37 team in playoffs, 73 team left out?

Kerry Denison laughed when I asked him how he was going to spend Friday night. He wasn’t exactly sure.

He’ll watch a high school football game on TV and probably listen to another on the radio. He’ll probably enjoy the nice homecooked meal with his family he’s missed for the last three months — “my wife probably feels like a widow right now” — and he’ll probably end up enjoying it. But for certain he knows that no matter how much he tries to distract himself, sitting at home isn’t how he was supposed to spend this Friday night.

Denison, coach of the 14thranked high school football team in Colorado, said he shouldn’t be watching the Class 5A playoffs on TV. He should be coaching in them.

And he’s probably right. With 24 teams making the 5A playoffs, omitting No. 14 Westminster from the field appears to be a boneheaded move by the seeding committee at CHSAA if there ever was one.

“What am I supposed to tell my kids? These kids have gone through some tough seasons, but this year we went 73 and we don’t get in the playoffs,” Denison said. “Meanwhile, you have a 37 team (Lakewood) in and they’re not even the last seed. You tell me how that’s right.

“Give us a shot at Legend (55), give me Legacy (46). Heck, give us Mullen (46) — they’re having a down year — and let’s see how we do; I like our chances. It’s the big schools with the tradition that get preferential treatment for the playoffs, and I can’t compete with that. You can’t beat CHSAA.”

CHSAA, rarely the one to accept blame yet always open to feedback, was quick to point out that before crying foul on 5A playoff seeding it’s important to consider the conference Westminster plays in, the Metro 10, designed this year to lump historically struggling teams in the same league. Administrators (not necessarily coaches) at every school in the Metro 10 wanted to be a part of it, and part of the league stipulations were that one team would be guaranteed to make the playoffs, but no more than two would be allowed in. As a result, five Metro 10 teams finished this year in the