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ENLARGE
The Windsor High School track and field team boasts 14 seniors this year, from back to front and left to right are: Conner Glenn, Weston Beckle, Jake Robinson, Max Valentine, Brett Hawley, Sam Stelzer, Carson Stickler, Kolton Renke, Nick Zabonik, Andrew Bennett, Megan Talbott, Katie Hazel, Chelsea O'Connor and Ellery Miller.
Coach: Brock Boettcher, 1st year
Last year: The Windsor 3,200-meter relay team of Seth Bott, Eldon Hall, Zane Hyland and Chris Ullom finished second at the Class 4A Track and Field Championships, setting a school record by finishing in 7 minutes, 56.99 seconds, and finishing only 5 seconds behind first-place Wheat Ridge. The girls 800-meter medley relay team of Rachel Weakland, Katie Hazel, Emily Elliott and Katie Weber took home the state title with a time of 1:48.53.
Key athletes: Girls: Katie Hazel, sr.; Katie Weber, soph.; Emily Elliott, jr.; Chelsea O'Connor, sr. Boys: Jacob Molina, soph.; Brett Hawley, sr.; Garrett Winner, jr.; Jordan Porterfield, fr.; Conner Glenn, sr.
Season outlook: For the girls, Windsor returns three of its four state champion runners in Elliott, Weber and Hazel while the boys will need to rebuild its team after losing four strong seniors in Bott, Hall, Hyland and Ullom. But Boettcher believes he has some strong up-and-coming boys like Porterfield, who blew away everyone in the 200 time trial at practice.
“They are going to allow us to do some good things this year,” Boettcher said.
Last year: The Windsor 3,200-meter relay team of Seth Bott, Eldon Hall, Zane Hyland and Chris Ullom finished second at the Class 4A Track and Field Championships, setting a school record by finishing in 7 minutes, 56.99 seconds, and finishing only 5 seconds behind first-place Wheat Ridge. The girls 800-meter medley relay team of Rachel Weakland, Katie Hazel, Emily Elliott and Katie Weber took home the state title with a time of 1:48.53.
Key athletes: Girls: Katie Hazel, sr.; Katie Weber, soph.; Emily Elliott, jr.; Chelsea O'Connor, sr. Boys: Jacob Molina, soph.; Brett Hawley, sr.; Garrett Winner, jr.; Jordan Porterfield, fr.; Conner Glenn, sr.
Season outlook: For the girls, Windsor returns three of its four state champion runners in Elliott, Weber and Hazel while the boys will need to rebuild its team after losing four strong seniors in Bott, Hall, Hyland and Ullom. But Boettcher believes he has some strong up-and-coming boys like Porterfield, who blew away everyone in the 200 time trial at practice.
“They are going to allow us to do some good things this year,” Boettcher said.
By Sherrie Peif
speif@mywindsornow.com
There's nothing like your first year as head coach of a high school sport.
But it makes life a lot easier when you inherit a team that has a long-standing tradition of success.
For Brock Boettcher, he feels like he inherited a great team, in a great town, with a great group of kids.
“The one thing, when this position came open, that I thought of was that I always admired the town of Windsor and the way the community rallies around its sports,” Boettcher said. “I've been in the Northern Conference for eight years now, and I love the way these athletes compete. I always wanted to be in a town like this.”
Boettcher, who spent six years at Mountain View and two years at Greeley West, replaces outgoing coach Conrad Crist, who left the program after six years to take over the head coaching position at Fort Collins High School.
Boettcher said he realizes a lot of coaches use smaller communities to peg board their way to bigger schools, but he's staying put as long as Windsor wants him.
“I'm an Iowa boy from the Midwest, so I like these small towns,” he said with a laugh.
As for the team he inherits, he said he has to give kudos to Crist for building a program the community can be proud of.
“He has done a phenomenal job before I got here into building this program into what it is today,” Boettcher said. “I have been very vocal that I wanted a seamless transition, and I will do a lot of things in keeping Windsor where it's at. Keep it rocking and rolling. I want to give kids an opportunity to be a part of something special, something greater than themselves. I'm aiming high to do what we did last year, plus more.”
That's a tall order to take on, especially on the girls side where the team brought home a come-from-behind win for a state title.
