Sports & Recreation

It's tough to catch a good fish in the big city. But if you're willing to drive out to the 'burbs, it's as easy as spending the day at the Aurora Reservoir. Home to the $10K Trout Tournament, the reservoir provides 820 acres of water. Bad-ass water, that is. Here's how the city of Aurora describes it: "The best water grows the baddest fish! Aurora's reservoirs have some of the best water around and have grown four state record fish: Tiger muskie, catfish, smallmouth bass and white sucker." According to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the reservoir is also tops for rainbow trout, brown trout, walleye, wipers, largemouth bass, yellow perch and crappie. Fishing in the city? Holy crappie!

Readers' Choice: Washington Park

Old athletes are still young by everyday life standards — except for Jamie Moyer. The left-handed veteran (who got his first start against Steve Carlton) is attempting to make a comeback and to make the Rockies roster after missing last year recovering from Tommy John surgery. And after a slow start, he's now competing for the fifth starter position — complete with his wicked 67 mph pitches. Just that, and the fact that he made it to spring training, is commendable. No word on whether the Rockies staff has to accommodate him with a 4:30 p.m. dinner.

A lot was expected of the number-two overall pick in the NHL draft, but few people were counting on the kind of performance that the Swedish-born Gabriel Landeskog has turned in. The lefty is in the top five in most offensive categories among rookies and second on the team in points. In March, he was named the NHL's top rookie. He also provides hope, which we will gladly traffic in. The Avs have lacked a star since Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg began to fade. The talented winger is only nineteen years old and should get even better, especially if center Matt Duchene, who is all of 21, grows with him.

Readers' Choice: Matt Duchene

They're not as popular as Rocky dogs or Helton burgers, but fans can still get their Rocky Mountain oysters at Coors Field. Since 1995, sliced bull's testicles, battered and fried to a golden, chewy crisp, have been available at stand 144 in the ballpark, where they have a "small but hard-core following," says Aramark regional manager Richard Hesse. Play ball!

Denver-based manufacturer Never Summer Industries marked its twentieth anniversary in the snowboard business with the addition of the Proto CT, a springy new all-mountain freestyle board that ruled this season's demo days and earned top reviews. Like all boards in the line this year, the Proto CT is made in Colorado and features Never Summer's patented Rocker Camber Technology, a profile shape that floats on powder, rules on the rails, and helps even beginner riders avoid catching an edge and face-planting under the chairlift. It's also loaded with slope-tech like "Carbonium Laminate Technology," "STS Pretensioned Fiberglass," Never Summer's "Superlight" wood core, and a "graphite-impregnated Sintered 5501 base." Translation? The Proto CT has both pop and pep, offering a lively ride in the best and worst conditions.

Rookie defensive sensation Von Miller forced a fumble on his very first NFL play, was named AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, recorded 11.5 sacks, played a couple of games in a cast and was named to the 2011 Pro Bowl. Not bad. Off the field, the bespectacled Miller was the picture of poise. And while Tim Tebow was certainly the spark that the Broncos used to fire themselves up for a mid-season turnaround, Miller was the fuel. The Broncos will be Peyton Manning's team come September, but its orange-and-blue heart beats behind jersey number 58.

Readers' Choice: Tim Tebow

The world — well, the International Olympic Committee, anyway — was watching when Boulder-based USA Climbing hosted the International Federation of Sport Climbing Lead Climbing World Cup in October at Movement Climbing + Fitness. It was the first time the competition has been held in the U.S. since 1988: Sport climbing is on the shortlist to become an Olympic medal sport, and the IOC had to have liked what it saw at Movement. The three-year-old Boulder gym has become an indoor mecca for Colorado's climbing community, thanks to the work of climbing-wall designer Cort Gariepy and the Rockwerx Climbing crew. It also features TechnoGym equipment, a room full of Saris CycleOps machines, and a first-rate staff of personal trainers. Wondering how the World Cup climbers get into some of those positions on their way up the wall? Check out Movement's full complement of yoga classes, including Acro Yoga sessions that incorporate elements of Thai massage, active inversions and partner-supported acrobatic positions.

