Hinkley: 'A Flight Above The Rest..."
As the second-oldest high school in Aurora, William C. Hinkley developed its athletic prowess immediately and has been home to many of the most-prominent coaches and athletes in the city’s history for nearly 50 year
By COURTNEY OAKES
The Aurora Sentinel
Published: Thursday, April 22, 2010 4:55 PM MDT
Former Hinkley High School boys basketball coach Dan Jarvis looks at the Class 4A state championship trophy his team won in 1998. Jarvis led the program to two 4A state titles in a five-year span, giving it the most of any team in school history. (Photo by Heather A. Longway/The Aurora Sentinel)
William C. Hinkley High School doubled the number of Aurora high schools when it opened in 1963, giving Aurora Central High School company in a growing area dominated by farmland.
Through 47 years of history — which has seen eight more high schools open in the Aurora area and the population grow six-fold — Hinkley has developed many athletic distinctions, including becoming home to the school district’s main athletic facility in Aurora Public Schools Stadium.
Chief among the on-field accomplishments, Hinkley stands as the only city high school to have won at least one state championship in the three major male sports: football, basketball and baseball.
The Thunderbirds have two titles on the hardwood, one each on the football field, baseball diamond and cross country course, but are still looking for their first state championship for a girls team. Individual track and field winners have been common for the school.
Legendary coaches, integral administrators and future professional and college athletes have walked the halls in bunches in different eras, combining to create a deep tradition kept alive in a new time where different challenges have made athletic success less prevalent.
Beginnings
When William C. Hinkley High School opened its doors in 1963, Aurora had only one high school and roughly 50,000 residents.
The new school pulled coaches and students away from Aurora High School, renamed Aurora Central shortly after Hinkley’s opening, immediately creating a natural athletic rivalry that’s run hot for almost half a century.
For 10 years, Aurora’s only two high schools battled it out, bettering each other and further establishing roots of a strong all-around athletic tradition that continued for decades until an explosion of new schools, shifting demographics and other factors have made sustained success elusive for both in the past 10 years.
Though the Aurora area now counts 10 high schools, Hinkley holds its head above the rest as the only one with at least one state championship in the three major boys sports: football, basketball and baseball.
The Thunderbirds nearly won all three in the magical 1997-98 school year, when the football and basketball teams ruled 4A — bringing home two of the school’s all-time haul of five state crowns — and the baseball team made the final group of eight before going down.
Beginnings
Starting with its namesake, Hinkley was destined to become a school known for strength in track and cross country.
The school was named in honor of then-Aurora Public Schools superintendent William C. Hinkley, the chairman of the Colorado High School Track Committee and a former track athlete at Manual High School and Colorado College.
One of the school’s first coaching moves further strengthened that base when pioneer Bob Caviness came aboard after a successful stint at Aurora Central.
Caviness — the second head coach hired at Hinkley after football head man Guy Jones — had already broken ground while at Aurora Central, beginning his quest to make Aurora the center of track and field in the state. He was the driving force behind what has become the longest-running track meet in Colorado, the Robert F. Caviness Invitational, which began as the Aurora Relays in 1957.
The meet, which swelled to 63 teams and 1,437 participants in 1964, celebrated its 54th anniversary on April 17. It was the first held without Caviness, who passed away in June of 2009 at the age of 83.
It didn’t take Hinkley long for the Thunderbirds to have success under Caviness, especially in cross country. The school’s first state title came when the boys won Division II in 1964 — back when the race was half as long as the 3.1 miles it is today — bolstered by the performance of individual champion Wayne Henderson.
The title came early in an opening salvo that included scores of Centennial League titles in cross country, which also included top-four state finishes in 1972 (fourth) and 1973 (second).
Hinkley’s other individual cross country champion came along in 1983 in Mark Reichel, who was second in 1982 and moved up to the top spot as a senior. That season, he set the school record in cross country of 15 minutes, 38.8 seconds that still stands, as well as his top times in the mile and two-mile.
Reichel was also a winner at the Aurora City Cross Country Championships — another annual event Caviness had a hand in starting. The meet was run for the 28th consecutive year in 2009.
Craig Boccard arrived as an assistant to Caviness in 1980 and headed the girls program before taking over the boys when Caviness retired in 1992 with a strong tradition already in place.
While with the girls, Boccard had some especially talented groups, including a team in 1987 that featured hurdle star Karla Briscoe, plus Gina Padilla, Francis Waddell, Liana Holloway and others.
Coming off a surprising second-place finish the previous season, the Thunderbirds had heavy expectations, but didn’t come through collectively when the state meet arrived, a distracted performance Boccard partially attributed to the state meet falling on the day of prom.
