my grandpa taught me golf. Uncle was soccer and waterskiing. Grandma was bowling, my mom skating. My stepdad made sure baseball was in the mix. And on. And on.

It’s simply the way of the world in the Mile High City and its beautiful state. A healthy, happy, competitive community becomes a petrie dish of all things sportstastic. The Colorado State High School Activities Association (CHSAA) alone oversees over 180,000 students this year. Adding in simply the student athletes at every level of schooling raises those numbers to nearly three quarters of a million, meaning that nearly one of every eight humans in the state of Colorado is a kid who is giving a shot to the sport(s) of their choice.

With that, there are also some amazing moments to witness in the pantheon of Colorado kids sports this upcoming year.

CHSAA will see State Finals in Cross Country, Football, Field Hockey, Gymnastics, Boys Golf, Softball, Boys Tennis, Girls Volleyball, and more before we even get to Christmas. By the end of the school year, there will be well over a dozen more, and you can find their entire calendar here. If baseball at a younger age is your thing, the kids of Colorado play their way into the state team that will try to play in the Little league World Series. The Metro Region tournament that decides their fate usually lands somewhere around August. The Colorado Amateur Hockey Association literally has tournaments for kids of all ages running throughout the year.

It can get as obscure as you’d like. Lacrosse your thing? There are over a dozen leagues throughout the state. Ice skating? Sure. Pickleball, high diving, hell… even kids curling clubs abound across the state. I’m not sure if there’s a lawn dart league – nor am I sure there ought to be – but in a spot like Colorado, it sure wouldn’t surprise me.

So, while the sports keep rolling in on that big old flat screen across the living room, and you can see the world’s finest stretching their limits in slow-motion 8K, don’t forget about the high drama that is unfolding in the park at the soccer field across the street. About the league championships that will decide who is going to to State. About the kid in the backyard who would love to catch a football. Or a baseball. Or even that dog-chewed frisbee.

So, while the biggest names in their games are out showing the world the best they can do with their pucks, pigskins, or balls of many sorts, the thing that will keep the whole crew sharing in those joys with you is to also share in a little small ball.