The Gilpin County Football program will play in a newly formed league in 2022. Gilpin’s new league does not include West Grand for the first time that I can remember. When Coach Schuessler (Gilpin’s Athletic Director) and I first found out about the new league configuration we wanted to make sure we got Coach Brown’s West Grand Team on the non-league schedule right away. I think it is important in football to play the best teams, and the Mustangs are always prepared for our games.

The Saturday, October 23, game was no exception. West Grand was ready to play and I thought our team played one of their best games of the season. Offensively we still struggled to pass and sustain drives, but we all saw a big improvement in our offensive line play during the game. We have been working on adding plays and formations during the last half of the season and we were ready to try some of our Ace Formation. Freshman Drew Starkey (#24) caught his first pass of the year and senior Jimmy Immordino (#26) ran hard throughout the game.

Defensively we showed the most improvement.

We moved a few people around for this game, and as a defensive unit, they looked strong against the run and contained the quarterback. We moved junior Cole Tuttle (#2) to linebacker and junior Brandon Robinson (#11) to nose guard and both showed toughness and speed as they made numerous tackles during the hard-fought loss.

Soroco will be traveling to Black Hawk on Friday, October 29, for our 7 p.m. game. The contest is the last game of the season and our Booster Club will be feeding both football teams and cheer squads after the game as we celebrate the advancements our teams have made during the season.

Soroco is another traditional league team that we lose with the new alignment. The Rams are a mountain team much like us and we made sure we got them back on our non-league schedule for next year.

Gilpin’s new league does not have an official name at this point – it is designated as League 6 out of seven leagues in total. There will be 42 Colorado 8-man teams in the next two-year cycle. Gilpin Football’s new league was finalized on October 1: Byers, Belleview Christian, Front Range Christian, Lyons, and Justice.

The new league will cut down on travel distances for the Gilpin Football Team and will be great for our fans. We will add Pikes Peak Christian and South Park to West Grand and Soroco to round out our schedule for 2022.