We tend to forget about University of Denver hockey coach George Gwozdecky because he is so consistently excellent. But his team was ranked in the top ten nationally and made the playoffs. Again. Although they exited after the first round, DU has won two national titles with Gwozdecky at the helm, and this year he juggled three capable goalies, each of whom started at least ten games. Gwozdecky also coaxed solid play out of a young roster: Juho Olkinuora, the goalie who logged the most minutes in net, is a freshman, and the team's second, third and fourth leading scorers are all underclassmen.

Readers' Choice: Tad Boyle, University of Colorado men's basketball

Let's not go nuts here because John Fox led the Donkeys to a .500 record in a crappy division, but he gets credit for not doing what so many coaches in his position would have done: be a stubborn, old, crotchety coach. Rather than try to shove a square peg into a round hole by making Tim Tebow run a traditional NFL offense, Fox played to Tebow's strengths and integrated a read-option that allowed football Jesus to throw less and run more. Now Fox has the exact opposite situation to work with in Peyton Manning. We think he'll be fine.

Readers' Choice: George Karl

Hosted annually by the Denver Run Club, the Beer Mile requires participants to chug a beer and run a 400-meter lap — then repeat three times. Beer Miles are held all over the country, and Denver's most recent version was held on St. Patrick's Day, naturally. It's BYOB — and make sure you come with the strong stuff (at least 5 percent alcohol by volume), or don't come at all. All beers must be twelve ounces, as well. Oh, and if you throw up, you have to do a penalty lap.

Rather than donning Tim Tebow jerseys, the sports name Coloradans should have plastered all over their clothing in 2011 was that of Jennifer Barringer Simpson. In an unexpected victory, the 25-year-old University of Colorado at Boulder graduate (and 2008 Olympic athlete) took the gold medal for the 1,500-meter track event at the World Championships in Athletics in South Korea last year. Simpson sped past the rest of the racers in the final few moments to become the victor, making it the first time since 1983 that an American woman took home the title.

Here's the thing about dog parks: They're for dogs, and mostly medium-to-large dogs that need some exercise. So while you, the human, might like a spot with a lot of grass, shade, benches, pedicures and an espresso bar, your dog wants a huge expanse of land to burn off its energy. Stapleton fits that description better than any park in the city. It's massive and it's all sand. Rocky may have made running in sand look easy and super-awesome, but it will have your dog's tongue hanging in no time.

Readers' Choice: Cherry Creek

Every Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Mercury Cafe, Kendall Perry and Piper Rose teach Community Yoga, a class open to all ages and skill levels. The best part? It's free — for everyone. Whether you're a yogi with decades of experience, a first-timer, a senior citizen or a toddler, the instructors make sure the class is tailor-made to fit. The Merc's big wood floor and availability of natural light make for a comfortable, no-pressure environment, with plenty of room for stretching and bending. Every so often, Community Yoga transforms into "show-ga," with local musicians and performers joining in to create a live soundtrack. After class, students can continue their healthy trip downstairs for a nourishing brunch from the Merc's all-organic menu.

Stop the presses! Our crack team of researchers pegged the answer to this question at three, but that was before the Peyton Manning signing. Then we revised downward, briefly, to zero, before finally settling on four, thanks to Tim Tebow's trade to the New York Jets. Bright lights. Big City. Meet your new biggest star.

Readers' Choice: Two

Shaun White's perfect score in the Men's Snowboard Superpipe competition at Winter X Games 2012 wouldn't have been possible without a perfect pipe to play in, and this season, Buttermilk's 22-footer was widely regarded as the best in the world, not just the best in Colorado. Sixteen-year-old Aspen local Torin Yater-Wallace milked his home pipe for all it was worth, claiming the bronze medal in the Men's Ski Superpipe finals and then building on his training there to finish in second place overall on the Winter Dew Tour. He seems to have learned a couple of things in the terrain park, too: In March, Yater-Wallace landed the first-ever switch 1800 — five complete spins, taking off and landing backwards — in the slopestyle competition at the final stop of the U.S. Grand Prix.

