Cherry Creek’s Wyatt Rudden wins inaugural Roy Halladay Award as ace pitcher, community steward, exemplary student ...Middle East

On a late winter day in sun-soaked Arizona, Wyatt Rudden labeled himself an ace.

It was March 22 of last year, and Rudden started for Cherry Creek in a travel tournament against Valley Vista. An elbow injury cut short his sophomore season, so the then-junior was still looking to establish himself within Colorado’s most successful big-school program.

Rudden threw a complete game, one-hit shutout in a 1-0 win, dominating with his fastball-slider combo in a preview of what was to come as the right-hander became a central force in the Bruins’ back-to-back Class 5A championship seasons.

“He showed us his bulldog mentality,” Cherry Creek pitching coach Dave Veres recalled. “It was one of those (ah-ha) moments. No pitch clock needed for this guy. He’s a get-it-and-go type of guy. Puts all the pressure on the hitters. And once we got that one-run lead, he was like, ‘That’s all I need. That’s plenty.’

“And as that game went on, he got tougher and tougher to hit, which foreshadowed what he would do the next couple years. Once he got the ball, you couldn’t take it out of his hand.”

Rudden came up clutch for Cherry Creek in the biggest moments. Last year, he delivered under do-or-die circumstances in the penultimate game of the state tournament against Regis Jesuit, setting up Creek’s ninth ring. And this spring, he sealed the program’s 10th title with a masterful start, again against the Raiders, in the championship game.

Along the way, the Michigan commit excelled in the classroom (4.3 GPA) and set a high standard with community service and school club involvement. For all of that, Rudden is the winner of the inaugural Roy Halladay Award, to be presented annually to Colorado’s top senior ballplayer, scholar and community steward.

“To have my name in the same conversation as Halladay is such a blessing,” Rudden said. “The kind of player he was and the status he had is something that every Colorado baseball player hopes to achieve. So I’m blessed to get this honor.

“I believe this has a ton of potential to be a big-time award in the years to come. And I hope it motivates more high school players in the community to not just be good players, but good students and good people.”

Intensity is one of Rudden’s best intangibles that led to his impressive prep career on and off the diamond.

In this year’s title game, where Rudden threw five innings of one-run ball in an 8-1 Cherry Creek win, Regis Jesuit threatened to take an early lead with two runners on in the first inning. But Rudden struck out a pair of batters to escape the jam, then yelled toward the Raiders’ dugout.

“That was our chance, and then he slammed the door on us after that,” Regis Jesuit head coach Matt Darr said. “That first inning epitomized how there’s a competitiveness to him that’s another level compared to most. … You feel like you’re up against somebody who’s almost invincible even though we’ve seen guys with better stuff, but they’re not as tough as him.”

Rudden’s competitiveness translated to leadership in the dugout. Cherry Creek head coach Joe Smith said the senior routinely pulled fellow players aside for chats if they weren’t playing up to the program’s expectations of effort and hustle.

Rudden’s edge seeped into his schoolwork, too, where even as a senior he refused to let up in his final high school semester despite having a scholarship to Michigan in the bag.

“Wyatt had just come home from a game this spring, and he had pitched well,” said Rudden’s dad, Nick, who won a pair of baseball championships with the Bruins in the late 1990s. “Postgame, he lifted. Then he gets home at about 9:30, and I go, ‘What’s going on?’ He goes, ‘I’ve got to go study (for an AP test).’ This was routine for him. He would often be up until like 2 in the morning studying.

“That night, my wife (Megan) and I just looked at each other. Even with college already set, he was going up to study because he believes it’s his obligation to be the best he can be. He’s not the kind of kid who is going to leave anything on the table.”

Rudden’s younger brother, Cherry Creek junior second baseman Walker Rudden, saw that in Wyatt from a young age.

When Walker was 11 and Wyatt was 12, they played a tournament together in Cooperstown. When Walker hit a homer before Wyatt, the older brother was peeved.

“So then he came up the next at-bat and crushed one of the longest homers I’ve ever seen a little kid hit,” Walker said with a laugh. “Then he just smiled at me when we got back into the dugout.”

Outside of baseball and school, Rudden’s desire to give back didn’t waver.

Since childhood, Rudden’s been heavily involved in the Bags of Fun Foundation, which puts together backpacks with toys and games for children fighting life-threatening conditions. Since middle school, he’s volunteered about 15 weekends a year for Boys Team Charity, with projects such as cleaning up farms that target food scarcity, serving at food kitchens, and most recently painting planter boxes for a senior living facility. And this winter and spring, he’s been an assistant coach for a 9U Little League team.

Inside the walls of his school, he’s also involved in Link Crew, National Honor Society, DECA and Leadership Club.

“A quote I come back to a lot is, ‘Who you are when you do anything is who you are when you do everything,'” Rudden said. “Going through the motions at school will never better you, and neither will doing that in the community. If you want to be a great player and a great person, every time you have an opportunity to better yourself and better others, you have to take it.”

As Rudden heads off to Michigan, the 6-foot, 180-pound hurler’s hyperfocus in all aspects of life won’t sway. And as Cherry Creek senior teammate Mason Scott explains, neither will Rudden’s confidence on the mound, although he’ll need to further develop his curveball and changeup to be a more dynamic pitcher at the Division I level.

“There is no hitter that Wyatt is ever scared to pitch to,” Scott said. “He’ll throw inside. He’ll throw any pitch in any count. That’s what makes him make so difficult to hit off of — he’s not scared of you, and you know that. Wyatt’s favorite pitch is a two-seam on your hands, and I think that says everything you need to know about him.”

The Roy Halladay Award

The Roy Halladay Award honors the top senior baseball player, scholar and community steward in Colorado. The award, named after the late Hall of Fame pitcher who attended Arvada West before becoming a Cy Young winner with the Blue Jays and Phillies, factors in on-field performance as well as grades and community service.

The award is backed by a non-profit, the Colorado High School Baseball Player Award Corporation, led by board president Ed Henderson, treasurer Alan Bossart and secretary Justin North. The winner is decided by a 14-person selection committee, which votes on the winner and finalists based on a system that gives candidates three points for a first-place vote, two points for a second-place vote and one point for a third-place vote.

The trophy for the award, named “The Mighty Casey,” is made by the Lundeen Sculpture company in Loveland. It is an approximately 15-inch-tall bronze sculpture of an old-time ballplayer leaning on his bat. The winner also receives a $1,000 scholarship and an honorary luncheon put on by the non-profit in downtown Denver.

Anyone wishing to make a tax-deductible donation to the award should email reporter Kyle Newman at [email protected].

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