“We were loaded and we destroyed everybody at meets during the season,” said Boccard, who is now at Broomfield. “To win a state championship you have to have a lot of things going for you: A little luck, a lot of skill and good health. We dropped sticks in relays and we didn’t make finals in events we should have. Sometimes I think the allure of prom is a little too strong.”
The 1997 Hinkley girls finished second to Mullen at the 4A state meet with two top all-time talents in Tiffiney Jones and Stephani Duff.
Duff, part of a magnificent graduating class in 1998, was the most prolific of the group, dominating the short hurdles. She went to Oklahoma State, a year after Jones secured a scholarship to Oklahoma after winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes and long jump at the 1997 state meet.
Francine Kaylor, who won the state championship in the discus in 1977 — setting the state record at the time of 144 feet, 7 inches — and 1971 grad Linda Smith also stand out among Hinkley’s track stars.
When Boccard took over the boys track program and Don Keeley took over the girls team, they started to see significant growth in the quantity and quality of athletes that came out for track.
Part of the change came after John Pounder took over the football program in the early 1980s, a change that sparked more success on the gridiron and fed more versatile athletes to the track team.
A core of football stars like Adam Davis (a six-time state champion who swept the long and triple jumps for three straight seasons between 1995 and 1997), Ahmad Lewis and DeShawn Perkins kept Hinkley in or around the top five for several years in the 1990s, but a powerhouse Mullen team and several other things kept the Thunderbirds from taking first.
Besides cross country and track, baseball was one of the other sports that brought attention to Hinkley for many years, starting with an early run of Centennial League dominance under original coach Terry Schiessler.
Hinkley has been one of Aurora’s best baseball schools in terms of success and overall talent, as a city-high eight former Thunderbirds have been selected in the Major League Baseball draft.
The best known is Brian Fisher, who played 14 seasons of professional baseball, including a stint with the New York Yankees.
Fisher originally hoped to play football, but he developed a fastball that registered in the mid-90s and a devastating slider that made a baseball career — where he could avoid “getting slaughtered” — a better possibility.
As a junior, the hard-throwing 6-foot-2, 205-pound right-hander was a key part of Hinkley’s 1979 Class AAA state championship-winning team under longtime coach John DeSiato.
DeSiato started out at Hinkley in 1969 as an assistant coach under Schiessler, who he knew from their time together playing at the University of Denver. DeSiato took over in the early ’70s and guided the team to Centennial League titles in 1972, 1973 (when the Thunderbirds lost in the semifinals, but won third place) and 1975.
The championship breakthrough came in 1979, when a team loaded with juniors who had played together the previous season finally put it together with Fisher at the forefront.
“There were very few kids around who could hit Brian at the time. When you put him on the mound, you were going to be pretty tough,” DeSiato said.
Hinkley fell behind 1-0 in a best-of-three Centennial League championship series with powerhouse Cherry Creek, but won the final two games to make the AAA state tournament at Runyon Field in Pueblo.
Fisher beat Lincoln with a three-hitter, then relieved struggling Chris Oleson in the title game against Niwot with the score tied at 2-2 in the fourth inning. He allowed just two hits and struck out seven over the last four innings, while also coming up with three hits and driving in four runs to aid the cause in a 7-2 victory.
“Any time you win a state championship it’s great; that’s what you play sports for,” Fisher said. “It was a blast. We had a great group of guys who played well together and played good baseball.”
The only downside of the championship was that it was played after school had let out for the summer, so there was no triumphant return for the conquering heroes.
“School was out when we won the championship, so there wasn’t much fanfare; guys just went and played summer baseball and that was it,” DeSiato said.
The Thunderbirds got plenty of attention the next year, however, as they were the favorites to repeat after losing just three seniors from the championship team.
Hinkley didn’t even make it to the state playoffs, however, losing two games to Arapahoe in the Centennial League championship series. The Warriors went on to win the state title.
Soon after, Fisher was drafted 29th overall by the Atlanta Braves in the 1980 MLB Draft. He got traded to the New York Yankees, where he pitched two seasons, eventually suiting up for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners.
Fisher — now an assistant across town at Regis Jesuit — had a 36-34 career record.
Another former Hinkley pitcher who made it to the major leagues was Brian Holman, who moved to Kansas for his senior year in high school and got drafted No. 16 overall by the Montreal Expos in 1983. He played three seasons between the Expos and Mariners, going 37-45 with a 3.71 ERA.
Other drafted Hinkley baseball players included Kurt Nantkes (Oakland Athletics, 1992) and Shane Smith (Miwaukee Brewers, 1989), while pitcher Keith Bailey (a 1973 graduate) got a shot with the San Francisco Giants after an outstanding career with Northern Colorado, including an epic pitching peformance against top-ranked Arizona that got the Bears into the 1974 College Baseball World Series.
