From rivals to teammates: Battle Mountain cancels football season over lack of numbers, joins forces with Eagle Valley

Eagle County School District Superintendent Phil Qualman sent a letter to families earlier this month announcing Battle Mountain would not field a football team this season due to a lack of participation.

“After careful consideration and discussions with the BMHS players, coaches, administration, and the Colorado High School Athletics Association, it was decided to cancel the season for 2024-25,” the letter stated. “And by CHSAA rule that means it must also be canceled for the 2025-26 football seasons for both JV and Varsity football programs.”

Fortunately, the bad news came with a silver lining.

“BMHS players were informed and encouraged to join the other available options within Eagle County, most notably joining the Eagle Valley High School football team,” the letter continued. “The coaches at EVHS are aware of the situation and excited to welcome players to their program.” 

Seven Huskies have joined the Devils squad this fall, going from rivals to teammates.

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“You wouldn’t have even known there was a rivalry, to be honest,” said Chris Lake, Eagle Valley’s head coach. “Great kids came over. Our kids were excited to have them.”

What happened to the Huskies?

After graduating 19 seniors from its 2021 squad, Jim Schuppler entered his fifth year as Battle Mountain’s head football coach with four goals.

“A winning record, finish at the top of our league, qualify for the playoffs and beat Eagle Valley,” he told the Vail Daily in August of 2022. After starting 0-6, however, a rash of injuries and concussions forced the team to forfeit its remaining varsity games and finish with a hybrid schedule.

Last year, Huskies played a junior varsity schedule under new head coach Angelo Vasquez, who played middle linebacker and fullback for Battle Mountain from 1998-2001 and joined the coaching staff as an assistant in 2009. The team had 35 players on its roster — including 18 freshmen, Vasquez said. The coach ended the season feeling optimistic about where things were headed.

“I thought we had a great start with a good group of young kids,” Vasquez said of his team, which went 5-5. “We beat up on some teams that beat up on us the year before and you know, it felt like good attitude, it felt like good change. It’s just a shock — we don’t know what happened.”

This August, only 14 athletes showed up for the first day of practice. Those low numbers meant the original plan of having a varsity team was impossible, said Battle Mountain athletic director Bobby Ecker.

“We gave the boys 24 hours to get their friends out on the field,” Ecker said. The next day, a couple more showed up, but several members were set on only playing varsity, the athletic director said.

“Once we made the decision we wouldn’t be able to offer varsity, then our numbers cut again and we were looking at less than 10 to try to offer a JV program, which didn’t make sense for the safety of the players,” Ecker said.

A meeting was held which included Battle Mountain principal Jason Mills, Eagle Valley principal Tom LaFramboise and assistant superintendent Dr. Katie Jarnot, along with athletic directors from both schools. The conversation centered around organizing football into a community operation similar to the district’s hockey team, said Ryan Lynch, Eagle Valley’s athletic director.

Lynch said while there was some “apprehension” from parents about a merger, the message he communicated was that “we’re all one.”

“We wanted everyone to feel like we’re all on equal ground,” Lynch said. “So far, this has been maintained and things have gone well.”

Practice times were changed to accommodate Battle Mountain athletes driving from Edwards to Gypsum. Ecker opened up his storage garage to share helmets and shoulder pads.

“While we’re still rivals, Bobby and myself maintain a good relationship and he is a top-notch AD,” Lynch said.

Lynch said the football team now has 56 kids on the roster. Of the seven Huskies, two are freshmen who will play junior varsity. Lake said a few of the five varsity players are expected to see action in Friday’s season opener against Gunnison. The second-year coach said all the new players were brought into the fold seamlessly.

“There was not even really a conversation. We said it right there at the start of the first practice they came to that, ‘you know, welcome these guys in. They’re part of us now.’ It was as simple as that,” he said. “We’re happy they’re here and we’re trying to figure out how everything fits now.”

“We strengthened what we already had in place,” Lynch added. “We are excited to have the Battle Mountain athletes come over. I want their parents to know that, too.”

Lynch said he doesn’t view athletes as being from a certain school.

“I look at them as part of our Eagle Schools community,” he said. “A strong community with great people who all want to help each other succeed when we can.”

Is Battle Mountain football gone forever?

Vasquez has coached middle school and high school football in the valley for over two decades, working off and on as an assistant for the Huskies since the 2009 season. His dad, a 1975 graduate, also wore the black and gold on the gridiron. Given his longtime connection with the school, Vasquez said canceling the season was “heartbreaking.”

“There was a lot of good kids out there that are not getting the lessons football will give them,” he said. “Being a good teammate or coworker later in life, learning how to work through problems — the bigger lessons to be learned from the sport is the stuff that the kids are missing the most.”

“It was a really hard decision for everybody,” added Ecker, who said the goal throughout the process was to “find a decision that was student-centered.”

“And we kind of landed on the decision that it’s best for them to have the opportunity to play football safely at Eagle Valley and combine forces,” he said. “This is a cool opportunity for the community to come together and rebuild football.” 

Vasquez said he was surprised by the precipitous drop in numbers from last year to this year, but he thinks one reason could be the relative success of the school’s other athletic programs.

“It’s hard to beat instant satisfaction — when kids can go and jump on a team that’s fit for the playoffs right away,” he said. “And then, football is not an easy sport. People say football is a contact sport — it’s a collision sport. And if your kids are not putting in time in the weight room, it can get scary. So that was one of the other factors.” 

He also said some parents of incoming freshmen weren’t aware practices began before the school year started.

“It’s something I hope we can put out more in the future and make sure the parents are in the loop,” he said. “I think there were just a lot of different things tied into it.”

Vasquez, who also is the head varsity wrestling coach, isn’t giving up on the Battle Mountain football program.

“Oh, I’m most definitely trying to bring this program back,” he said. “One program, one county sounds good, but then you’re taking away playing time from other kids and it just turns into kids don’t want to play because they’re not getting on the field.”

“We would like to not be done forever,” Ecker said. “But you know, in order to rebuild, it’s going to take at least two years. And we’re hoping that Eagle Valley can provide a football program for the valley at this time, just to be able to compete at a statewide level and have enough kids to compete at JV and varsity safely.” 

“We have a lot of students playing other sports these days,” he continued. “What we’re seeing is there’s not enough football players for two programs in the valley at this time.” 

Vasquez thanked those who have supported the team over the past years. He believes there is still a contingent of kids who want to play under the Friday night lights in Edwards.

“They want to wear the black and gold and feel the pride that their parents felt back in the day,” he said. “I just think that we need to bring that back as a community, too. Let kids know that it’s OK to rebuild a program.”