All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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When asked about his favorite part of being a Rock & Rails gargoyle, Niwot sophomore Jesse Horn was quick to answer. “I get to boss other gargoyles around,” he said, chuckling. As a third-year volunteer at the weekly concert series, the 10th-grader has certainly earned that privilege. Often working alongside twin brother Thomas, Horn serves as one of the gargoyle team leaders, and is instrumental in keeping the grounds tidy during his shifts, whether from his own efforts hauling bins and collect...
In three seasons with Niwot’s varsity baseball team, Joey DesEnfants has played every single position on the diamond, including a memorable nine-game stint at starting catcher as a freshman. Now, on the cusp of his final season, the “true utility player” is ready for yet another important role: team leader. “Having a strong veteran leader is important no matter the ages of athletes on your team,” Head Baseball Coach Adam Strah wrote in an email. “However with a young team it is extremely i...
Officials from the Mountain View Fire Protection District are asking for public input on a proposed mill levy increase that they say will help offset the costs of serving a rapidly growing population in east Boulder and south Weld counties over the next ten years. At a July 17 public information meeting at the Niwot Fire Station, Assistant Chief Keith Long and Finance Director Tonya Olson made a case for the potential tax hike, which will fund what they described as urgently needed equipment...
Former University of Colorado Head Football Coach Gary Barnett will be the guest of honor at the fifth annual Cougar Classic golf tournament, hosted by the Niwot Touchdown Club. Barnett, a friend of the Niwot football program and former Niwot resident now living in Gunbarrel, reached out to second-year head coach Jeremy Lanter late last year to offer advice for overcoming a winless season. In 1996, Barnett co-authored High Hopes: Taking the Purple to Pasadena, a memoir of his third season as...
Jackson Erb first showed up at Rock & Rails for the same reason that most people do—to see a great concert. Little did he know that his love of music would lead to a regular community service stint. “Jill [Whitener] came to me at the right time,” Erb said. “I was just getting into volunteering at the Humane Society, and I liked coming here, so I just started doing it.” Now in his fifth season, Erb is one of the most veteran Rock & Rails Gargoyles. Over the years, he’s helped the clean-up sq...
The Niwot U16 summer baseball team players who ended their season on July 15 with a narrow loss in their league tournament semi-finals probably might not recognize the squad that took the field back in May, according to Coach Mike Newton. “My biggest takeaway from this season is the improvement from where we started,” Newton said after the Cougars fell 6-4 to the Mead Mavericks, who were 11-3 during the regular season. “Understanding that we need to make a routine play, we need to pound the s...
Sunset Middle School seventh-grader Merrick Blondeau is the Rock & Rails Volunteer of the Week. Like his fellow gargoyles, Blondeau’s reasons for volunteering at Niwot’s weekly concert series are both altruistic and self-interested. “Jill [Whitener], the person who runs the gargoyles, usually has a hard time getting Gargoyles, so I do it for that,” he said, before adding. “There’s also free food.” Now in his third year, the Sunset seventh-grader is among the most veteran gargoyles. He...
Bootstrap Brewing Company’s beer, Wreak Havoc, claimed its second bronze medal of the year at the 2018 US Open Beer Championship, held earlier this month in Oxford, Ohio. Bootstrap is based out of Niwot, with a second location in Longmont. Open to both professional and home brewers, this year’s competition included more than 6,300 entries in 117 categories, judged by a “blind” panel of experts from the U.S., Canada and England. Bootstrap’s “smooth and delicious” amber was awarded third place i...
At a public hearing on July 12, owners of the Left Hand Animal Hospital received conditional approval from the Boulder County Commissioners to relocate their five-year-old veterinary clinic to the former site of the Neighborhood Learning Center of Niwot, a move that will allow the growing practice to remain an active part of the community, according to co-owner Dr. Nancy Bureau. “What I learned from this process is community voice matters,” she said. “Initially, the county told us our permit wou...
Niwot held their annual spring signing ceremony for athletes committed to playing at the next level on Tuesday, May 22. Caleb Martinez— University of Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls, SD) There’s no question that Caleb Martinez has enough talent to succeed as a collegiate pitcher. As Niwot’s staff ace for the past two seasons, he amassed a 2.69 ERA and 81 strikeouts, putting him squarely among the ranks of the Class 4A league leaders. But it isn’t just physical skills that will make him success...