With every death-defying match, "Joey Terrofyn" McDougal puts his bloody heart and soul into Primos Hardcore & Wrestling. The owner of Colorado's premier entertainment fighting company started out several years ago loosely affiliated with the Juggalo wrestling circuit. Eventually, the wrestler and promoter realized that his brand of high-flying stunt show was a niche all its own, and he split from the Detroit clown cult. McDougal brought famed world wrestler and death-match fighter Mick Foley to the ring in Colorado last year and is starting up his own Lucha Libre league, REVoLUCHA, this year. With those kinds of moves, Primos Hardcore & Wrestling won't stay underground for long.

If you noticed some of your colleagues taking weekly "sick" days this winter, blame the $35 Woodward Wednesday Pass deal at Copper Mountain. The pass — a fraction of the price of a regular full-day ticket at Copper or anywhere else — was good for a single-day lift ticket on the new Union Creek high-speed chairlift serving Copper's terrain-park system and some beginner and intermediate slopes, as well as a drop-in session with the coaches at Woodward at Copper's indoor training facility and an après-shred beer or soda. Locals found the rips/tips/sips combo irresistible, even if they had a season pass elsewhere, and frequently found themselves sharing the Wednesday sessions with pro skiers and snowboarders and other visiting celebrities: In January, Lil Wayne stopped by to skate the bowl in the Barn at Copper, later giving Woodward Wednesdays the Weezy stamp of approval.

As long as goals are still a good thing in lacrosse, then John Grant Jr. is not only the best Mammoth, but the best player in the entire National Lacrosse League. He currently leads the league in points, goals and power-play goals, and is third in assists. In fact, he may be the biggest reason the Mammoth own the best record in the NLL.

Readers' Choice: John Gallant

It's hard to beat Rocky. The Nuggets' mountain-lion mascot is still knocking down over-the-head-backwards half-court shots and throwing down trampoline dunks, still amusing opposing coaches, still flirting with buxom ladies in the stands. And until some other furry-costume-wearing wannabe knocks him off the throne, Rocky is king of the town.

Readers' Choice: Rocky

There's basically just a tall ridge separating Carter Lake Park from the great expanse of the plains. And it's actually not a lake so much as a reservoir, supplied by water diverted from the Western Slope to keep the engines of Front Range commerce churning. But when you see this park, you will forget all that immediately, because Carter Lake is stunning. At three miles long and a mile wide, it offers plenty of room for boating plus a couple of manmade beaches, but if you really want to suck the awesome out of Carter Lake, you'll hike up one of the trails to a more secluded part of the shore, where the sandstone boulders tumbling into the water provide the seating and half-submerged aspens provide the shade. And unlike lakes at higher elevations, this one's always warm enough to swim in.

The Gravity Logic crew at Winter Park has been redefining downhill mountain biking over the past few years, greatly expanding its trail system and special features in the Trestle Bike Park each summer and hosting Crankworx Colorado as its signature event. This summer, look for the opening of three new trails, including the aptly named "Cruel and Unusual," and for the inaugural Colorado Freeride Festival July 26-29. Need a refresher session in between trips over Berthoud Pass? Try the new Trestle Bike Park outpost in Denver's Barnum North Park, near Sixth and Federal; the skills park opened in the summer of 2011 and will be back in action this summer as soon as the Gravity Logic crews can get to pushing some dirt around.

It's crowded in the summer, but Golden Gate Canyon State Park offers some of the best of the Colorado mountains very close to the big city on 12,000 acres of gorgeous pine and aspen forests, meadows and trails. Set just thirty miles from Denver, the park boasts a fantastic visitors' center, along with camping, cycling, horseback riding and fishing. And if you want to commune with nature — and the past — hike the two-mile Coyote Trail at Bootleg Bottom in the fall, when the leaves are changing. You'll get an education on Colorado's glorious moonshining past and a clue as to why people who come to Colorado never want to leave.

