This is the most fun part of the year for us, we get to recognize outstanding performances from players. Today we are starting with our 1A Players of the year. We name an Offensive, Defensive and Wildcard player of the year for freshman newcomers, sophomores, and upper classmen. The wildcard can be an offensive player, defensive player or special teams player, at the discretion of the editing and selection team.
Congratulations to all of our winners!
Freshman Offensive player of the year:
Shayne Gonzales from Rocky Ford. He had 193 yards receiving and 4 TDs. The touchdowns are really what sold us here especially on a winless team.
Freshman Defensive Player of the Year:
Andrew East from Trinidad. This was a close one but Andrew with an astounding 39 solo tackles and 7 sacks has him in our top spot with honorable mentions to Quinn Barkema of Denver Christian and Josiah Zimmerman from Peyton.
Freshman Wildcard of the year:
Diego De Leon From Wray. He kicked 25 extra points, had 7 solo tackles and leads the way for Wray (yes it rhymes) into the future!
Sophomore Offensive Player of the year:
Jacob Young from Clear Creek. We watching him play once this year and loved his poise and confidence in the pocket. He also threw for over 1400 yards and 14 TDs with a 55% completion percentage.
Sophomore Defensive Player of the year:
Enzo Hernandez from Jefferson. Over 100 tackles for the season and 16 Sacks. Yes 16.
Sophomore Wildcard of the year:
Eli Schuknecht from Buena Vista. Nearly topped 1000 yards for the team with 9 TDs and a fantastic 6.78 Yards per carry.
Upperclassman Offensive Player of the year:
Dylan Hurne from Rye. He rushed for 2000 yards. Insanity. 10 yards per carry. Enough said.
Upperclassman Defensive Player of the year:
Ben Pereira of Denver Christian. 143 tackles, 14 TFL, 11 Sacks. In only 18 games.
Upperclassman Wildcard of the year:
We have a tie this year between Ryland Reetz of Estes Park and Wyatt Sprague of Holyoke. Both of these guys went over 2k yards and while Wyatt’s stats are slightly cleaner, Ryland was throwing for over 300 yards a game. Fantastic job by both of them. Meanwhile Wyatt also put up 140 tackles on the season, good enough for second in 1A.