The following feature appears in the March 2026 issue of Mile High Sports Magazine, which is available now. To see the full digital issue, click here.
Like so many other hopefuls for Windsor High School volleyball, Rylee Greiman had her commitment tested when preparing for – and during – fall seasons at the Wizards’ gymnasium in northern Colorado. The school gym sported the obvious court, scoreboard, nets, balls and hosted a typical gaggle of exhausted teenage girl… and trash cans for them in every corner.
Just in case.
“We knew what they were there for,” Greiman recalled.
No doubt, longtime Wizards coach LaVerne Huston has proudly built a reputation as a disciplinarian; a taskmaster who required formal commitment. However, as so many of the great personalities and motivators before her have demonstrated on the scholastic level, the trick is to intertwine it with genuine heart for young people who crave – and flourish with – both.
Huston, neither has been a problem…
A willingness to adjust and/or change for whatever a particular group of girls requires also is in the intellectual mix for Centennial State native Huston, now a grandmother and well into a fourth decade churning out teams that rate highly among the Rocky Mountain hierarchy.
LeAnn Schild (now Ostheimer), another former Windsor player and a team captain, said Huston “just had a calm, quiet, very poised kind of confidence and was direct. She would be- come intense when she needed to be intense, but led with a very poised demeanor.”
As the 2025 Dave Sanders Colorado Coach Award winner, an honor in the name of the murdered teacher-coach at the Columbine massacre in 1999, Huston still enjoys the kind of career Sanders perpetuated, with no end in sight as she remains one of the most important figures in the local game’s history.
Windsor volleyball under Huston has long made it clear – dealing with the Wizards has become a must for the upper crust of Colorado volleyball teams.
The basic ingredients of Huston, Windsor and volleyball obviously work, and the programs Huston has been leading (her boys, who were sanctioned in 2022, operate under the guise of Severance, along with participants from Eaton, Roosevelt and Windsor) have the numbers, accomplishments and stories to prove it.
To wit:
— Huston began her coaching journey as a volunteer assistant at Limon in 1983 under the renowned Mary Gore.
— All told, Huston has coached more than 1,000 matches, totaling an epic 656-367 record (.641 winning percentage).
— Huston-coached teams have advanced to the Colorado state tournament a whopping 19 times.
— Windsor’s girls won it all in 1995. They also were runners-up three times, including last fall.
— It took Huston’s boys program all of four seasons to emerge, advancing to a state final four in the spring of 2025.
— Also consider that Huston has run ClubOne Volleyball for two decades, so her love for the game and accompanying net worth would put her on any Colorado list of those wealthy in people.
“I love the relationships with the kids,” said Huston. “A woman I coached about eight years ago sent me a nice message this morn ing (in early December) that brought me to
tears. It was a moment I likened to… ‘that is why I coach.’”
It started for her as a multi-sport player as a youth, an eventual schoolgirl pioneer of sorts in the Rockies before sanctioning was widespread throughout the region, as well as her ability to flock to and learn from significant coaches, notably Ann McKay. In fact, McKay led Valley, Huston’s eventual alma mater, to the 1975 AA state championship – the first year in which champs were crowned. The 50-year anniversary Vikings competed at the old Highland and Mapleton schools in the Thornton area, and were recognized at the past fall championships at the Denver Coliseum.
“(McKay) was a tough coach and she pushed all of her athletes,” Huston said. “She was great and so were others … I loved the passion and the drive they had. There was so much action and so much to learn.”
Simply put, Huston insists, “playing, watching and coaching are fun.”
Ostheimer said Huston “trusted me from the get-go.” She started as a freshman, “so her and I always had a trusting relationship. I could lead in a similar style. She taught me so many skills I use today.”
Jackie Winder (now Hertzke), a middle hitter in Huston’s first year heading Windsor in 1992, said, “what I appreciate most about LaVerne is she’s always coaching. Some people coach and expect kids to know what to do, but in my senior year, she saw some inconsistencies and we needed to get back to fundamentals. She provided ongoing feedback, and kids have chances to get better with her. She has very, very high expectations. She models and practices that.”
