Highlands Ranch Coach Caryn Jarocki Named All-Colorado Coach of the Year

Freshman Na'Ziah Newbins stepped to the free-throw line at the Denver Coliseum with 4.7 seconds left and Highlands Ranch trailing by a point. She made both. The Falcons held on 54-51 over Northfield for the Class 6A state championship on March 14, and Caryn Jarocki earned the All-Colorado Coach of the Year award for steering the program back to the top for the first time since 2011.

The title was Jarocki's eighth at Highlands Ranch in 30 seasons, ending a 15-year drought. She won it as the state's winningest girls basketball coach with a seventh-seeded team that no one picked to be standing in Denver at the end of the bracket. The Falcons finished 25-3.

Sophomore guard Kimora Banks-Thomas paced Highlands Ranch in the championship with 20 points. Junior Katie Moon came off the bench to add 15, and the two combined to shoot 9-of-14 from 3-point range against Northfield, a program making its first state title appearance. Sophomore forward Jayda Rogers anchored the paint with 12 rebounds and three blocks. Newbins, a freshman guard, provided the final margin when it mattered most.

After the game, Jarocki said the win was for her players. Banks-Thomas returned the sentiment directly, crediting Jarocki's mid-season adjustments and the team's willingness to trust them as the reason the Falcons were holding a trophy.

The championship journey, as Jarocki's program described it, started with a book club, an unconventional foundation consistent with how she has built culture at Highlands Ranch across three decades before any game plan gets drawn up.

Banks-Thomas, Rogers, and Newbins are all scheduled to return next season when Highlands Ranch reclassifies from 6A to 5A. Jarocki's eighth title, in that light, reads less like a capstone than a starting point.