Readers' Choice: Mount Falcon Park

Colorado's best-known skier Tebowed before a race last December, inciting rumors that she had a special relationship with Timmy. The two turned out to be just friends, but now that Number 15 is gone, Lindsey Vonn can still get in on some quarterback action by becoming the nanny for Peyton Manning and his wife, who have one-year-old twins.

If you want to fly through the air and scope out some nice scenery while you're up there, but don't want to make the haul to the Royal Gorge or Durango, just drive to Golden and check out one of Denver Adventures' zipline packages. Denver Adventures offers four- and six-zipline tours and boasts the fastest and longest ziplines in Colorado. You can travel at up to 50 mph and as far as 1,900 feet on one zipline. Better bring an extra pair of pants, just in case.

There's a large contingent of urbanites who long ago cut their ties to sports culture but never abandoned their love of sports. For these folks, going to a bar to watch a game can be a nightmare of brosephian machismo, terrible food and light beer. But now there's a place where they have a sporting chance of enjoying themselves: Capitol Hill's beer-serving sandwich shop, Sub-Culture. With both a big TV and a big menu of hot and cold subs (many of them vegetarian), Sub-Culture boasts a punk-rock-meets-indie-cinema aesthetic that scores with hipster sports fans.

When Carmelo Anthony was traded in 2011, the Denver Nuggets took a lot of pride in playing well without a having a star on the team or definitive leader. They could have used one, however, when Oklahoma City's two stars were eliminating them from the first round of the playoffs. While Danilo Gallinari might be the most talented Nugget, little Ty Lawson has been healthier and his highs have been higher. He recently won Western Conference Player of the Week on the strength of a 3-0 week in which he averaged 20.7 points, 11.7 assists and seven rebounds. He's one of the fastest players in the league, has performed very well in his first year as starting point guard, and could be the perfect leader for a fast-paced team full of athletic wing players.

Readers' Choice: Ty Lawson

The Outlaws missed their chance to play in the Major League Lacrosse championship for the second year in a row, but Schwartzman proved to be the best goaltender in the league. He was the only goalie to post a per-game goals-against average under ten, and he was second in the league in save percentage. Schwartzman played in every game last season and logged the second-most minutes in the league.

Readers' Choice: Jordan Hendry/Dillon Roy (tie)

It's big, it's bold, and it's hard to beat when it comes to throwing down a blanket and relaxing under a tree. Bring your favorite dish from home or stop by a market (Marczyk, 770 East 17th Avenue, or Spinelli's, 4621 East 23rd Avenue, are nearby options) and pick something up. Then scope out a spot in front of the museum or by Ferril Lake, or around the gardens near East High School. On Sunday evenings in the summer, you can join thousands of your closest picnicking friends for the free City Park Jazz, a perfect way to end the weekend.

Readers' Choice: Washington Park

The Washington Park neighborhood offers one of the best assets to urban cyclists looking for a good workout: a 2.27-mile perimeter around its lush, lake-filled recreation area. The two-lane track, bordered by the picturesque 'hood, works for all skill levels of cyclists, from the extreme amateur looking for an afternoon jaunt on a cruiser to the seasoned veteran looking to increase stamina and endurance. For safety's sake, speed is limited to fifteen miles per hour (although it's often ignored), as the park also packs in walking families, runners and rentable pedal-powered cars. And for those biking in, Wash Park is easily accessible from the Platte River path coming from the south or the Cherry Creek path that runs along Speer Boulevard.

Readers' Choice: Washington Park

Runners, let's be honest: Running on treadmills is boring, and the scenery never changes. In fact, the only reason we do it is because running up hills makes us feel winded and feeble, while treadmills rarely challenge us with difficult terrain, and they count how many miles we've run, which makes us feel cool. Well, Sloan's Lake Park offers all that and more: The trail around the lake is as flat as a British apartment, and at exactly 2.6 miles from starting point back to starting point, it makes it easy for those of us who predicate our self-worth on how far we can run to chart, you know, how far we're running. Plus, Sloan's Lake is a lovely park, with plenty of shady trees and open spaces and an excellent playground to distract the kids while you sweat out the fear dreams.

