Athletic departments at Erie high school have worked from sunrise to sunset during their off seasons in order to prepare for a new challenge during the 2022-23 seasons. Sports within the school have moved up classifications from 4A to 5A, with boys basketball moving to the newly added 6A classification, meaning harder opponents, tougher schedules, and playoff pools filled with better competition.

Boys’ soccer season is already well underway, meaning they’ve already gotten a taste of this new competition level. The team will stay in the 4A playoff pool, but their schedule has consisted of many 5A opponents in their new mixed Northern league. The team has started with a 6-3 win-loss record, but they’ll deal with some tough opponents to finish out the regular season,  “Competition has gotten a lot harder, especially moving into a new league… ” Ben Bradford says. With six regular season games left, the team looks to maintain their success even with this year’s tougher schedule. They’ll split the next four games at Tiger Stadium and on the road, and then finish out with two conference games which are to be announced.

Boys Basketball looks forward to a larger challenge, as in the offseason CHSAA added a 6A division to the sport, which Erie will be moving up to. This means playing the biggest schools in the state, after coming off an underwhelming season. The team looks to improve after only six wins last year, with a relatively young core returning. Their new league will consist of the largest schools in Northern Colorado,“…playing a lot better teams, bigger schools, like Fossil Ridge, Horizon. We’re gonna have to prepare harder..” Cade Sweeney, a Junior who plays basketball says. The jump in classifications surely will challenge the team, but they’re confident they can bounce back and turn things around from last year.

Teams have looked upon their respective off seasons as a huge opportunity to prepare for the 5A jump, with sports spending more time training and lifting. Summer was utilized as many students used their time out of school as a chance to improve and get stronger. Basketball, for example, has been working hard to build their bodies, “Everyday [that] we have practice, we go in the weight room afterwards we go in the weight room for about an hour…” Sweeney says. This is extremely important as many schools in these higher level classifications have bigger kids, meaning Erie will have to keep up. This goes along with the fact that kids improving their bodies will help to prevent injuries against bigger, stronger, and faster competition.

Erie looks to remain prominent regarding athletic competition in the area, and moving up to 5A and 6A is an amazing opportunity for sports within the school to show they can play with Colorado high school powerhouses. With boys’ soccer hot start against the new competition, other sports will hope to follow in this direction and be successful at the highest level in the state.  As the community continues to grow, teams look upon playing 5A sports as a privilege more than a challenge, and look forward to striving for championships at Erie.