Patty Childress, who led Aurora’s Grandview to becoming a Class 5A powerhouse along with a net full of league, regional and Colorado championships — and the 2013 Sanders winner — called Huston “just a wonderful person … I watched the tournament (the past fall), and (the Wizards) had great success with that crew. You could definitely tell they had discipline.”
At the tournament, Childress said, she watched and listened as Huston received yet another award, “and they were going through her accolades, and it was just phenomenal.”
Former Wizards right-side hitter Jordyn White said she “loved playing for Huston, and I still talk to her. My first couple of years, I was pretty intimidated by her tongue and high expectations … I think it was that we knew the expectations and what we had to do — and what happens if we don’t. Every day we had to rise to the challenge.
“As I grew up more, I became really grateful for that.”
Susan Odenbaugh, who was a junior-varsity player for the Vikings in 1975, said Huston “is so very knowledgeable, and I think probably her specialty is teaching defense. And that probably came for playing for McKay.”
The 2017 Sanders winner, Odenbaugh went on to raise Monument’s Lewis-Palmer to elite status – notably garnering four Colorado championships as well as three runners-up – and approves of Huston’s formula and approach. “Disciplinarian is a good word to describe her,” Odenbaugh said. “She’s very strict, has high expectations and pushes the girls. She just produces great teams time and time again.”
Plus, while Windsor remains one of the better high-school sports towns in Colorado with all its fanfare, interest, pride and success, and is in a loud, booming area along with Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland, making do with what’s on hand is what has made the Wizards who they are.
Added Ostheimer: “She always develops her team, even with shorter talent. She never had the tallest group of girls. That says something, too. “She really is a pillar of the volleyball community, particularly in Colorado.”
For Huston, H is for honesty.
For example:
— “I’m a disciplinarian, because that’s the way I learned how to play. I also want to say I’ve been coaching for almost 40 years combined and I have learned as a coach; I’ve changed a lot over the years. Players come back and coaches under me say, ‘Wow, we didn’t get to do that!’ Times change and you have to change with the times. It has contributed to my successes. I’m not stuck 20 years ago.”
— “Kids have changed. Club sports have a lot to do with that … (high school and club), it does go kind of hand-in-hand (after club-schedule amendments were implemented). Most clubs kind of respect the high school season, but there are still a good number who do not … private lessons and training during the high school season, that’s something I don’t appreciate. It makes me mad.”
— “I’m really convinced the kids are getting enough practice and reps in high school and they don’t need additional work on the weekend. It causes fatigue and leads to injury. We’re dealing with that, and trying to convince parents that you’re hurting your kid more than helping them … we’re dealing with that now.”
— “Let’s be honest. Only a small percent- age of athletes go on to play (beyond high school) … I wish more parents were more realistic. We have a lot of parents who want to live through their kids instead of kids paving their own way with their own success. I will say, though, I’ve been blessed with good athletes and good, supportive parents and administrators, really. It really hasn’t been an issue.”
— “If I wasn’t coaching volleyball, I’d be coaching softball in my next life.”
— “I like being part of a winning tradition at Windsor. I’m sitting here right now thinking about the softball team being state runner-up, football being No. 1, the boys and girls basketball teams as state champions … I just get so excited for our student-athletes. It’s one of the reasons I started substitute teaching, to get to know and meet our students, not just student-athletes, but to have a relationship with those individuals. I love being a substitute teacher.”
(Jessica Maestas)
“Outside.”
Do not be surprised that it’s where Huston said she spent the overwhelming majority of her childhood while being raised in Gilchrist, after being born in Greeley. There were no such things as smart phones, only dumb ones that were attached with cords to the house. Huston was having too much fun outdoors with family members to really notice. No Facebook, X, Instagram or TikTok. Google was an adjective for a person making a certain kind of glowing expression with their eyes. And Huston was decades away from understanding what the heck would be electronic-game offerings such as Words With Friends and Candy Crush.