Led by left-handed pitcher Dan Meier, Hinkley also played in the 1995 4A state championship game under coach Dean Adams, losing to Sterling 17-6.
Hinkley’s most prolific team in terms of state championships is the boys basketball team, which won 4A twice in a five-year span in the mid-1990s under Dan Jarvis.
The program suffered through a long down period after Jim Brandenberg got them off to a strong start in the 1960s — winning a consolation championship in 1965 — but experienced an upswing under Jarvis, who had previous stops as at schools in New Mexico and Louisiana before arriving at Hinkley 1982.
After some heavy turnover at head coach, Jarvis got the job from DeSiato — who had moved to the post of athletic director in 1984 and left the baseball team — with a young team going 3-16 in 1991-92.
The foundation of a successful future were built in that year, however, as the Thunderbirds began to develop depth and understand Jarvis’ philosophy of full court pressure defense and diverse offense.
With a junior-dominated lineup, Hinkley lost in the Elite Eight the next season, but broke through in 1993-94 despite some internal strife. Jarvis began with nine seniors, but two quit because of playing time issues, and Dedrick Weddington — the team’s leading scorer — was removed from the team for disciplinary reasons.
The remaining group banded together, however, and behind players like Danny Fisher and Andre McClintock, the Thunderbirds got on a roll. They won 18 straight games to close the season, beating Green Mountain 68-59 at McNichols Arena in a tight championship game to win the first state basketball title in school history.
Along the way was a thrilling semifinal win over Palmer — which had a 47-game winning streak going — which came on a Fisher 3-pointer with just two seconds left.
“That group of seniors that were left were determined to step up and do whatever they needed to do,” Jarvis said. “I think maybe there were some people who thought we might not be what we had been when Dedrick left the team, but the other players still believed,” he added. “As a coach, it was very satisfying to see these young men overcome obstacles and win a championship.”
The 1997-1998 squad had much less drama on its way to the 4A state championship, capping a dominating playoff run with a 91-60 rout of Windsor at McNichols Arena. Led by Brandon Daum, Hinkley won every postseason game by a minimum of 21 points.
Aldean Thompson, Tim Graham and Ryan Christopher also keyed the senior-laden squad.
Jarvis’ team lost in the 5A state title game in 1999, but things started to change from there. In 2001, the famous transfer of six players — including future Texas A&M signee Marcus McIntosh — to Eaglecrest, began a period of struggles.
For several members of the basketball team, it was their second state title of the school year since they were part of the football team that Central of Grand Junction for the 4A gridiron championship a few months earlier.
Pounder had nearly led the Thunderbirds to the 1993 title, but Eaglecrest beat Hinkley 37-29 in the 4A championship game, the only all-Aurora final ever and a game some consider one of the best in state history.
The Raptors snuffed out a late drive by forcing a fumble from star running back Corey Emecheta — who had over 300 yards rushing in the contest — to hold off the late-charging Thunderbirds.
Nantkes, a quarterback who started his prep career at Rangeview, moved over to Hinkley — where his dad was a teacher — as a junior. He found himself surrounded by weapons in Pounder’s option-based offense. One of the skill position stars was Davis, a wide receiver who went to Washington State and was on the Cougars’ roster for their 1998 Rose Bowl.
Injuries to Davis, Perkins and finally Nantkes derailed the 1996 team’s title dreams, but the drought finally ended the next year.
Hinkley rolled through the season with a quick-strike offense led by Nantkes and Perkins, Deon Waynewood and Troydell Dixon at the skill positions — all track standouts — in addition to a beefy offensive line that averaged 280 pounds. Nonetheless, its playoff fate rested solely on the flip of a coin.
As with any championship run, a little luck — in this case, chance — was necessary.
A three-way tie with Regis Jesuit and Littleton in the Continental League standings forced a coin flip to decide who would get the two 4A playoff spots and who would be left out of the mix.
According to Nantkes, the team considered their athletic trainer a good luck charm, as the only three games she missed over two seasons were ones the Thunderbirds lost. They sent the trainer to take the coinflip, which Hinkley and Regis Jesuit both won.
Not only did Hinkley and Regis Jesuit — the only team to beat the Thunderbirds, in an epic game played in a snowstorm — get into the 4A postseason, they nearly met for the championship.
By needing to win the coin flip, Hinkley had to go on the road and play against top-seeded Rampart and their dominating defense in Colorado Springs. The Thunderbirds offense put up 28 points, but found themselves tied in the late stages. A long drive put them in position for a short winning field goal try into a howling wind, which Hinkley’s female kicker, Jessica Hanneman, made with ease.
