Titan athletes headed to collegiate sports next year

“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always believed that if I put enough work in, I can earn whatever I focus on…”

By Than Acuff

Every now and then a Crested Butte Titan student/athlete garners the attention of a collegiate program and pursues athletics beyond high school at the collegiate level. Three recent graduates are about to enter the world of collegiate athletics with class of 2025 student athletes Adin Kurak and Giles Billick each entering the fray right out of high school and 2024 Titan graduate Joe Syson pursuing college sports after a gap year to focus on training.

Giles Billick was a four-year athlete for the Titans in both cross-country and track and field earning all-state recognition in cross-country and anchoring the boys 4×800-meter team to a sixth place finish at the 2A state championships. He will continue running both for Whitman College, a Division III program in Walla Walla, Washington. But he admits the idea of running in college didn’t really hit him until his senior year.

“I was really unsure as to if I wanted to run in college,” says Billick. “It wasn’t until senior year when I realized I could run that I started looking into it more and once I applied to Whitman, their coach reached out to me about running there.”

Additional schools were interested in Billick but he was able to get the best of both worlds, attending a school he wanted to go to and continue running competitively.

“I didn’t make my college decision off my ability to run at a college,” says Billick. “The fact that I can run at Whitman is a plus.”

Billick has started training to run at the collegiate level and while he is aware it is a big jump from a small town program such as Crested Butte, he believes the future is bright to continue his athletic career.

“I’m a little worried about the speed of college,” says Billick. “Even though Whitman is a Division III, it’s definitely a lot faster than high school. Honestly, I’m not slow out of collegiate runners but I might be toward the back end as a freshman for sure.”    

Joe Syson graduated from CBCS in 2024 after playing four years of soccer for the Titans but rather than make the jump immediately to college, he headed to England for a year of training at Scarborough Football Scholarship.

“I was hoping to get three things out of the experience,” says Syson. “Training and playing with people at a higher level, get more exposure as a player and get a new experience in life.”

The plan worked out as hoped for Syson. Prior to his move to England, he had a soccer profile with Next College Student Athlete (NCSA), a college athletics recruiting service, during his high school career but had little interest from colleges. But after a year in Scarborough, the level of training and the exposure he received soon drew the interest of college programs.  

“It was amazing,” says Syson. “It was the best players I’ve ever played with and once colleges saw that I spent a year training in England, all of a sudden something changed.”

Among the schools interested were a college in Illinois but that didn’t interest him. A tryout with another university didn’t pan out but he soon found a spot at Linfield University, a Division III program in Oregon. Ironically, his neighbor and former Titans boys’ basketball coach Hannes Gehring played basketball there as well.

Syson believes the move made all the difference, not only in his development as a player, but preparing him for college athletics.

“If you’re ready to learn, get better and work hard, you’ll definitely get better,” says Syson. “Being there and working every day got me where I needed to be.”

Adin Kurak transferred to the Crested Butte Community School for his junior year and joined the basketball team having an immediate impact on the program finishing off his senior year leading the Titans in scoring, assists and rebounds and was named to the all-conference first team and the all-state second team list. He is now slated to play for Coe College, a Division III program in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Kurak’s desire and belief he could play in college started early.

“Freshman year I had a coach tell me I could make it to play in college if I kept working,” says Kurak. “There was just never a belief in my mind that I couldn’t do it.”

Kurak was noticed by the head coach at Coe College, John Payan, during a showcase basketball event in Kansas City, Missouri and phone calls then turned into a campus visit which eventually resulted in an opportunity to play at Coe with five other college offers also available to Kurak. While excited for the next step in his athletic career, he is keenly aware of the challenges but also confident in his future.

“It will take some time to adjust to the faster pace and higher physicality, but I believe in my abilities and think I’ll be able to hang with anyone out there,” says Kurak. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always believed that if I put enough work in, I can earn whatever I focus on.”