Readers' Choice: Washington Park

Formerly an international scout, Masai Ujiri, in his first year as a general manager, found out that the best player in franchise history no longer wanted to play for the Nuggets. Rather than panic, Ujiri was patient and swung a good deal for Carmelo Anthony with the New York Knicks — especially considering that everyone knew Anthony wanted to sign in New York as a free agent. Ujiri turned Melo into four contributing players, including a potential star in Danilo Gallinari.

The Nuggets had three nominees for this award, which is two more than any other NBA team. Kenyon Martin went all Kenyon Martin and butted heads with team management before leaving the team early, and J.R. Smith was fined over $1 million — about a third of his salary while there — for missing practices. So Wilson Chandler didn't have the stiffest of competition, but he did have 41 points and 18 rebounds in the final game of the season, ensuring that his Chinese team made the playoffs. He is also the only one of the three who was re-signed by the Nuggets.

They say opposites attract, and who could be more different from the eternally good Tim Tebow that the Wicked Witch of the West? Tebow is out of Denver, and although the musical, Wicked, is coming here, it's also still playing on Broadway in the Big Apple, where the Chosen One will now throw passes for the New York Jets. Broadway star Jackie Burns, who plays the green-skinned Elphaba, is plenty cute and seems like a good fit, especially if she can put a spell on Tebow that makes him throw more accurately.

Readers' Choice: Taylor Swift

From life-sized Jenga to an array of video games, all from 1985 or earlier, this vintage arcade/bar is the best place to drink, get to level 254 of Pac-Man, and break down when the ghosts finally get you. The good news is that with over forty vintage arcade games (including BurgerTime and Mortal Kombat) as well as pinball and Skee-Ball, there's not much time to pout over one loss. But as long as you're acting like a kid, order up a burger with a glazed doughnut instead of a bun: One bite and you'll be shedding tears of joy instead.

What do you do when you need to burn off some steam? A lot of us check in at the gym. The idea behind Great Play is that, in an age when we're being bombarded with news about childhood obesity, maybe the kids should be doing the same. That's the whole point of the national franchise operation, which recently made its debut in the Denver area. Unlike other sport facilities for kids (specifically, kids ages six months through elementary-school age), Great Play offers a number of programs under one roof, from age-specific classes to open gym time, when children can just untether after a morning of too much TV. Also — and of great importance to the founders of Great Play, Englewood residents Keith and Jyl Camhi — is the non-competitive bent of the instruction, which encourages children to have fun first, and to learn specific skills (how to throw a ball or swing a bat, for example) in easy increments. It's their way of proving that exercise is good for you and therefore something worth encouraging; the goal of the Great Play method is to make it a natural part of kids' lives as they grow. The Colorado Boulevard gym is the first of several planned in the state (another will be opening in Highlands Ranch soon). In gymnastics vernacular, Great Play sticks it!

Slaves to the snow report found themselves salivating over the stats from Silverton Mountain this season, where forty-inch dumps were dropping while the rest of the state's resorts sat high and dry. Silverton is a seven-hour drive from Denver even when it's not snowing, so if you're making the trek, go ahead and book at least one ride in the helicopter while you're at it: The Silverton Guides' Heli Ski/Heli Board adventures start at $159 per run on top of the cost of a daily lift ticket, but it'll be the best money you've ever spent if you've been dreaming of carving big-mountain lines and taking face shots in shoulder-deep powder.

Former Bronco Alfred "Big Al" Williams and co-host Darren "D-Mac" McKee each have their own shtick on The Drive — and it works. In fact, Big Al's buffoonish, Madden-esque approach belies a deep knowledge of Denver sports and keeps D-Mac's sharp opinions and bluster in check. The two have an excellent rapport with one another, they refrain from shouting, and, yes, they stick to sports. Although their show lost former Bronco and ESPN personality Mark Schlereth when 104.3 lost the rights to ESPN broadcasts, Big Al and D-Mac have kept it going and kept fans informed, and intrigued, in a sports-crazy town.

