We Are The Champions

BY SEARCH PARKER STAFF

In one of the most athletically competitive states in the nation, our local schools have shown they can hang with the best of them. Winning recent state championships in multiple sports has been something for the community to celebrate! Here are the most recent.

Douglas County High School Cheer team was the All Girl 5A Cheer Champion for 2023.

Lutheran won the state title for 4A Boys Track and Field in May of 2023 and their girls won the 4A Softball title in a 3-0 win over Holy Family in fall of the same school year.

Ponderosa High School baseball team won back to back 4A state championships, in June 2022, winning 11-1 against Cheyenne Mountain and defeating Holy Family the year prior.

Castle View’s coed cheer team won the 5A Co-Ed Cheer State Championship in 2021.

Legend’s girls’ softball team won the 5A State Championship in 2021, winning 8-0 against Columbine.

In 2019, Chaparral girls took home the 5A Volleyball State Title, winning 25-4 over Valor.

1 Girls Volleyball 6 Spirit

1 Boys Basketball

3 Girls Volleyball

3 Girls Spirit

1 Boys Cross Country, 1 Boys Golf, 2 Softball, 3 Girls Volleyball, 3 Boys Basketball, 5 Girls Basketball, 1 Girls Track, 8 Boys Track

1 Football, 1 Softball, 1 Girls Volleyball, 1 Boys Basketball, 1 Girls Basketball, 10 Wrestling, 2 Baseball, 1 Boys Lacross, 12 Spirit

Parker's original community center owes its beginnings to basketball.

The Schoolhouse Building on Mainstreet was built in 1915 and originally housed grades one to 12. High schoolers attended the Mainstreet location from 1915 until 1958 when the school was closed. Parker students began attending Douglas County High School with students from Castle Rock until Ponderosa High School was dedicated in 1983. In the 1940s, Parker High School had a great basketball team and they were hopeful of the state championship. The gym in the old schoolhouse was small and some of Parker’s opponents thought it was unsafe. They threatened to kick Parker out of the league. The gym was decertified, and Parker High School did not have a venue to play basketball. The community pulled together to build a new location for school sports and events. The Quonset hut style building was built in 1950 by the community. People in the community contributed money, time, materials and work to make the idea a reality. Thankful for a community center to serve the school and town events, the town celebrated on Thanksgiving, 1951, with women from the community providing 15 turkeys along with all the traditional accompaniments. It was a Thanksgiving to remember.

Old timers who attended the historic schoolhouse remember walking to the Quonset hut each day for lunch while the school lunchroom was being remodeled. On the Parker Area Historical Society Facebook page, townspeople shared memories of square dancing, craft shows, haunted houses, community classes, wedding receptions, 4H clubs, and even the beginnings of the Parker Task force tied to this building. Box social memories were shared where women provided a box lunch, and their lunch was auctioned off for a donation. It served as a roller-skating rink for many years and one man recalled riding his horse to the building to roller skate. For a time, there were monthly dances held every second Saturday in the community center. In the mid 90s, youth sports teams played at the Quonset hut and teen nights were held there. The Parker Police Department was also housed in the building at one point.

Eventually, the center was seldom used and fell into disrepair. There were plans to turn it into an ice rink, but it would not be big enough for the official NHL rink size. In 2003, the Town Council made the decision to tear down the building. It was one of Colorado’s largest wood structures at the time, according to a Parker Chronicle article on May 1, 2003. The gazebo and surrounding landscape now stand in the location of the old community center in O’Brien Park.