Falcons girls getting tougher

BY JIM BENTON SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA

Hard work is starting to pay dividends for Highlands Ranch basketball player Ezra Simonich.

Simonich, a 5-foot-10 sophomore, scored 23 points on Feb. 7 in a Continental League showdown against Regis Jesuit which matched two top ten teams in the CHSAANow state rankings.

“I’ve been working real hard to get my shot going and I felt like the habit paid off,” said Simonich.

She made five 3-point baskets to lead the way for the fifth-ranked Falcons, who used a strong second and third periods in which they outscored the Raiders 38-19 to pull away from the Raiders, who came into the game ranked sixth.

“We passed really well and we came out a lot faster and harder than we have this season,” added Simonich. “That’s why we got up and then we were able to keep that throughout the game. We’ve grown a lot. We all know where each other is at and we’re really playing well as a team.”

“The kids played great as a team,” said Falcons coach Caryn Jarocki. “They actually executed the game plan better than we have in the past. They are learning to take what we learn in practice and executing that in the game.”

Highlands Ranch’s varsity roster is young with five freshman, three sophomores and two seniors.

“We are a very young team and they are growing by leaps and bounds,” Jarocki said. “They are getting tougher every day. They have been thrusted into roles that they shouldn’t have to play but they are. They are young and they are doing it. I’m proud of them.

“Now the sky is the limit. I think they are feeling the fever of it. They are gaining confidence every day.” that end, that would also make it difcult for the airport to restrict those.”

The Falcons’ two seniors, Maddie Groth and Bailey Williamson, had 12 and 10 points respectively against Regis.

In the game against Legend on Feb. 7, the Falcons rolled to a 50-39 victory.

Highlands Ranch faced piggyback league first place games against both Regis and Legend and won both contests.

With two games remaining in the regular season, the Falcons are 8-0 in the league and 18-3 overall. Legend is 7-1 and 14-7 while ThunderRidge is 7-2 in the league and Regis 6-2.

Jarocki swelled her Colorado all-best winning mark to 716-186 in 34 years of coaching, including the first 11 seasons at Colorado Academy. She has helped Highlands Ranch win seven state championships.

Fronapfel said that because the airport has accepted federal funds, it is limited in what it can do, adding that the airport doesn’t have jurisdiction over the airspace as the FAA does. He noted that the federal grant dollars are paid for by the users of the airport, not the taxpayers in the jurisdictions.

When asked if it is possible to establish a capacity limit of how many aircraft are allowed within the tra c pattern at a time, Fronapfel said he is not sure.

“I don’t believe it is. I don’t believe we can arti cially dictate what that limit is. However, that being said, we are getting legal advice on that,” he said.

Fronapfel and members of the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority Board of Commissioners met with an aviation attorney in private before the Feb. 9 board meeting to get legal advice and understand what their legal parameters are.

Afterwards, during the board meeting, Arapahoe County Commissioner Jessica Campbell-Swanson said she had a lot more hope going into that meeting than she did coming out.

“I am crestfallen and frustrated about our own ability,” Campbell-Swanson said. “We were very disappointed in what we heard, in what the … airport’s capabilities and authority is.”

Fronapfel said the legal expert will attend the next roundtable meeting, scheduled for March 1, to give the same presentation that was given to the board and to answer questions from the public.

Airport’s next steps

Any solution has to involve the FAA being at the table, Fronapfel said Feb. 6.

“I’m hoping that as we get more evidence that shows that it was the management of the tra c versus the amount of tra c in the pattern, that that’ll help our argument with the FAA to revisit that again,” he said. “I think there are de nitely avenues to a solution, we just haven’t reached the nal solution yet.”

During the Feb. 9 meeting, Fronapfel shared ve measures the airport wants to pursue:

1. Communicate with the FAA to nd solutions to minimize the extension of the tra c pattern. 2. Communicate with the ight schools so they can reduce the number of times the pattern gets extended when they are not actively being given FAA instructions.

3. Work with legal counsel to understand the airport’s ability to reduce the community’s exposure to aircraft noise and lead emissions. 4. Meet with ight schools, xed-base operators and their fuel suppliers to expedite having an FAA-approved unleaded alternative fuel available. 5. Provide the airport board with recommendations “and possibly a draft resolution” at the March meeting that outlines nancial initiatives the airport can provide to accelerate the transition to unleaded fuel.

Dubler of Quiet Skies Over Arapahoe County gave members of the board a document with proposed solutions, such as issuing landing fees for aircrafts and fees for leaded fuels.

It was decided some members of the board and members of Quiet Skies Over Arapahoe County would meet together in a smaller working group to further discuss the potential solutions. “ is group is committed to working with the neighborhood and with you all. We are as frustrated as you are,” said ad Bagnato, chair of the board of commissioners. “We are, again, as committed as you are to try to nd a solution.”