Readers' Choice: The Drive

The team's leading goal-scorer from last season was one of only three players to suit up for every game. And even though the Rapids couldn't repeat their championship run from the previous season, Jeff Larentowicz played the full ninety minutes in all three playoff games. He also notched his second career brace — when a player scores two goals in one game — last year against the New York Red Bulls.

Readers' Choice: Conor Casey

It's about to get all baseball nerdy up in here: In 2011, star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki posted the second-best WAR of his career. The obscure stat — also known as Wins Above Replacement — measures the amount of wins a player is worth to his team. In fact, according to this stat, Tulo was more than twice as valuable as any other member of the Rockies. So, thanks, baseball geeks, and thanks for not mentioning his hair.

Readers' Choice: Troy Tulowitzki

Julie "Angela Death" Adams is a wrecking ball of a lead jammer with both the Green Barrettes (her Denver Roller Dolls home team) and the Mile High Club traveling all-stars squad. But it's the "Look out, here I come!" grimace she assumes as she's breaking away from the pack in her speed-skater's crouch that has also made her one of the most frequently photographed skaters in Colorado. Seriously, get out of her way.

Roller derby names have the dual requirement of striking fear in the hearts of lesser opponents while making them giggle. Boo Boo Radley, aka Deirdre Sage of the Denver Roller Dolls, accomplishes both — and manages a To Kill a Mockingbird reference, to boot.

Tracy Akers, aka "Disco," started skating with the Denver Roller Dolls in 2005 and is now a co-captain of the Mile High Club, DRD's traveling team. She won 2011 Triple Threat pivot/blocker/jammer honors at the Roller Dolls' year-end awards ceremony for her all-around talent, but what puts her ahead of the pack is her head for in-the-moment strategy during the game itself, which has gotten more involved as roller derby's rulebooks have grown up over the last few years. "Akers is tough, physical, strong and athletic, but what separates her is her game awareness," says Justin Campoy, bench coach of the Gotham Girls Roller Derby team. Which won the 2011 Women's Flat Track Derby Association Championships at the 1STBANK Center in Broomfield in November. "She's the Kasparov of roller derby. She'd be very good at chess boxing if she took it up."

Readers' Choice: Brandi Homan

Why bother choosing local league loyalties when the best roller derby team in the world this year featured skaters from both the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls and the Denver Roller Dolls? Portia "Frida Beater" Hensley, a star of the RMRG 5280 Fight Club traveling team, led Team USA into battle as a co-captain when the squad rolled into Toronto in December for the inaugural Blood & Thunder Roller Derby World Cup. She was joined by her pseudonymous 5280 Fight Club teammates Amanda Jamitinya, DeRanged, Psycho Babble and Urrk'n Jerk'n, plus two of her crosstown rivals — Tracy "Disco" Akers and Heather Juska, of the DRD Mile High Club — as well as top skaters from leagues across the country. The rest of the world wasn't quite ready for all that: Team USA decimated squads from New Zealand, Scotland, Australia and Canada in a series of show-no-mercy victories on the way to winning the World Cup. The next World Cup is in 2014, which should give the other teams plenty of time to let their bruises heal.

The massive new 40,000-square-foot Arvada Skate Park was designed and built by the skater-owned Team Pain Skate Parks crew and overseen by local skater James Hedrick as part of the first phase of development at Gibbs West Community Park. Approximately 97 percent of the $2.1 million price tag was funded by grants from the Tony Hawk Foundation, Colorado Lottery, Great Outdoors Colorado and Jefferson County Open Space, and it was worth every penny. The park caters to skaters of all levels and persuasions, featuring bowls both big and small, a long and flowing snake run, granite ledges, handrail/stair sets, and some of the most innovative, sculptural features and architectural landscape designs we've ever seen, including a few that we weren't sure what to make of until we started seeing local skaters getting creative out there. Even if you don't skate, this is worth a look.

