by Ethan Wood
Though there is no football team in Ouray, three Ouray High School students journey to Montrose every day to do what they love.
Sophomores Roman Sackman, Landen Hill and Kortlan Nelson are the three musketeers of football in Ouray. Football is something that they are passionate about. So, each day, they leave school an hour or more early to attend practice and games.
Nelson is excited about how the season has gone. The team is undefeated so far as they head into playoffs, and has a good chance of making the state championship. Though they are “not getting as much playing time” as they might like being sophomores, they do find training with such a strong team makes everyone better.
Nelson’s father, elementary and middle school principal Kenneth Nelson, played football in high school and college, and like him Kortlan wants to “try to get a football scholarship to help pay for tuition.”
Sackman, too, has a history of football in his family. He said his father had the chance to go pro at one point. He also hopes to play at a college level, saying that if he “puts enough work in” he “could make it to that.” Sackman enjoys playing for Montrose. He said that he likes the jump from a 1-A school to a 4-A school, it's a sizable difference and “I like that.”
All three also play basketball for Ouray, but Hill said that football is his “favorite sport to play.” They all like the big hits, the pace of the game and the intensity of the workouts.
Science teacher Beth Lakin notices when the three musketeers go off to practice, as they comprise “a sizable percentage of my class.” But with the school’s online learning system, Schoology, and other support, they say they are not having trouble keeping up with the makeup work.
“I am able to keep up with my work,” Nelson said, and get work done at home. Still, he said, it’s challenging, because after practice they tend to get home close to 8 p.m., and on game days, depending where the game was, they can get back as late as 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.
To make the season possible, the boys were given a last hour study hall so that on days when they may not be going to football they can catch up on homework.
Each of the boys has a unique perspective on playing as an Indian rather than a Trojan. Playing at a different school than their own, Landen said, is “pretty nice” even though “you don’t really know anybody until like halfway through the season.”
Nelson was more nonchalant, saying that it’s a good experience on the competitive level, and that he “knows a lot of people in Montrose” which makes it easier.
Sackman is glad that they “make friends from Montrose.” It’s nice, he said, to go to a small school but have friends in a bigger school.
The boys have played football for five to seven years, including flag football, Nelson said, but their freshman year was a new type of football for them: instead of learning new plays, “we only did sprints every day,” Sackman said.
Worse, said Nelson, COVID disrupted the season and created uncertainty. “A lot of games got cancelled and you never knew if they were going to get cancelled or not,” he said.
Hill, unfortunately, tore a ligament in his ankle at a basketball open gym. He will miss the rest of the football season, and said that he is “annoyed and bummed with himself and what happened,” and that the coach is annoyed with him too. He continues to talk about each practice with his buddies, and will support them all the way through the rest of the season.
As the top-ranked team in Class 4A, Montrose had a bye in the first round of playoffs. They beat Denver South 56-19 on November 12 to advance to their quarterfinal match-up against Fountain-Fort Carson at 6 pm, Friday, November 19, at home in Montrose.