High school football is back in the Gunnison valley this fall

“I feel like right now was the time to strike while the iron is hot”

by Than Acuff

After a frantic couple of weeks between the office of Governor Polis, the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSSA) and high school football enthusiasts throughout the state, football has been granted permission to start up a fall season and Gunnison high school football will be officially in action starting this week.

It’s great news for the Gunnison program. Three years ago Jarrod Hinton took over as head coach of the program, as well as the job of athletics director, when it was teetering on the edge of implosion with the numbers of players dwindling.

Since then, Hinton has rebuilt the program, deciding to play an exclusive JV schedule for two years to get the program back on track and hopefully build some momentum.

This fall the Gunnison Cowboys were poised to return to a full varsity schedule, with the energy around the program growing each and every year.

Then COVID hit and high school football was put on hold by CHSAA. Nevertheless, Hinton still held workouts with players who wanted to keep working out, getting the team together two days a week. In addition, Montrose and Delta started up their own non-school-affiliated football programs and the teams developed a schedule of seven-on-seven games for the fall.

“We were going to go for seven weeks and we had a little bit going,” says Hinton. “Everybody was just looking for a way to keep going.”

Now, as of a Twitter message at 9:50 p.m. on Wednesday, September 16, Colorado high school football is back.

“It sounds like there was a lot of pressure into the Governor’s office,” says Hinton. “There are 35 to 40 states that are playing high school football and people were asking, ‘Why not us?’”

The initial plea was shut down as the state-limited outdoor gatherings to 25 people leaving teams just 12 or 13 people on the sidelines. But when numbers of outdoor gatherings were increased, the call for football came back up as well.

“It came back up when the Governor said you could have 50 per sideline,” says Hinton.

Because volleyball is an indoor sport it was not granted the same option. As for soccer, there was some talk but CHSAA decided to keep boys soccer to their spring season.

“My understanding from the CHSAA board of directors was there wasn’t a lot of advocacy for a fall soccer season since they already have a club soccer season in place,” says Hinton.

Still, while fall football was given the green light, schools did have the option to stick with the season slated to start February 27 if they wanted. Hinton decided he’d rather get things going now than wait for the spring season.

“My thought in choosing to go now was that there wasn’t that much going on and it would give the kids something to do,” says Hinton. “I felt like right now was the time to strike while the iron is hot.”

It turns out that six of the eight teams in Gunnison’s league have opted for the fall season as well, so the team will have five league games, an additional non-league game, and if they make the playoffs they could end up with as many as nine games.

Hinton has no idea if his team will make it that far but he does know they will start the season ahead of the curve.

“We’ve been doing a little more than the teams in our league,” says Hinton.

Official workouts for the 2020 football season will begin on Thursday, September 24 and Hinton expects to have as many as 35 players out for the team this fall, including as many as five from Crested Butte. They will have their first game on Friday, October 9 but where and against whom has yet to be determined as the teams are still working on a schedule. Hinton would like to remind everyone that when the Cowboys play at home, fans, friends and families keep county COVID protocols in place.

“Our county is capping fans at 250, so a little grace and understanding would be appreciated,” says Hinton.t