Photo by Lillyth Atzenbeck

AURORA – Rangeview, coached by Chris Lopez, is off to a 2-0 start after defeating Gateway on Thursday in the Anvil Game.

Today, he is being recognized as the Broncos High School Flag Coach of the Week. The Denver Broncos and CHSAA will continue to honor one flag football coach and one tackle football coach each week throughout the season.

Throughout the season, all Coach of the Week honorees will be recognized on the field during a pregame ceremony at Broncos home games.

Q&A with Chris Lopez:

What is your coaching background – how long have you been coaching football and how long have you been at Rangeview?

This is my 15th or 16th year coaching high school. I coached about five or six years of Little League before this. This is my going into my fourth year at Rangeview.

Do you have a particular coaching style or philosophy that you adhere to?

I think everybody being held accountable is probably my philosophy, and it starts with me. I have to hold myself accountable to make sure we're adhering to the standards that we want to bring back to the program. That's coaches, students, athletes in the building, or out of the building. I think accountability is a big thing that we've really tried to bring back into this program. As far as style goes, I feel like I'm fair, and I'm just. As long as we're living to the accountability piece and sticking with the traditions of the school, I think that's going to point us in a good direction.

Has that always been your philosophy, or did that start when you got to Rangeview?

I've been lucky enough to play at some schools. I am from Colorado. I went to Pomona High School and having that tradition and sense of pride at Pomona really carried me and drove me through. I was fortunate enough to get the head job at Rangeview, and to really bring that sense of tradition and pride back to the school. Little things like singing the school fight song at the end of every single game, win or lose. Having that sense of pride of wearing our jerseys in the building, representing who we are. I think it's kind of been instilled in me and I've just been fortunate to be at a school that has so much tradition and has so much pride.

Speaking of pride and tradition, you beat Gateway in the Anvil Game. What's the history and significance of that game?

For Rangeview and Gateway, I think it's even more significant now than it was before of bringing Aurora schools back to light. Bringing Aurora schools back on the map, having it be a clean, fun game that holds a sense of pride in Aurora Public Schools. It has a long history. By having us play Gateway again this year, I wanted to really do a good job of promoting that game and allowing our schools to have pride in something and have something tangible that we can celebrate at the end of the game.

What was the reaction for winning that game?

That thing's like 250 pounds. So once they were able to get a grip of it, when they were able to hold it up at the end of the game, I think it just validated that sense of pride for both schools and I think it validated the sense of, we are playing for something bigger than just Rangeview and Gateway. We're playing for the city and we're playing for the school district. I think hopefully for Gateway, it's a 'we're going to get this thing next year, let's go have another good battle. Let's compete again and let's fight for something that's bigger than the two of us and the two of our schools.

What are your expectations for the rest of the season?

I think my expectations have been pretty consistent since I got the head job and it's just to compete.
We need to compete in all aspects of everything we do in life. It's not just football. We need to compete in the classroom. We need to compete in the community. We need to compete on the football field. We take a one week at a time approach. We want to celebrate the little things we did on Thursday night, but at the same time, we have an opponent coming up Friday night, who's equally as tough and equally as committed to beat us. We need to celebrate the small things, but we also need to understand that we need to get over it, move on, and compete for the next week. And hopefully that one step at a time approach will help carry us.

Is there anything else that you want to say or anything I missed?

I couldn't do this without my coaching staff. I know this is an individual award, but at the end of the day, I have some phenomenal coaches who are in the trenches with me. We have some phenomenal kids who've really bought into the program and what we're trying to bring back to Rangeview and to Aurora Public Schools. I have a very supportive administrative staff, and I couldn't do this without my coaches, my administration and obviously I couldn't do without these kids either. I just really want to make sure that my coaches get recognized because even though I get the title, this award has nothing to do with me. This award has everything to do with the amount of work, the amount of time our coaches put in, their guidance, and their leadership to help build on the foundation that we've set in place.