Fort Morgan football reloading and ready after 2021 title run

Fort Morgan football put together a nearly perfect season in 2021, one that ended with the Mustangs hoisting the Class 3A state championship trophy with one final win over Mead. 

That campaign, carried by a strong senior class, made Fort Morgan history. But now, it’s time to turn the page toward a new legacy.

“I think the playoff run was just kind of almost a microcosm of the whole season last year and our schedule, the teams we played and the tight games we were in,” head coach Ty Davies said at Broncos/CHSAA Fall Sports High School Media Day. “I think it helped us last year for sure, when we were in those tight games every single step of the way towards the state championship to learn how to play when it’s tight, in adversity and make every situation count.”

The team will look a bit different this upcoming season, as the Mustangs return just two starters on offense and three on defense. Senior Chase Romero will take the reins of the offense at quarterback after the exit of Briggs Wheatley. He’s ready for whatever the season may hold.

“It’s not about going all the way, it’s just going as far as the team can take us,” he said. “We all have to work to the hardest of our abilities and the best as we can. And it doesn’t matter where we end out. It just matters on if we have no regrets.”

The current group of team leaders is ready to step into the spotlight, and they have years of chemistry to back them up. They’re hoping that will translate onto the field once they return to action for fall ball. 

“Us, as seniors right now, I feel like I’ve been playing with these guys since I was young,” senior defensive end Adolfo Hernandez said. “I feel like we have a connection and we work as a team, but we are a family out of football and stuff like that. … We work every single morning in the summer — work out, do some plays. We work as a team.”

The Mustangs are the first to admit that they were surprised by how far they made it in the end of 2021, but if that season proved anything, 3A football should come to expect the unexpected. They’ll get the chance to test that grit early this year, as they take on one of the classification’s best squads during the third week.

“Roosevelt’s always been the number one game that we have the entire season,” Romero said. “It’s like the town and everyone else around us in the community and it was one of the biggest rivalries in football that people in Colorado look at so I think it’s just really really big for the team.”