Gargoyle Marco Ramirez has both high-minded and pragmatic reasons for volunteering at Rock & Rails. For the Niwot High 10th-grader, helping collect waste at Whistle Stop Park is not only a great way to help the environment, it also helps to foster the town’s “community spirit.” Then there are the more tangible benefits. “If you’re a gargoyle, you get two free slices of pizza from Abo’s and a free drink,” he said. “It takes away a few hours of the day and you don’t have to worry about what...
The Niwot LID Advisory Committee got a taste of winter at its July 3 meeting, and not just because it was a bracing 56 degrees in the conference room at the Mountain View Fire Station. Though Christmas is still half a year away, a twin bill of holiday-themed funding requests topped the evening’s agenda, giving the committee a preview of some changes in store for the traditional kick-off to the town’s holiday shopping season. Boulder County liaison Mark Ruzzin kicked off the meeting with a rec...
A proposal to turn the former site of the Neighborhood Learning Center of Niwot at 304 Franklin Street into a 6,405 square-foot veterinary clinic will go before the Boulder County Commissioners at a public hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday, July 12 at the Boulder County Courthouse. Interested parties are invited to give their testimony before the three-member panel. At issue is whether the proposed new use of the property, which lies in the Niwot Rural Community District II (NRCDII),...
Niwot forward Anna McCarthy didn’t waste any time getting her standout senior season underway. In the Cougars’ 2018 opener against Skyview back on March 8, the third-year varsity forward singlehandedly dominated the Wolverines, scoring two goals within the first ten minutes, and then adding three more to lead her team to an auspicious 6-2 victory. McCarthy went on to fulfill the promise of that fateful first game, though she didn’t quite match that level of productivity in a single game again...
Longtime Rock & Rails volunteer Maddie Frary doesn’t mind being one of the only girls on Gargoyle crew. In fact, working with the boys is often pretty “fun” according to her. “I have many friends who are boys,” the spectacled seventh grader-to-be said. “It’s really not that hard.” After all, it was a boy who convinced her to join up in the first place. “My brother did it first,” Frary said, referring to older brother Alex, another longtime volunteer. “When I was young, it looked like a lot of fu...
For Olivia “Livy” Herring, playing for thousands of fans at Red Rocks as a member of the Boulder School of Rock’s House Band was easy compared to stepping onto the bandstand at Whistle Stop Park with her eponymous band to play for friends and family. But that’s just what the recent Niwot High graduate will be doing next Thursday night, when Livy & the Boys opens for Rebecca Folsom at Rock & Rails on July 5. “When I was performing as a student of the School of Rock, if I messed up no one knew...
Singer-songwriter Rebecca Folsom performs in exotic venues all over the world, but there is no place the long-time Rock & Rails favorite enjoys more than the bandstand at Whistle Stop Park in the summertime. “It’s my favorite of the whole year,” the Boulder native said about her upcoming show on July 5. “Coming home and playing for my Colorado people is where I’m very happy. It’s the sweet spot for me, to play for the hometown crowds. I’m in the heart of where I want to be.” Though Folsom i...
Former CU Head Football Coach Gary Barnett to compete in fundraising event Former University of Colorado head football coach Gary Barnett knows a thing or two about struggling football programs. In 1995, he coached perennial Big 10 basement-dweller Northwestern to its first appearance in the Rose Bowl since 1949, a feat still recognized as one of the more dramatic turnarounds in college football history. So when Barnett called Jeremy Lanter out of the blue last December to offer his advice and m...
Faced with growing alarm among parents about concussions and injuries, Niwot football coach Jeremy Lanter decided to be proactive. “I’ve sat in 20 different homes for 20 different meetings with parents, and one of the biggest concerns is the safety piece,” he said. “Addressing that with them and listening to their concerns, and finding out what we can do, is a step in the right direction.” To that end, Lanter has embarked on a two-pronged approach to player safety ahead of the 2018 season, one o...
