Today's Sports

AURORA — It’s 5:30 p.m. on July 6 at Mission Viejo Park. One by one, players from the Ken-Caryl Little League walk up to their counterparts and exchange pins as their names are called over the PA system.
Their parents, family and friends sit outside the fence that encloses Field No. 3, cheering them on against 11- and 12-year-olds from The Academy Little League in Colorado Springs. As the banner hanging from the announcer’s tent behind home plate says, this is the only way to Williamsport.

HOCKEY
Ex-Littleton product Jones drafted by Predators
Seth Jones, a former player for the Littleton Hawks and Colorado Thunderbirds, was drafted with the No. 4 pick in the NHL draft June 30 by the Nashville Predators.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound defenseman was projected as one of the top players in this year’s draft, but the hometown Colorado Avalanche elected to go with center Nathan Mackinnon with the No. 1 overall pick. Florida and Tampa Bay followed suit by going offensive before the draft’s top defender came off the board.

FOOTBALL
Columbine’s Degutis escapes serious injury at 7-on-7 tourney
DENVER — Columbine senior Tanner Degutis suffered neck and back injuries but avoided serious injury after a frightening fall on the second play from scrimmage in the Rebels’ 14-10 win over St. Mary’s at the Denver Broncos’ 7-on-7 tournament June 20 at All City Stadium.

Kent Murphy has coached a number of great players, many who’ve gone on to play Division I college hockey. Though Seth Jones is not one of those college prospects, he certainly fits the bill as one of the better players. Maybe even the best.
A former Littleton Hawks and Colorado Thunderbirds player back when his father, Popeye Jones, played for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, Jones’ formative years on the ice came under the coaching of Murphy and Angelo Ricci. Now he’s being considered the top prospect in the June 30 NHL entry draft.