Readers' Choice: Denver Skatepark

Bucky O'Connell's long-awaited It's Always Sunny in Colorado transcended skate-shop loyalties when it premiered last year. The video helped bring the Denver skateboard scene together by featuring team riders from the rival 303 Boards and Denver Shop crews, among others, with additional standout skateboarding by Greg Piloto, Aaron "Jaws" Homoki, Trevor Uriona, David Reyes, Nial Frederickson, Sean Frederickson and Jon Brownlee.

This year, we watched 303 Boards' CLFX team skater Julian Christianson win just about every skateboard contest that came through town, including the Denver stops of the Element Make It Count Tour, the Maloof Money Cup Skateboard Road Tour, and the Hometown Heroes Amateur Skateboard Tour. He picked up a one-year sponsorship deal with Element Skateboards after winning the national Make It Count finals, and won the Hometown Heroes overall title after qualifying to skate on the X Games' seventeen-street course in Los Angeles. But his web edits with local filmer Tristan Minton, of Royal Stain Productions, were even more impressive, providing regular reminders of just how great Colorado's local spots and skate-park landscape have become and laying down blueprints for how to make the most of it all. Stay tuned for Minton's film H-DTS: Down to Skate, due out this summer, with a full part from Christianson in the mix.

Hockey doesn't get as much attention as other professional sports in this town, but not because of a lack of passion, something that is always on display when Peter McNab and his broadcast partner, play-by-play man Mike Haynes, get together. Haynes usually gets a lot of props — he's won this award several times — and deservedly so. But McNab should earn equal praise for a balanced blend of intelligent insight and enthusiasm. He references his esteemed playing career without shoving it down viewers' throats, and he knows the area well — not just from his lengthy stint with the Avalanche, but from his collegiate days at the University of Denver.

Readers' Choice: Dave Logan

The Blake Street Tavern is big fun. At its large, newish home, there are seemingly acres of asphalt where you can party before opening day at Coors Field, just a block away; a huge country-Western dance floor in the basement where you can learn to line dance; a vast arcade area with shuffleboard, Skee-Ball, foosball and Golden Tee; and a huge bar where you can enjoy two happy hours a day while watching the game on an overhead TV. But what pushes Blake Street several notches above other sports bars is how seriously they play the game in the kitchen. The expansive menu offers everything from the standard burgers and wings to manly salads and hearty entrees, as well as kid-friendly meals. But the real surprise is chef Ernesto's top-of-the-town green chile, available in mild, spicy and vegetarian versions.

Readers' Choice: Stoney's Bar and Grill

The Bull & Bush is the best sports bar in town for game-watching because of what's not on the television: glare. This pub's dark wood and low light make the twenty — count 'em, twenty! — glorious flat-screens seem somehow brighter than standard televisions. The games broadcast on them appear like floating visions of victory for fans, with no garish wires or other distractions, just pure HD color against a mahogany-stained backdrop. Sightlines are also crucial at any good sports bar, and there are no obstructions at the Bull & Bush — unless your view is momentarily blocked by your server bringing you another craft beer, which is always a welcome sight.

Readers' Choice: Sports Column

The Rams have come full circle under head coach Tim Miles, from complete joke to NCAA tournament participant. In Miles's first season in Fort Collins five years ago, the Rams went winless in conference play during the regular season. This year, CSU won all but one game at home and beat three ranked teams on the way to earning an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. Let's hope they'll be able to keep it up now that Miles is heading to Nebraska.

Readers' Choice: University of Colorado Buffaloes football

By "Best" we mean most theatrical, unexpectedly decent, lucky and utterly inexplicable. When Tim Tebow took the reins of a 1-4 team, most people expected the team to enter the Andrew Luck sweepstakes, not the playoff race. But thanks to a stout defense led by rookie Von Miller and Elvis Dumervil and multiple late-game minor miracles by the Chosen One, the Broncos won their division and then a playoff game. The finish took them out of the Luck sweepstakes and into the Peyton Manning chase — which John Elway and Pat Bowlen won in amazing fashion, landing the future Hall of Famer and former Indianapolis Colt. Denver's bleeding orange again.

