Now that the winter sports season is over and driveway is finally clear of snow, it is time to catch up on a few other things.

First off, the Mountain Vista and Legend baseball teams displayed good timing. There were no baseball, soccer or lacrosse games played in Colorado on March 13 or 14 because of snow. Golf or track events were also postponed.

However Vista and Legend did play baseball because they were in the Boras Baseball Classic of Arizona in the Phoenix area. The Douglas County School District didn’t go on spring break until the week of March 18-22 but Vista and Legend players didn’t miss too much school because of two snow days.

Coming and going

Darren Withey is the new athletic director at Highlands Ranch and Valor Christian AD Jamie Heiner has resigned effective at the end of the school year and is changing careers.

Withey, a Spanish teacher in the EDGE program at Legend, will take over for the 2019-20 school year.

He was the former Aurora Central head baseball coach and assistant football coach at Aurora Central, Mountain Vista and Legend and assistant baseball coach at Mountain Vista, Rock Canyon and Legend. He was an assistant softball coach at Legend.

Withey’s mother was a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and his dad, Jim, was a semi-professional baseball player in Harvey, Illinois.

Heiner, Valor’s AD for the past four years, will be pursuing a full-time pastoral role at Journey Church in Castle Pines.

Valor has the search for a new AD.

Impressive debut

Clint Evans has made an impressive coaching debut in Colorado.

Evans was the head girls basketball coach at Olathe East in Kansas but took over as the head mentor at Cherry Creek, and the Bruins girls won their first-ever state basketball championship with a victory over rival Grandview on March 9.

“You don’t do this to win championships but I can’t imagine writing a better story,” said Evans. “My family and I moved out here from Kansas City in June. I had hopes of doing something like this in the future but to do it in our first year is just amazing.

“The kids did it. I didn’t come out here not knowing I had these good players. I watched Jana (Van Gytenbeek) play but a lot of these kids didn’t play a whole lot last year. We said it all year, one team, one goal, we’re going to find a way.”

Newsworthy briefs

Some quick updates about individuals and teams from around the area.

Ralston Valley senior Joey Steiskal tossed a no-hitter in the season opener on March 9 in a 3-0 baseball win over Lincoln … Megan McGriff scored nine goals in Bear Creek’s 18-10 girls lacrosse victory over Smoky Hill on March 12 … forward Kasey Neubert of Highlands Ranch is the Continental League girls basketball Player of the Year while Ponderosa’s Cory White and Caryn Jarocki of Highlands Ranch are girls co-coaches of the year … Kobe Sanders is the Continental League boys basketball Player of the Year . Valor Christian freshman Raegan Beers was honored as the Jefferson County 5A girls basketball Player of the Year.

Jim Benton is a sports writer for Colorado Community Media. He has been covering sports in the Denver area since 1968. He can be reached at jbenton@coloradocommunitymedia.com or at 303-566-4083.