Football: 6-man, 8-man, 1A and 2A Championship Teams Attend Walkthrough, Luncheon in Pueblo
PUEBLO – The eight championship football teams in the state from the 6-man, 8-man, 1A and 2A classifications descended on Pueblo on Monday for a walkthrough of the CSU Pueblo Thunderbowl Stadium before heading to the Occhiato Student Center for the Colorado High School Activities Association’s championship luncheon.
The event featured Pueblo Chamber President Duane Nava, CSU Pueblo Director of Admissions Lee Saunders, CSU Pueblo Head Football Coach Phil Vigil and seven different head coaches from all four different classes of football teams. The 2025 Football State Championships for the four classifications will be held this Friday and Saturday at the Thunderbowl. Tickets can be purchased through the CSU Pueblo box office.
Friday, Nov. 28
1:30 p.m. – 6-Man Championship: No. 1 Idalia vs. No. 2 Stratton
5 p.m. – 8-Man Championship: No. 1 Akron vs. No. 2 Haxtun
Saturday, Nov. 30
1:30 p.m. – 1A Championship: No. 1 Buena Vista vs. No. 2 Limon
5 p.m. – 2A Championship: No. 2 Wellington vs. No. 4 Elizabeth
Below are some excerpts from each of the coaches statements during the luncheon:
Toby Kechter, Idalia, 6-Man Football:
We’ve got a great group of young men that are just high character young men. They are the type of kids that if you were playing checkers every day, you look forward to seeing them. But we play football, so it’s a lot more exciting. They make coaching a lot easier, too… them, their attitudes, their work ethic and their love for each other.
As a recap, we’re 13-0. We play our league rivals this Friday in the state championship game. Because we’re so close, we know each other so well. It’s going to be a challenge and it’s going to be fun, but stressful, as well.
JD Stone, Haxtun, 8-Man Football:
I have a message for everybody in this room: it’s hard to get to this point. This is a hard moment, so take advantage of this one week. You have one more week with your brothers, your coaches, and everybody that’s tied to your team. Just enjoy the moment, because you’re gonna blink and it’s going to be over. Win or loss, it’s done. So just love this moment for the next five days.
Jerome Weers, Akron, 8-Man Football:
To be at all honest, I’m kind of surprised me back here this year. It was a privilege to be able to come and play here last year. Some years, you never know what it’s going to be like. I’m exceptionally proud of the kids that I coach. They’ve had some really tough games this year that they pulled it out in. They work hard every day.
We won our first league title this year, since we dropped to 8-man in 2012. We are undefeated for the first time, as we are 12-0 through the course of our season right now. I can’t say enough about these boys and their leadership and what they’ve done for Akron football. They’ve definitely made me a believer.
Mike O’Dwyer, Limon, 1A Football:
I’d like to congratulate everybody that’s made it here. I think it’s been beat up enough… but this is the hardest place to get to. Probably the hardest game you guys had to win was last week, okay? I know everybody wants to win this week, but last week, honestly, is the hardest game to win. ?
Special shout out to Matt Flavin, the coach at Buena Vista and his Buena Vista team. They made it through the season undefeated, they’re the No. 1 seed and deservedly so. It is hard. I’ve been fortunate enough to do that a couple of times and it is hard to do. And those guys, with their schedule, what they did… just a tremendous effort.
We’ve kind of had to work through some injuries this year… we had some kids get beat up in our first game. I tell you what, I’m so proud of this group of kids because the resiliency that they have shown and the grit to overcome those injuries and to just make it to this championship game. My hats off to the young men I get to coach. They do a fantastic job. They really have.
Buena Vista, Matt Flavin, 1A Football:
From last year to this year, I will say that I am proud of how hard we’ve fought to become a good team and support each other on and off the field. I want to congratulate all the other teams here. This is an honor. We don’t get to put this on our calendars and just have being here on the schedule. It’s always TBA after that ninth game. So, it is an honor to be here. It is an honor to play as someone like me against someone like Coach O’Dwyer. He’s a legend. I always call him that when I talk to him. He is one of the best guys to talk to about football and about life, but not about his own team because most of the time he’s full of it [chuckles].
Michael Zoesch, Elizabeth, 2A Football:
You know, they make fun of me for some of the stupid things I say. But, I said a couple weeks ago, I said: “I didn’t know we were going to make it this far” and they’d laugh at me. But one thing I will say we’ve talked a lot about in our season is adversity, and facing adversity head on… and they don’t back away from it. Anything they do, whether it’s in practice, games, whatever, they attack adversity head on. It’s a main reason we’re here. It’s a special group. It’s a special group of kids, it’s a special group of coaches… it’s a special community in Elizabeth. This is the first time we’ve been to a state championship since 2015, so this is a huge step for our program. Like you all said, this is special and it’s hard to get here, so thank you guys.
Travis Peeples, Wellington, 2A Football:
Four years ago, Wellington high school was a cornfield. But our school is growing up. I’ve got three seniors here that started as ninth graders. We’re built on toughness, we’re built on small town principals… all the things you coaches have talked about, we believe in the same thing. We’re known for our weight room, we’re known for our grit, our hard work, and all the things that we do right around the school. We try to uplift our community, we do a lot of things in the community, and the senior class has really led that. But we’re an old-school type deal. We run the ball and we play hard defense. We try to lift weights, and we try to reduce the mistakes and do it the right way. We play physical and we play between the whistles.
We’ll bring in everything, and I know you guys will too. Congratulations to everybody that’s here. Let’s have a great championship game.
