2 games into its 2025 junior varsity schedule, Battle Mountain football remains optimistic about varsity comeback

Two games into its 2025 junior varsity schedule, Huskies football coach Angelo Vasquez is optimistic about bringing varsity football back to Battle Mountain next fall.

“It’s good to be back,” the coach said. “We’re still small. It was tough recruiting and getting kids to come out and play, but you know hopefully we have a lot better turnout next year.”

The Huskies played a hybrid schedule in 2022, went 5-5 in junior varsity-only games in 2023 before canceling the 2024 season altogether due to low roster numbers. It was announced last spring that Battle Mountain — which joined forces with Eagle Valley last fall for varsity players — would field its own squad for at least the next three seasons starting in 2025.

Because the Colorado High School Athletics and Activities Association (CHSAA) requires a two-year pause on varsity play following the 2024 cancellation, the Huskies were permitted to offer only a junior varsity (JV) program in 2025. Looking ahead to 2026 and 2027, Battle Mountain will be temporarily placed in an independent CHSAA league within the 3A classification. The 2025 campaign began with a 44-0 loss at Elizabeth on Sept. 8.

“It was a tough game to start our season with. They beat us up pretty good,” Vasquez said. “But we have a lot of young kids.”

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Vasquez noted that numbers have been sporadic. At one point, he had 32 athletes out.

“And then we dropped down and then we went back up and then we dropped down,” he said before adding that the current group is 18 strong. Victor Lopez is the lone returner from last year, with sophomores and freshmen rounding out the roster. The team has leaned on freshman running back Ernst Kruger and quarterback Aksel Ulvestad, Vasquez said. Despite the rough opener, the coach was encouraged by how his team adopted a “growth mindset” going into the Sept. 22 outing against undefeated Steamboat Springs.

“We definitely took a whooping against Elizabeth and then going up against Steamboat, who had more field time, more games, was undefeated — and really going out there and putting our best game together was fun to be a part of,” he said. “They’re getting better every day.”

After letting the Sailors jump out to a 12-0 lead, the Huskies rallied with two scores to go into the half ahead by two. Steamboat Springs blocked a Husky punt late and capitalized on a short field to score the go-ahead touchdown and secure an 18-14 win. Battle Mountain will look to get into the win column next Monday against Grand Junction.

“They’re tough around the corners, so our defensive ends better be ready and our linebackers better be ready to flow,” Vasquez said regarding the upcoming scouting report. “Defensively, they’ve got some pretty big guys up in the front, so our offensive line is going to have to step it up a little bit and do like we did against Steamboat, frustrating kids with good double teams and position.”

Vasquez, who also coaches wrestling at Battle Mountain, said having the support of new athletic director, Zach Holden — who said this fall that forging ahead with a football rebuild was a big priority — has been huge.

“He started getting out into the halls, so he’s done a lot of ground work for us which has been awesome,” the coach said. “It’s really nice when your AD is advocating for the football team, asking kids what’s going on and promoting the program. It’s huge.”

“Football is a really important thing to me personally,” Holden told the Vail Daily in August. “People want it back, whether they have an athlete or not. It really is one of the best ways, in my experience, to rally a community.”

Looking ahead, Vasquez knows the viability of varsity play is contingent upon two factors: recruiting upperclassmen and getting everyone to make the weight room their second home.

“In the past we’ve relied on trying to put a lot of underclass kids on the field playing varsity football and that right there is — we’re starting to put a lot of kids in danger,” he said. Vasquez believes there’s a pool of potential athletes who play lacrosse, basketball and baseball in the winter and spring but aren’t on the gridiron during the fall.

“It would be nice to get more athletes from other sports out,” he continued. “I mean there’s a varsity and JV program within those three programs in itself. And it is sort of weird that they’re not out, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just going to work with the guys that we got and hopefully next year we get more.”

He said the best sales pitch is “finishing the season strong.”

“We had a lot of doubters, and I don’t know why, going 5-5 that first year,” Vasquez said. “But if we keep doing it the right way — the officials love that our kids don’t talk trash — and if we do it the right way, we’re going to get more kids.”