The abundance of vibrant, carefully-maintained flower pots that has long been a signature of the summer season in Niwot was devastated by the midday hail storm that roared through town on June 19. “Almost every single container suffered some kind of damage,” Chuck Klueber of the Niwot Business Association Streetscapes Committee said. “Some weren’t damaged as badly as others, because they were protected by trees or posts or flags. It just depended on where they were.” Using funds furnished...
There won’t be as many familiar faces on next year’s Niwot football team, and that’s a good thing, according to second-year head coach Jeremy Lanter. This spring, he welcomed 20 first-time players to training camp, in addition to a “decent sized freshman class.” For Lanter, all the “new blood” in the program has helped to create an atmosphere of excitement and optimism for the upcoming season. “Our newcomers have done such a phenomenal job for us,” Lanter said. “The players that are coming rig...
Local teenager Jason Champion loves two things: the environment and Rock & Rails. So, if you go looking for him on a Thursday night during the summer, a good place to start is on top of an eco-cycle bin at Whistle Stop Park. “When I came here the first time, I absolutely loved it,” the Boulder Country Day seventh-grader said. He credits a school project for bringing him to the weekly concert series initially. “So, I kept on volunteering. It’s an amazing place.” Champion is a regular on the Ro...
Plans to turn the former site of the Neighborhood Learning Center of Niwot into a 6,405 square-foot veterinary clinic cleared an important hurdle when the Boulder County Planning Commission gave its conditional approval to Left Hand Animal Hospital’s site development proposal at a public hearing on June 20. After hearing testimony from county planning staff and more than a two dozen supporters, the seven commissioners in attendance agreed that the proposed renovation at 304 Franklin Street is b...
Recent Niwot graduate Reilly Herbst loves everything about being a hockey goalkeeper—the equipment, being pelted with pucks, and especially the pressure. “That’s the best part,” he said. “It’s the one position everyone looks at.” The 18-year old also has his sights set on a career in the NHL, so earlier this month when he was offered a roster spot by the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League for their 2018-19 season, he leapt at his chance to join the country’s only Tier 1 junior d...
At its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 5, the Niwot LID Advisory Committee considered funding requests for the eighth annual Jazz on 2nd Avenue festival, as well for mowing of the future parking lot west of Old Town. Before hearing the evening’s applications, members reviewed Treasurer Harris Faberman’s report through the end of May. So far, the LID has committed to $109,314 in expenses in 2018, leaving $23,686 from the budget to spend for the remainder of the year. However, the report...
Jeremy Lanter is looking forward to his second season as Niwot’s head football coach, and not just because he feels the Cougars will be more competitive on the field. With 20 first-time players, in addition to a healthy crop of freshman, Lanter said newcomers have breathed energy and optimism into his program, which has seen its share of struggles in recent years. “Now although the numbers have been similar, the excitement has been one of the biggest changes in the program,” he wrote in an em...
Niwot wrestler Jose Lopez came to the sport later than most of his peers, but that lack of experience hasn’t kept him from success on the mat. A surprise state-qualifier during his rookie junior season, he amassed an impressive record as a senior before a broken arm thwarted his 2018 postseason ambitions. Late last month, the heavyweight’s career took another step forward when he signed a letter of intent to wrestle collegiately at the alliterative Cloud County Community College, in Concordia, K...
When announcing that horn player Rachel Clark was the recipient of the 2018 John Philip Sousa Award at the Niwot’s band’s final performance of the year, director Wade Henricks told his audience that “high school programs are built around students like Rachel - they are pillars of the band that remain long after the student has graduated. I'll happily live in the house Rachel has helped build.” The John Philip Sousa Award is bestowed annually “in recognition of superior musicianship and outst...
Niwot High campus supervisor La’Mar West suspected something might be up when Principal Eric Rauschkolb invited him to an after school meeting with St. Vrain Superintendent Don Haddad last month, but he was absolutely “shell-shocked” when he found out that Haddad was there to present him with a Superintendent's Excellence in Education Award. “I had no idea it was coming,” he said. “I’m not one of those people who is big on awards or titles or anything, so the fact that I got it was pretty cr...
