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Jake Sims graduated from Niwot High School last month with a 3.71 GPA, and was a multi-sport athlete for the Cougars, but he had to overcome a serious ankle injury after his junior year to return to action for his senior season.

“I fractured my fibula in two places sliding into second base in summer baseball,” Sims said. He also tore ligaments and dislocated the ankle, which got caught up with the second baseman as he went over the base. “It wasn’t fully healed until last January, but he resumed playing basketball in December.

Sims was a starter in both basketball and baseball for the Cougars in both his junior and senior years. On the hardwood as a senior, he was third in scoring with a 7.2 points per game average, and was second on the team with 44 field goals from behind the arc, second-best on the squad. He also shot 50 percent from 2-point range. He also shot 40 percent from 3-point range as a junior.

On the diamond, Sims hit .326 as a senior and played stellar defense in the outfield. As a junior, he hit an almost identical .327 and let the team with 18 runs scored. He also saw considerable varsity action as a sophomore in baseball. His most memorable experience in sports was going to baseball districts at the end of his junior year, when the Cougars were seeded number 30 out of 32 playoff teams.

“We beat the number three seed, Denver North, on their home field and knocked them out of the tournament,” Sims said. “I went 2-4 with a single and a double and made a couple of plays in the outfield.”

As a student at Niwot, Sims took pre-IB classes his freshman and sophomore years, then took an AP track for his last two years. The time commitment for IB classes led to his academic decisions. “I wanted to have a good balance between school and sports,” he said.

Sims will take his talents to the University of Colorado next fall where he hopes to play club baseball and is considering trying to walk on to the basketball team. At CU he plans to study mechanical engineering after doing an internship at nSpire Health last year, where his father is the CEO. “I got to be part of a project and see several new products developed in the last year,” Sims said. This summer he’s keeping in shape by working at Gold’s Gym in Longmont.