Was she a tomboy? “Tomboy? I don’t think I ever heard that so much,” she said, “but I would say it would have been a good title for me.” In reality, she said, “all of my cousins and I were on the dirt roads of Gilchrist, where we gathered for athletics … we really didn’t spend much time in the house.
“Our parents encouraged us to be outside and be active, and we were with 15 cousins. That’s the way it was, but it’s not like that anymore. Kids today stay inside and are on social media (a contradiction in terms?), playing games… they just don’t even engage.”
Who knew pinball machines or the infamous Pong would bring us here? “I joined Facebook only (about) a year ago,” Huston said. “It can be addicting for some people. Instagram? I never use it.” And she credits her parents. “Absolutely,” she said, “especially for the time I was raised … and that’s the way I raised my kids. They were all athletes. Very rarely would you catch my kids inside.”
In shaping who she has become, the now 63-year-old Huston and her sports ran the full gamut for a young Colorado girl in the 1960s and ‘70s, leading to basketball, track and volleyball at Valley. As a volleyballer, she was one of the tallest players on the team at all of 5-foot-4. Undeterred, the outside hitter helped the Vikings to a third-place finish at the 1979 Colorado tournament and was both all-league and all-state.
Following was a two-year stint at Otero Junior College, where she was a defensive specialist, and a year at Metro State before getting married and starting a family. Not surprisingly, she began another journey, this one toward earning a degree in elementary education and including competitive volleyball and basketball in the recreational leagues in Greeley. She said she also played “softball for a really long time.”
It was indicative of the strict combination of family, sports and coaching Huston has perpetuated and lived. “We had multiple coaches prior to LaVerne coming for our senior year,” Hertzke said. “She was pregnant and it was a family affair. Her husband (Don, also prominent in coaching baseball) would hit at us and block … it was the first time we experienced a family situation on the court.”
And it proved even deeper for Hertzke.
“So the cool story about her legacy for me is, not only did I play and coach for LaVerne, but my daughter (Gabrielle Hertzke) played and coached for her (and helped assist the club team).”
Said Greiman: “(Huston) set a standard that family always comes first.”
For the record, Brittany, 40; Zachary, 38; DJ, 34; and Cody, 30, comprise the Huston offspring, and their careers include teaching, insurance and sales. Huston, whose brother-in-law, Mike, also etched his name as a significant coach into Greeley baseball’s fabled history, somehow has found the time for clinics and panels, further cementing her reputation as a non-stop Energizer Bunny.
“I just always thought she was very level-headed,’” said Denver Christian icon, basketball-coaching legend and inaugural Sanders winner Dick Katte (after the first award was given to the Sanders family). “She knew what things were about. And that’s a good sign in a case like this.
“I’m glad she does what she does.”
(Jessica Maestas)
The Kennedy assassination. John Lennon’s murder. The Challenger explosion. 9/11.
Many in or near Huston’s generation recall what they were doing and where they were when events such as those occurred — or they can at least remember their initial reaction.
For Huston, “I don’t think I was teaching (the day of the Columbine shootings). I want to say I was home, then the breaking news hit and I saw it on TV … I also remember the shootings at the Aurora theater.
“I was a teacher-coach, so I was interested in all of the stories coming out. Lauren Townsend (one of the 13 Rebels murdered), the volleyball player, and her mother (Dawn Anna) being a (volleyball) coach and Dave being softball coach and all of that … I was stunned, absolutely, that it could happen.
“Now, it’s numb. It happens all of the time.” Calling it “sad and unfortunate,” Huston said the Columbine massacre “was sobering, and I think it probably pulled at my strings a lot more, the impact (Sanders) had on student-athletes and how it would affect them. It’s sad for the kids, honestly, and the students in general to have to go through that. At the same time, being part of a team to lean on and be comforting for
all of those emotions … it’s unfortunate we have so many school shootings.
“And it always comes back to this when there are more shootings. We always come back to Columbine, and it’s always part of the headlines.”