Readers' Choice: Denver Broncos

Regis Jesuit junior Missy Franklin has cannonballed her way onto the world swimming scene over the past two years, winning state championships and then breaking the world record in the 200-meter backstroke. She is expected to easily make the U.S. Olympic swimming team — specializing in the backstroke and the 100- and 200-meter freestyle — and to compete not only this summer, but possibly for years to come.

Readers' Choice: Missy Franklin

This season, Copper Mountain poached terrain-park manager Justin George from Keystone and gave him free rein to build an ever-changing system of progressive terrain parks in partnership with the Woodward at Copper action-sports camp. The parks work their way up from kid-friendly boxes, jumps and jibs to pro-level, crap-your-snowpants booters and massive urban-inspired features like wall rides and double-kink handrails unlike anything else in Colorado, all served by the new Union Creek high-speed quad chairlift. Woodward at Copper also made it a priority to make the terrain parks more accessible to the masses this year, hosting camps for riders of all ages and ability levels throughout the season and making the most of on-mountain airbags and the facility's indoor trampolines, foam pits and Snowflex slopes to emphasize safe and incremental progression.

Readers' Choice: Keystone Resort

Sports news today doesn't wait for the evening newscast; it breaks on Twitter. And in addition to breaking news via @drewsoicher, Channel 9 personality Drew Soicher brings just that — personality — to the job. Soicher's a sportscaster in the finest tradition: humorous, knowledgeable, and not afraid to put himself out there. Case in point: After legendary MC Heavy D passed away last November, uber-fan Soicher rhymed a few lines on-air for his colleagues, who were awkward in only the way local news people can be (which is to say, very). Most important, Soicher brings likability to his post — and unlike many of his sports-bros peers, he never comes off as arrogant.

Readers' Choice: Drew Soicher

Krisana "Brix Hithouse" Barrett gets credit for both clever wordplay and worldly sophistication. When not bumping elbows, she's an executive sommelier. The word "brix" describes the amount of sugar in a wine grape before harvest, which is used to predict the alcohol level in the resulting wine. And while opponents marvel at how cultured Barrett is, well, that's where the "Hithouse" part comes in.

Snowboard-video premiere parties have become big business in Denver and Boulder, with increasingly high-class and high-capacity venues, and sold-out crowds packed with pro-athlete VIPs. Our favorite of the bunch is Snowboard on the Rocks, an annual film-and-music extravaganza at Red Rocks Amphitheater presented by So-Gnar and Snowboard Colorado magazine. The fall event, now heading into its third year, combines live hip-hop performances with world premieres of the year's most hotly anticipated snowboard flicks. In September, Snowboard on the Rocks hosted the world premiere of TB:20, the twentieth-anniversary installment of Standard Films' Totally Board series, as well as the local premieres of Marc Frank Montoya's Familia 2 and the Videograss film Shoot the Moon, punctuated with performances by Doomtree, RJD2 and Michal Menert. That's a pretty sweet soundtrack for a September snow dance with 9,450 of your fellow shredders.

Powder chasers had their work cut out for them during the 2011-2012 season, with snowfall averages down across the state and winter storms few and far between. To be in the right place at the right time, you had to be either very lucky or, better yet, following the powder predictions of Boulder-based meteorologist Joel Gratz, co-founder of OpenSnow.com. The website launched in earnest in November last year, offering the official daily and five-day snow-report tallies from ski areas in Colorado and across the country, as well as weather forecasts based on live data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's information you can find elsewhere, but Gratz — an avid skier — puts it all together in his Colorado Daily Snow dispatches, with pow projections so accurate that local skiers and snowboarders now take them as prophetic.

Rain, sleet, snow or shine, the man behind Xrocksthespot.com and cycle enthusiast Broox Pulford maps out and leads Loops, a ride through central Denver each and every Tuesday night. Creeping up on its 200th edition, the free ride meets at Crema Coffee House around 7 p.m. and clocks in at around fifteen to twenty each trip. Pulford fully advocates that participants go at their own pace, ride safely and stop often. All ages, bikes and skill levels are welcome, but be warned: This ain't no cruiser ride. Loops doesn't require crazy costumes, and breaks are encouraged so riders can recoup and get to know each other.