Spring 2021 held plenty of unique events, and the ripples from that unprecedented season could have set the path for the special autumn football season in 2022.
Included among those anomalies, Montezuma-Cortez High School played its first, and possibly last, spring football season. While the volleyball program enjoyed roaring success under similar circumstances – the Panthers netters made the 3A state semifinals – the M-CHS football program more inauspiciously brought Ivan Mack on board to take on the leadership of a program full of promising young talent.
Mack replaced Jarrett Watkins, who moved into a coordinator role, and the Panthers embarked on the spring campaign with lots to learn – the players with a new system, and the coaching staff with the goal of proving that M-CHS could become a major player in the regional football scene.
The Panthers, rather than participate in the fall 2020 season, opted to play in the spring, which allowed a youthful crew an additional six months to grow and acclimatize to the potential rigors of playing 3A football, even if for just six games.
The spring season finished 2-4, but the Panthers could use the experience to vault directly into the preparations for the fall – with just a three-month lag period between seasons. By any standard, the Panthers were still very young, with just two seniors on the roster as part of a 3-6 return-to-fall 2A campaign, but the evolution started to show the program’s potential.
Then, in 2022, the real dividends started to roll in, as the Panthers enjoyed their largest offseason turnout for weight room and 7-on-7 activities, and the youth movement that had been several years in the making began to bear fruit.
“We’ve all been through a lot this year, and over the past few seasons,” said senior linebacker and wide receiver Caden Cote, “and it’s shown how tough we are – and it’s helped build us into a brotherhood.”
The roster size neared 50 for the first time in years, and the size across both the offensive and defensive lines turned from a liability into a strength for the Panthers.
“The whole program wanted to do something special this year,” said senior running back and defensive back Ryder Higgins, “and it all kept building over the summer – we had more guys coming out, the coaches really pushed us – so that when the season started, we could build off of that.”
Still, the Panthers needed one more jolt, tangible proof that the program had indeed turned the corner.
Week 1 – a rematch against an Aztec team that beat the Panthers by 20 a year before – M-CHS showed up with an energy that hadn’t been seen during those formative years. The Panthers overpowered the Tigers in a 17-8 victory, setting the stage for the memorable run to come.
From there, M-CHS kept the momentum, hanging tough with 2021 spring state champions Rifle in Week 2, before rattling off five straight wins, including a signature come-from-behind victory over a Bayfield program that the Panthers hadn’t beaten since 2014.
“We all put in so much work,” said senior quarterback Jake Blackmer, “and we’ve dedicated ourselves to make sure that we don’t let that hard work go to waste.”
M-CHS last posted a winning season that same year – 2014 – and earned the program’s lone playoff victory in the past 15 years – a feat that the 2022 crew hopes to accomplish.
“We’ve got a lot of talent that not many people outside of the community know about,” said Cote, “and that’s helped us – knowing that we’re an underdog has lit a fire underneath this team.”
With the excitement building in the community, Panther Stadium became a hot ticket on Friday night, as if the whole town could sense the program’s shift.
“It’s been amazing to see the community support,” added Blackmer, “to see family, friends, and all the fans come out to cheer us on has been really special.”
Now upperclassmen, the group that had learned the hard lessons is now one that gets to enjoy celebratory postgame locker rooms – and look to set the cornerstone for a program aiming to perpetuate the winning ways for years to come.
“We want to win,” said senior running back and defensive lineman Dorrian Hilliard, “and the seniors have really been pushing to make this team better, especially since this is our last time to get to play together.”
M-CHS enters the 2A playoffs as the No. 11 seed after a 6-3 regular season, playing into November for the first time in any of the current team member’s high school careers. The six wins also match their total wins from the three previous seasons combined.
“This whole experience has been awesome,” said Higgins, “our whole careers up to this point, we haven’t been to the playoffs, so we’re looking forward to bringing everything we have.”
The balanced M-CHS offense and hard-hitting defense have a blend of sophomores, juniors and seniors, with a core of the Class of 2023 driving the program forward. Big play potential hits from every angle, as the Panthers scored more than 30 points four different times this year.
“We love that we can pound the ball or go downfield at any time,” said Blackmer of the dynamic offense.
“The coaches understand us as athletes,” added Hilliard, “and they’ve been able to put us in position where we can use our talents on both sides of the ball to go out and make plays.”
The defense, where Mack and his coaching staff really emphasize intensity, prides themselves on keeping opposition out the end zone – as the Panthers allowed less than 20 points per game this season.
M-CHS aims to keep the run going, beginning with a Saturday trip to No. 6 Elizabeth (8-1) in the opening round of the postseason. The winner moves on to face either No. 3 Florence or No. 14 Rifle in the quarterfinals. Tournament play culminates with a state title game at CSU-Pueblo on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Wherever the Panthers season wraps up this season, the groundwork has been laid so that this November isn’t so much of an ending, but rather the start of an era.
Summing up the excitement and focus, Cote added one more statement that seems to encapsulate the program’s revival.
“It’s our time to show,” he said.