No one has to remind Frank DeAngelis, the former Columbine principal who was with Sanders during horrific stretches of the murders and has remained a stand-up guy throughout the gut-wrenching aftermath more than a quarter-century later. Fact: Whenever another shooting occurs, it’s as if DeAngelis is on speed dial for any kind of support. Plus, he firmly believes in keeping his friend’s name relevant and within everyone’s memory.
“Continuing with the Dave Sanders Award,” DeAngelis said, “I think about him every day. He was just a dear friend of mine, and to have this annual award still going means the world to me as well as for the Columbine community and the Sanders family. It just continues his legacy. He was not only a great coach and teacher, but he was a role model and a great human being. He made the ultimate sacrifice — saving the lives of others.”
“How much longer (will I coach)?”
It’s a question that Huston, who always makes it a point “to de-compress” between seasons, realizes will have to be answered someday … but she doesn’t know which day. “I think about it often and I’m in my 35th year in August, when my granddaughter (Gracie) will be a freshman (and volleyball player; grandson Darren is a multi-sporter). We’ll see. I don’t know. How will I feel? Am I staying healthy? “As long as you love what you’re doing … I’m 63, busy and I love it. I just love high school athletics and I’m a huge supporter. The Wizards are so successful and I love it. It makes me proud to be a part of the Wizards family.
“It’s really amazing!”
***
“With zero warning, Dave Sanders found himself in an unimaginable situation 24 years ago. He didn’t blink; he reacted. He led multiple students to safety while taking heavy gunfire. A genuine hero was murdered. Every teacher-coach on the planet, now and in the future, should know his story. It’s an honor to be associated with his award, and I’ve promised his best friend — Rick Bath, who has a plaque made for each winner — that I’ll continue to help keep the Sanders name relevant to Colorado high-school sports.”
– A note from the author, Neil H. Devlin, regular contributor for Mile High Sports
(Neil H. Devlin)
***
(Dave Sanders)
By eyewitness accounts, William “Dave” Sanders was a hero on April 20, 1999. The 47-year-old teacher-coach, a Columbine High School faculty member for 23 years, helped numerous students to safety before he was murdered along with 12 teenagers by student gunmen in the massacre at the school in the southwestern metropolitan area.
In honor of his commitment to young people, notably in girls’ sports, Mile High Sports will continue with the Dave Sanders Colorado Coach Award. MHS, in accordance with the Sanders family, will recognize a high school coach who not only has longevity and success in teaching and coaching, but also outstanding character.
Former Columbine coach Rick Bath, Sanders’ best friend and the 2002 winner, will continue to present a plaque to the winner. In 2000, Sanders was awarded an ESPY and the Arthur Ashe Courage Award posthumously, and Sanders’ family was given the first Dave Sanders Colorado Coach Award in his honor.
Dave Sanders Colorado Coach Award Winners:
1999: Dave Sanders, Columbine
2000: Dick Katte, Denver Christian
2001: Maurice “Stringy” Ervin, Littleton
2002: Rick Bath, Columbine
2003: Warren Mitchell, Limon
2004: Don Gatewood, Montbello
2005: Pam Fagerlund, Flagler
2006: Judy Barnett, Manitou Springs
2007: Caryn Jarocki, Highlands Ranch
2008: Leslie Moore, Denver Public Schools
2009: Gail Hook, Monarch
2010: Sally Moos, Cherry Creek
2011: Bob Bledsoe, Erie
2012: Sue Snyder, Simla
2013: Patty Childress, Grandview
2014: Carl Mattei, Regis Jesuit
2015: Mike Croell, Broomfield
2016: Dawn Gaffin, Legacy
2017: Susan Odenbaugh, Lewis-Palmer
2018: Ron Rossi, Holy Family
2019: Josh Ulitzky, Grandview
2020: Eric Craven, Cherry Creek
2021: Frank Cawley, Mullen
2022: Dave Adams, Cheyenne Mountain
2023: Marc Johnson, Cherry Creek
2024: Sara Crawford, Kit Carson
2025: LaVerne Huston, Windsor
