On April 20, 2016, Ken Denning resigned as Fossil Ridge High School’s athletic director and assistant principal. Since 2009, Denning was responsible for building sports schedules, running athletic events, and having the final say on hiring new coaches. He will remain in his position until June 9, the end of this school year.
Before coming to work at Fossil, Denning worked at Mountain View High School in Loveland. He was on the start-up committee when Fossil was founded, and served in the head football coach position for several years. Denning also worked as a dean of students from the time Fossil opened, then became an assistant principal. He has served as both athletic director and assistant principal since 2009.
Denning cited the 2013-2014 season in which the girls and boys basketball teams both went to the state championship as the highlight of his time as athletic director at Fossil. He talked about how both teams competed at Colorado University, and stated how proud he was of the number of Fossil students who came out to support their athletes.
During his time at Fossil, Denning headed the hiring of three major sports coaches. Dave Philop was hired as the softball coach in 2011. Since he took over for the varsity program, the Fossil softball team has gone to the 5A state softball finals every year. In 2014, the team set the school win record, going 22-2 in regular season and losing in the semi-final of the state championship. He substitutes teaches P.E. classes as well.
Carolyn Fries coached girl’s swimming at Fossil from 2007-2013, but left at the end of that season to work on her master’s degree in counseling. She led the girl’s swim team to a state championship win in 2012. Denning hired Fries again for the 2015 season, and the girl’s team went into it as the defending 5A state champions, having won five conference titles in a row.
Chad Salz is the third of Denning’s major athletics hires at Fossil and he remains the head varsity coach for girl’s basketball. Coming out of a 9-3 season this year, the girls varsity is ranked first in their 5A, Front Range class. In addition, during the 2013-2014 basketball season, Salz’s team went 26-2 and set the single season record for points per game, with 59.6.
When hiring a new athletics coach, Denning makes a point to include parents on the committee, plus several staff members and other coaches. He acknowledges the difficult parts of his job as well. When asked whether it is hard to fire staff, he stated that, “it’s just a duty… to find that the best candidate you can.”
Perhaps the reason Denning has such a bright outlook is because he wholeheartedly believes in the athletics program at Fossil. He said, “We’re so fortunate, we have coaches that care about kids and care about their programs. The wins and losses come, but I’m most proud of the way our coaches care about their student athletes.”
Fossil can only hope that the next athletic director will be as positive and influential as Ken Denning in the athletics community.