“I don't think you can talk about the girls team without talking about Emily Elliott,” said Boettcher about the junior runner who took the baton as the anchor in the 800-meter medley relay last year with the team in fourth place and sprinted a 54.09 second split to win the race. “She is a phenomenal athlete. She can run anything between a (100-yard dash) and a (400). She is going to be a girl we rely on a lot.”
Katie Hazel, who was a member of that state championship relay, said the transition with Boettcher has been easy.
“It has gone pretty smooth,” Hazel said. “Some of us worked out with him in the fall, and that helped a lot getting to know him. And he has the same morals and theories as Conrad did so that makes it nice.”
On the boys side of things, the team lost a chunk of leadership to graduation in Seth Bott, Eldon Hall, Zane Hyland and Chris Ullom, but Boettcher said he has plenty of kids ready to come into their own.
“Believe it or not, as much as we had so much success in girls, if you look at our guys right now, we have more depth than we do the girls side,” he said. “We are really fragile on girls side. If we have one go down, it will be really tough to fill in, but we have a lot of boys ready to step in.”
Senior Brett Hawley agreed.
“Even though you do lose that senior leadership, we have plenty of kids that are ready to be fast and can work hard and are ready to fill those spots,” Hawley said. “We have a lot of very good sprinters and mid-distance runners. And I think our throwing is going to be very strong once we get our technique down because we have a lot of really strong guys.”
speif@mywindsornow.com
There's nothing like your first year as head coach of a high school sport.
But it makes life a lot easier when you inherit a team that has a long-standing tradition of success.
For Brock Boettcher, he feels like he inherited a great team, in a great town, with a great group of kids.
“The one thing, when this position came open, that I thought of was that I always admired the town of Windsor and the way the community rallies around its sports,” Boettcher said. “I've been in the Northern Conference for eight years now, and I love the way these athletes compete. I always wanted to be in a town like this.”
Boettcher, who spent six years at Mountain View and two years at Greeley West, replaces outgoing coach Conrad Crist, who left the program after six years to take over the head coaching position at Fort Collins High School.
Boettcher said he realizes a lot of coaches use smaller communities to peg board their way to bigger schools, but he's staying put as long as Windsor wants him.
“I'm an Iowa boy from the Midwest, so I like these small towns,” he said with a laugh.
As for the team he inherits, he said he has to give kudos to Crist for building a program the community can be proud of.
“He has done a phenomenal job before I got here into building this program into what it is today,” Boettcher said. “I have been very vocal that I wanted a seamless transition, and I will do a lot of things in keeping Windsor where it's at. Keep it rocking and rolling. I want to give kids an opportunity to be a part of something special, something greater than themselves. I'm aiming high to do what we did last year, plus more.”
That's a tall order to take on, especially on the girls side where the team brought home a come-from-behind win for a state title.
“I don't think you can talk about the girls team without talking about Emily Elliott,” said Boettcher about the junior runner who took the baton as the anchor in the 800-meter medley relay last year with the team in fourth place and sprinted a 54.09 second split to win the race. “She is a phenomenal athlete. She can run anything between a (100-yard dash) and a (400). She is going to be a girl we rely on a lot.”
Katie Hazel, who was a member of that state championship relay, said the transition with Boettcher has been easy.
“It has gone pretty smooth,” Hazel said. “Some of us worked out with him in the fall, and that helped a lot getting to know him. And he has the same morals and theories as Conrad did so that makes it nice.”
On the boys side of things, the team lost a chunk of leadership to graduation in Seth Bott, Eldon Hall, Zane Hyland and Chris Ullom, but Boettcher said he has plenty of kids ready to come into their own.
“Believe it or not, as much as we had so much success in girls, if you look at our guys right now, we have more depth than we do the girls side,” he said. “We are really fragile on girls side. If we have one go down, it will be really tough to fill in, but we have a lot of boys ready to step in.”
Senior Brett Hawley agreed.
“Even though you do lose that senior leadership, we have plenty of kids that are ready to be fast and can work hard and are ready to fill those spots,” Hawley said. “We have a lot of very good sprinters and mid-distance runners. And I think our throwing is going to be very strong once we get our technique down because we have a lot of really strong guys.”