A little more than three years after they were ordered to suspend their educational programs due to violations of the Land Use Code, owners of Longmont’s Sunflower Farms received conditional approval from Boulder County Commissioners to operate as a Demonstration Farm, a move that will allow them to relaunch their SproutHouse preschool and day camps later this summer. At a public hearing on May 24, Commissioners Cindy Domenico, Elise Jones, and Deb Gardner voted unanimously to approve S...
The Longmont Downtown Development Association (LDDA) cordially invites alumni from all graduating years at Longmont, Skyline, Silver Creek, Niwot, Erie, Mead, Frederick, Lyons, Olde Columbine and the St. Vrain Online Global Academy to come downtown and enjoy food, music and old friends at the fifth annual St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) High Schools Reunion on Friday, June 8. Festivities kick off at 4th and Kimbark at 6 p.m., when SVVSD student band Bad Choices hits the stage, followed...
Even though their team fell short of its ultimate goal, seniors Alex Herman and Oskar Wells consider Niwot’s 18th-place finish at this year’s Class 4A state track and field championships a fitting coda to the boys’ most successful season in years. After scoring just 4 points total in their last four state appearances, this year’s squad racked up a total of 21 points at the three-day event, thanks mostly to Wells, who medaled twice, first for his fifth-place finish in the 800M and again with th...
The Niwot girls golf team capped off its memorable 2018 season with a hard-fought top-10 finish at the Class 4A Championships held May 21-22 at Country Club of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Freshman Halie Ostrom led the Cougars with a +54 for the two-round tournament, which was good for 36th place overall in the 84-player field. Senior Mya Ostrom and sophomore Julia Solem both shot +66, tying for 49th-place. Niwot ended with a total score of 612 over the two days, to finish ninth out of 14 in...
Niwot IB valedictorian Kamran Elahi said he was thrilled when he learned early in the 2017-18 school year that he had earned the top rank amongst his talented cohorts. “I had an idea I was up there,” the senior said. “Obviously there’s a ton of really, really smart, really nice kids that I go to school with, so I was a little bit unsure. It was probably one of the happiest moments of my high school career to find that out.” Elahi was quick to dispel the notion that students in Niwot’s e...
Neither rain, nor cold, nor Valor Christian could dampen the spirits of junior Maggie Smith and the Niwot girls 4x400M relay team on the gloomy final day of the 2018 Class 4A State track & field meet, held May 17-19 at Jeffco Stadium. With a time of 3 minutes, 55.64 seconds, Smith, Erika Timbang, Kelia Portis, and freshman Taylor James cruised to the state title in the mile relay, beating Valor by more than 1.5 seconds, and putting a bow on a impressive weekend that saw the Niwot girls score...
The 13th-annual Rock & Rails summer concert series kicks off on June 7 and organizers are gearing up for another great summer of live music and family fun on Thursday nights at Whistlestop Park. Opening acts take the stage at 5 p.m., for an hour, followed by a headliner, with music resuming around 6:30. There is no charge for admission, and seating is “bring-your-own” on a first-come, first-serve basis. Leading things off this season is longtime local guitarist Dean Himes in the early show, foll...
At Niwot High School, the name McKynzie Clark has become synonymous with “leader.” In fact, it might be easier to list the clubs and organizations that she hasn’t helmed over the past four years than the ones she has. A non-exhaustive list of her titles just from senior year includes President of National Honor Society, captain of the Forensics interpretive team, lead prosecutor for Mock Trial, and co-director of The Drowsy Chaperone. Her talents also extend to the classroom, where she’s...
Niwot’s Bootstrap Brewing Company added another accolade to its already long list when long-time customer favorite Wreak Havoc was awarded a Bronze medal in the Imperial Red Ale category at the 2018 World Beer Cup. “We are absolutely thrilled about it,” Leslie Kaczeus said. She owns Bootstrap Brewing with husband Steve Kaczeus. “The World Beer Cup is one of the most prestigious blind beer tasting competitions in the world.” Hailed as the “Olympics of Beer,” the biennial competition ...
Led by upstart freshman Lucy Lu, the Niwot girls tennis team upended the Class 4A status quo with an impressive victory at the state tournament in Pueblo May 12. With wins in five of the seven championship brackets, and two more matches in the consolation finals, the Cougars dethroned nine-time defending champion Cheyenne Mountain to clinch the second girls tennis title in Niwot history. For head tennis coach Aimee Keronen, watching her team’s confident march to the ultimate prize during S...