“I was holding for Jessica in the pregame, and she didn’t make a single kick; the wind was blowing the ball sideways,” Nantkes said. “Sure enough, she put it right down the middle when it counted. I told Coach Pounder about the pregame in the bus on the way home and he was glad he didn’t know that.”
Hinkley needed a strong performace from its defense — which was often overworked because of the offense’s quick-strike ability — in a 6-0 win over Longmont, then rolled past Durango 36-15 in the 4A semifinals.
The championship tilt — which Hinkley got to play on its home field at Aurora Public Schools Stadium — was fairly anticlimactic, as the Thunderbirds rolled to a 62-42 demolition of Central of Grand Junction.
As it had all year, Pounder’s offense ran smoothly all day behind Nantkes and Perkins. Nantkes had 120 yards rushing and 124 yards passing, including touchdown passes to Dixon and Waynewood, while Perkins ripped off 146 yards on 12 carries — pushing his season total to 2,143 yards on just 209 carries — and scored four touchdowns.
Even an offensive lineman got in the act, as Adam Bryning scored when Central of Grand Junction tried a late onside kick that he caught and took back 55 yards for a touchdown.
Dean Adams was a defensive assistant who made a lot of the calls on game day. Against the Warriors, his defense — led by linebacker Chad Harlan — racked up eight sacks and harrassed quarterback Brandon Millholland all game.
“It felt great to win the championship since we’d all grown up playing against each other in youth leagues in Aurora,” said Nantkes. who eventually found his way to UNLV as a quarterback after his baseball career didn’t work out.
“It was a great feeling being part of a group of Aurora kids who came together and made hard work pay off. As I’ve come to realize, rarely does a player have the opportunity to finish with a victory.”
It turned out to be the only state championship victory for Pounder, who retired in 2001 after a 149-85 record in 20 seasons.
Previous Pounder teams had plenty of talent as well, with 1987 graduate Joel Steed headlining the players who went to continue their careers at the next level.
Steed was known for his intelligence as a player and a sometimes eclectic personality, but his displays of strength were what impressed coaches like Boccard, who served as his defensive coordinator.
“Joel was very, very bright, but he was also incredibly strong; he was almost superhuman in our eyes,” Boccard recalled. “There are some things he would do that you couldn’t believe you’d actually seen. We had some great athletes, but Joel had a package that was different from the rest.”
Boccard thought Steed’s size (6-2, 300 pounds) and smarts would lead him to a future career on the offensive line, but the multiple-time all-state performer flourished as a defensive tackle at the University of Colorado and was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1992 NFL draft.
Steed played with the Steelers until 1999, appearing in 115 games and making the Pro Bowl in 1997.
The lack of a girls state championship at Hinkley is surprising, especially considering the run the girls basketball team put together under coach Dave Melton.
Melton guided the program for 11 seasons before stepping down in 1987. He had no losing seasons — an 8-8 mark in 1976-77 was the low point — and racked up a 187-52 overall record, with six Centennial League championships and six trips to the state tournament.
Some of Melton’s top players included Kim Jackson, Michelle Oswald, Teresa Marlowe and Teresa James, but 1984 graduate Bridget Turner was the fulcrum of a Hinkley team that finished third in 4A in 1981 and made it to the state championship game in 1982 and 1984.
The Thunderbirds lost both title games — to Wheat Ridge in 1982 and to Centennial League rival Boulder in the 1984 finale at the Denver Coliseum — which was one of the few failures of Turner, who is widely recognized as one of the finest female basketball players ever in the state of Colorado
While at Hinkley, Turner did things that few girls of the time could do on the court and played her way onto four all-league teams and three all-state squads.
After a 76-15 career at Hinkley, Turner moved on to the University of Colorado, where she had a career that has her sitting fourth on the school’s all-time list in scoring and rebounding. Turner — a 1989 inductee into the Sportswomen of Colorado Hall of Fame — also played for the USA women’s national team and spent time with the Harlem Globetrotters.
The program had a resurgence in the late 1990s and early 2000s under L.D. Wood, but lost in the 4A semifinals twice.
Hinkley has never had a state wrestling team or individual champion, but the school has a place in Colorado mat history as it played host to the Division II state tournament for more than a decade between 1963 and 1975 before it moved to larger venues. The school annually supplies the current state tournament at the Pepsi Center with volunteer workers.
The Hinkley boys soccer team has won the past three Skyline League championships and though the Thunderbirds haven’t had much success in the state tournament, it is another chapter in a soccer tradition started by Jerry Schloffman.
Under Schloffman, Hinkley won the first three Centennial League titles of the 1970s and were among the state’s top teams before the sport was sanctioned by the CHSAA in 1975.
