Top-ranked Fort Collins hockey shooting for 1st state title
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (BVM) — Fort Collins High School has not yet won a hockey state title, but the fifth-year program is getting close. The Lambkins couldn’t have come much closer than they did last March.
It took Valor Christian five overtimes to beat Fort Collins, 1-0, in the 2020 state title game. Now with most of the players from that state runner-up squad returning this winter, the Lambkins are expected to be the top team to contend with in Colorado.
“Every year since our team came around we’ve gotten better and better,” Fort Collins head coach Dylan Strom said. “This year I think pretty much everyone knows that we didn’t lose too many guys from the team last year and we didn’t have any seniors last year. I’m a little biased obviously, but I feel pretty strongly that we’re the best team in the state currently.”
Several of the state’s coaches and media members seem to agree with Strom. Fort Collins was ranked No. 1 in the CHSAA preseason poll. And considering who the Lambkins will have back defending the net, it’s not difficult to make a strong case that they will be the team to beat.
Senior goaltender Sam Simon is the reigning CHSAA Player of the Year. He had a 13-4-1 record with a 1.91 goals against average and a .957 save percentage as a junior, but it was what he accomplished during the playoffs, particularly in that final game of the season, which was truly remarkable. Simon, who had a postseason save percentage of .976, stopped 84 of the 85 Valor Christian shots he faced in the state championship game. The save total tied a national record that was set in 1987 by Jamey Ramsey of Flint Northern (Michigan).
With the best goalie in the state, the Lambkins have a leg up on most of the teams they’ll face this season, and they can even enjoy the added luxury of knowing they have two high-quality netminders on their roster. If for any reason Simon isn’t in goal, junior Noah Winbourn is more than capable of stepping in making the stops when needed.
“I’m confident he would be a good starting goaltender on any team in the state,” Strom said of Winbourn. “We’re lucky to have two competitive goalies. One of them just happens to be the best in the state.”
As has become commonplace since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the new season will be unlike any other for Fort Collins and every Colorado high school hockey team. Not only is the season starting nearly two months later than usual with the first games being held this week, the CHSAA has also for the first time split teams into separate classifications. The bigger schools will compete for a state title in 5A and the smaller schools will compete in 4A.
“I think it’s a great thing for high school hockey as a whole,” Strom said. “I think it increases competition a little bit for some of those smaller schools, some of the mountain schools, some of the Colorado Springs schools. … It provides another level of competition for those guys where they can compete for a state championship whereas in years past when it’s just one classification, it’s the same teams every year.”
Cheyenne Mountain has claimed the most state titles (14), but none since 2004, and the Indians are now in 4A where they’re ranked No. 3 behind No. 1 Battle Mountain and No. 2 Kent Denver. Regis Jesuit (ranked No. 4 in 5A), has had the most success of any program over the past 13 years with six state titles and two runner-up finishes. But the race for the title in 5A could again come down to the team that won its first state title last year, Valor Christian (ranked No. 2 in 5A), and the team with the goalie who required five overtimes to beat.
“It’s a big motivator for us this year,” Strom said. “We had a lot of kids who were on that team who are on this roster again this year and it’s definitely something that I bring up pretty often. We don’t play Valor during the regular season because of the shortened schedule, but I’d be very surprised if we don’t see them in the playoffs this year.”
