Top 10 Things to Know About CA Athletics

Sports, in so many ways, are the public “face” of Colorado Academy. Every week during fall, winter, and spring seasons, hundreds of Mustang student-athletes take to fields, courts, gyms, rinks, and pools to compete against opponents and in front of fans from dozens of schools, public and private, all across the state. Their sportsmanship, joy, and determination send a clear message, home or away: Mustangs love to compete because they cherish their school and believe in their teammates.

Projecting that relentlessly positive image across seasons and sports doesn’t come easy: It is an enormous undertaking that requires scores of experienced coaches and staff members, minute-by-minute calendar management of a thousand contests per year, masterful transportation and facility coordination—and total flexibility when Colorado weather and other obstacles topple even the most carefully laid plans.

All of this, the people, the programming, and the million practical details that keep Mustang Athletics galloping along, are mostly in the hands of two expert administrators: Jon Hill, CA Director of Athletics, and Hunter Worthley, Assistant Director. 

They are busy people; their fingerprints are on essentially every athletic moment at CA, from collaborating with league colleagues to making sure home games are properly officiated and even allocating parking for big competitions. 

Below, they outline the top 10 things every family should know about CA Athletics.

 

# 1. Every season starts long before the first whistle.

Most families and athletes begin thinking about the upcoming season a few weeks before tryouts. Hill and Worthley begin two seasons ahead—sometimes even more.

Colorado high school sports operate on two-year competitive cycles, so Hill’s Athletic Department, working with the Office of Admission and other stakeholders, must anticipate far-in-the-future realities: projected roster sizes, competitive strength, travel distances, tournament opportunities, and league realignments. For many sports—like Boys Tennis, which is not part of a league—CA builds entire seasons from “scratch,” picking and choosing contests that seem best suited to one team’s potential.

By the time school lets out for summer, the following year’s entire athletic calendar is essentially complete. That means opponents booked, home/away logistics mapped, and other long-range decisions made—months before most coaches will even meet their teams.

 

# 2. Scheduling a thousand games isn’t just tricky; it’s an art.

CA typically plays about 1,000 contests per year across Upper and Middle School sports. Each of those games requires:

• Opponent coordination
• Officials assigned through multiple statewide platforms
• Transportation booking
• Field or facility allocation
• Confirmation with coaches and parents
• Early-dismissal timing
• Weather contingency planning

A single variable—like a lack of officials—can ripple across multiple schools; some sports, such as Field Hockey, have so few officials statewide that Hill and Worthley must sometimes reorganize entire game days to make sure events can run at all.

And during Colorado’s notorious spring storms, dozens of contests might need to be moved at once, triggering a cascade of rescheduling that impacts transportation, facilities, coaches, and families.

 

# 3. CA’s athletic facilities are the most heavily used spaces on campus.

The CA Athletic Center is in constant motion with nearly 600 Lower and Middle School students moving through their daily PE classes. 

Add in morning workouts, sports medicine visits, locker room traffic, uniform and equipment needs, and afternoon athletic practices for Upper School students—plus families, visiting teams and their own fans, and special evening events and club practices—and the facility hosts thousands of people each week. That means every game day requires set-up, break-down, crowd management, and behind-the-scenes readiness that families rarely see.

 

# 4. Transportation is its own massive operation.

Mustangs compete against plenty of teams from nearby schools, but some sports, such as Ice Hockey or Girls Swimming & Diving, have to travel for hours to meet opponents. Worthley manages the away-game transportation for both Upper and Middle School teams—a multi-layered puzzle involving ten CA microbuses (on a good day) in addition to charter buses for any trip over 30 miles.

At the start of each season, she identifies “pinch-point days” when buses will be stretched thin. Sometimes, CA must request different game days simply because transportation doesn’t exist to support the original plan.

 

# 5. Athletics show up everywhere.

Hill and Worthley plan well in advance to ensure they or another senior administrator can attend home and away games in every sport, every season. They also create a detailed “admin presence schedule” determining who will cover every home competition—announcing, scorekeeping, timing, and oversight.

Attending 1,000 contests a year may be physically impossible for two people, but they never stop trying to strike the fairest possible balance.

 

# 6. CA Athletics is powered by roughly 70 coaches and endless communication.

To run all its teams, CA needs around 70 coaching positions filled each year. Some coaches work multiple seasons; others are specialists. The newest wrinkle? Hiring for Lower School Sports, an exciting, growing area that also requires more coaches.

Every coach is expected to communicate at least once weekly with families, outlining details such as practice and game schedules, departure times, directions for fans, and even weather considerations.

Multiply that by 70 coaches and more than a thousand families, plus last-minute changes and cancellations, and the e-mail and text-message totals skyrocket.

 

# 7. Decision-making is thoughtful, collaborative, and always big-picture.

It’s easy for athletes and their families to peer through the lens of a single sport, but Hill and Worthley emphasize that they must consider the entire school ecosystem, Lower, Middle, and Upper School, as well as all teams, facilities, and competitive obligations, in all their decisions. 

Every possibility is discussed, challenged, and reframed; Hill and Worthley intentionally play “devil’s advocate” with each other to ensure choices serve the program as a whole, not just a single athlete, team, or moment.

There may inevitably be conflicts or disappointments for some, but thoughtful dialogue and a commitment to fairness are guaranteed.

 

# 8. CA Athletics also manages major schoolwide events.

Some of CA’s most beloved traditions rely heavily on the efforts of Hill, Worthley, and other members of the Athletics team, including Gus, the Mustang mascot, who is brought to life by a different Senior student-athlete each year.

• Homecoming features more than a dozen home games in a single day and requires complex coordination with peer schools that host their own homecoming weekends.
• The new CA–Kent Denver Showdown Series brings students, families, and alumni together each season for a multi-sport celebration complete with pom-poms, swag, and its own scheduling complexities.
• Giant Relay Day and Field Day, among the longest-running CA traditions, take over the entire campus for races pitting students against parents and alumni, as well as fun activities on CA’s two turf competition fields for Lower School students. 
• Capping every sports season, athletic banquets are beloved occasions to cheer for hundreds of individual awards and recognitions.

Essential to culture and community at CA, every one of these events takes months of preparation and orchestration with Operations, the Alumni Office, and Advancement personnel.

 

# 9. Athletics is deeply involved in student development and college pathways.

CA’s Athletic program isn’t just about the games played; it’s about supporting student-athletes physically, mentally, and personally, all the way from Pre-K through graduation and beyond. Hill and Worthley help oversee strength and conditioning and mental performance coaching, alignment across divisions, and webinars and panels for families navigating collegiate athletic recruiting.

For those students who are serious about playing for a Division I, II, or III team, Hill and Worthley meet regularly with families, college counselors, and coaches to help them reach their goals.

 

# 10. CA Athletics is central to CA’s public identity.

More than any other program, athletics places CA in front of dozens of schools and thousands of families across Colorado and beyond. That’s why Hill and Worthley see the program as a messenger for a CA “brand” that’s welcoming, competitive, positive, and inclusive. 

These two leaders take that responsibility seriously, not because it’s easy, but because it is the right thing to do for students.