Rocky Mountain football looks to build off playoff season
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (BVM)– If one was to flashback to a few weeks ago, no Colorado high schools would have expected to play a 2020 fall football season. However, this changed on Sept. 14 after the Colorado High School Athletic Association reconvened and decided to go back on an earlier decision to have football in the spring of 2021.
This caused a shockwave of joy all the way through Colorado, including the Front Range region. It wasn’t long before local high schools went along with the decision to have a fall season. One of the teams that made this decision is Rocky Mountain High School.
The Rocky Mountain Lobos will be looking to improve upon their state playoff qualifier in 2019 when they were the No. 21 seed and lost to 12 seed Legend, 35-23. Last season under head coach Mark Brook, who will return for his 22nd season, the Lobos went 5-6 overall and 3-2 in the Front Range league. The Lobos were also able to beat all of the other Fort Collins-area schools, a feat the team will be looking to repeat this season.
The Lobos will look to new 5-foot-11 sophomore quarterback Gage Brook to spearhead the Lobos offense this season. Brook will have big shoes to fill after last year’s QB, Giles Pooler, was able to rack up over 1,719 yards. Luckily, Brook will have a reliable running back lining up behind him in senior Sean Kidd who rushed for 881 yards on 210 carries, which accounted for 70% of the Lobos’ rushing yards last season. Kidd scored two touchdowns while Brook threw three TD passes in Rocky Mountain’s 28-0 shutout of Prairie View in the season opener Oct. 8 in Fort Collins.
The Lobos graduated four wide receivers who produced 1,878 out of the 2,121 receiving yards from last year’s squad. Brook will most likely have to rely on senior returner Tyler Jennings who managed 110 receiving yards while being targeted only seven times. Outside of Jennings, Brook will have to look to younger talent in order to produce a passing game to match last season’s.
In this uncertain year, it is a blessing in and of itself for there to even be a football season, but every high school football player has been itching to put on the pads and snap on the helmet. The Lobos are among those ready to go as they aim to build off last year’s playoff season. And with their convincing season-opening victory, they’re off to a good start.
