The high school sports calendar turns to the winter season this week, with Roaring Fork High School boys and girls basketball getting things rolling by hosting the annual Brenda Patch Tournament.
A mix of Western Slope, Front Range and Eastern Plains teams will be in Carbondale this Thursday through Saturday for the tournament, which honors the memory of Patch, who died in a tragic car crash along with her mother on Thanksgiving Day in 1984.
The varsity boys get things started at 3pm Thursday against Plateau Valley, and will return to the court at 7:30pm on Friday against Fort Lupton.
The Rams girls take on Steamboat Springs at 6pm Thursday, and square off against Rifle at 6pm Friday.
The top teams will meet for the tournament championship and third-place games on Saturday.
Both Rams teams are looking to build on the success of last season, when they each qualified for the Class 3A state playoffs, both bowing out in the second round.
Roaring Fork’s girls, who went 22-3 overall and placed second in the 3A Western Slope League at 12-2, enter the 2025-26 season with a pre-season ranking of seventh among 3A teams in Colorado.
“This team is filled with potential, but we’re going to have many youngsters on the court, including starting a freshman,” third-year head coach Mike Vidakovich said of a returning squad that includes senior Nikki Tardif and junior Riley Bevington.
Both players were among the best in the league last year, and Vidakovich said he will look to their leadership as the team looks to fill the shoes of several veteran players who graduated last year, including twins Carley and Erica Crownhart and Maddie Anderson.
Joining Tardif and Bevington as team co-captains is junior Hazel Jenkins.
Cedaredge dominated the league last season, going undefeated, and should return as the team to beat this year, along with Meeker and North Fork, Vidakovich predicted.
“We’ll have a good chance to be right up there with them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Rams boys also received some preseason votes to be among the top teams in the state, and will be looking to prove themselves on the court after an 18-7 campaign last year and their first 3A WSL title in several years at 12-0.
“I think this year we should be as good as last year, or better,” veteran head coach Jason Kreiling said of a team that lost three seniors, but still has four starters returning in seniors Lucas Carballeira, Kiko Pena, Ethan Wilson and Ryder Tezanos.
“We also have some solid guys coming off the bench that have had some experience, so I expect us to be really competitive again this year,” Kreiling said.
Roaring Fork dominated the league last season, but Kreiling looks to teams like Olathe and Meeker to keep the competition level up this year.
Both Rams teams will be on the road at the Weld Central tournament next weekend to conclude the pre-holiday slate of games.
Also beginning their season this weekend is the combined Glenwood Springs High School girls swim team, which includes several Roaring Fork student-athletes. The Lady Demons host a multi-team invitational meet at the Glenwood Community Center pool on Friday, Dec. 5, and are at another meet in Grand Junction on Saturday.
Likewise, the combined Glenwood boys hockey team got things started on Nov. 21, a 4-3 loss at Summit. They are at Durango for games on Friday and Saturday this week.
Later this month, the combined Basalt High School boys and girls wrestling teams begin their season at the Warrior Classic in Grand Junction on Dec. 19.