In nine games on their home field this season, the Niwot girls soccer team outscored opponents 34-1. Unfortunately, that single goal was enough to end this year’s Class 4A state title hopes prematurely. In a riveting back-and-forth match on May 9, the No. 9 seed Cougars fell 1-0 to No. 24 Lewis-Palmer in the first round of the state tournament. With less than three minutes to go before the end of the first half, Rangers’ junior Adrianna Cook capitalized on the Cougars’ failure to clear a corne...
Fairview golfer Kelsey Webster will be making her fourth straight bid for the Class 5A state title almost literally in her own backyard. With an impressive four-stroke win in the Central Region tournament at South Suburban GC on May 7, the senior earned a chance to vie for her sport’s top honor at the Boulder Country Club, host of this year’s state championship tournament, and a venue the Gunbarrel resident is “very, very familiar with,” according to Fairview golf coach John Zerwin. That do...
At the 2018 Northern Conference championships at the Greeley Rec Center May 12, head coach Debbie Stewart and the Silver Creek boys swim team checked off two more items on their 2018 to-do list: First, win a fourth-straight conference title, and second qualify more than 20 swimmers for state. That leaves just one to go, and after their dominating performance in Greeley, Stewart is even more optimistic about a strong showing at the upcoming Class 4A State meet in Colorado Springs. “The last g...
You wouldn’t know it from his win-loss record, but right-handed pitcher Caleb Martinez had an impressive 2018. In 10 appearances for Niwot, the right-hander had a total ERA of just 2.79 with 51 strikeouts, the fourth highest total in the Northern League. He really hit his stride late in the season, with back-to-back complete games for the Cougars in the last week of April, including a 4-2 win over Northern League foe Thompson Valley. “His mechanics have been solid all season,” Niwot pitch...
For a sure sign that the Niwot boys track team is having a special season, look no further than the Northern League championships, held May 4-5 at Everly Montgomery Stadium in Longmont. Behind surprisingly strong performances in the sprints and jumping events, the Cougars scored 151 team points to claim the 2018 conference title, a feat Niwot head track coach Maurice Henriques called “a great accomplishment for our program.” “Being here for eight years, we’ve never a Northern Conference meet,...
There’s a debate to be had about whether Niwot senior Mya Ostrom is a more dedicated student or a more dedicated golfer, but one thing there’s no argument about is her composure during a stress-filled round at the Class 4A Regional 4 tournament at Highland Hills GC on May 7. “That is the most pressure that I've seen in a girls tournament and she showed great poise,” Head Coach Ed Weaver said after Ostrom’s unconventional round. Thanks to a special arrangement between Weaver, the Colorado...
At the regular monthly meeting on May 1, the Niwot LID Advisory Committee got a sneak peek at the Niwot Business Association’s new branding campaign, and heard about some important changes in store for this year’s Rock & Rails Summer concert series. Boulder County liaison Mark Ruzzin kicked off the meeting with a brief discussion about officer elections, a subject curiously left out of the Committee’s bylaws. Leadership of the nine-member Committee consists of a Chair, who conducts the meeti...
The Niwot girls tennis team is headed back to the Class 4A state tournament after cruising to the Region 5 title at the Longmont Rec Center tennis courts on May 4. All seven lines were straight-set winners in the championship round of the rain-shortened event, which was originally scheduled for May 2 and 3, but had to be postponed twice. When play finally opened on Friday morning, the Cougars efficiently made their way through the early rounds, winning all but a handful of games, then made...
The Niwot girls soccer team sent their eight seniors off in memorable fashion with a tight 1-0 victory over first-place Northridge to clinch at least a share of the 2018 Northern League title. In front of a packed home crowd on hand to celebrate Senior Night, the Cougars dismantled their final conference opponent with a controlled possession attack that kept the Grizzlies’ defense on its toes and the ball away from its high-scoring offense. “Individually, everybody came to play today,” Niwot hea...
Niwot ace Caleb Martinez struck out five and walked just two in a six-inning outing against cross-town rival Longmont (15-1) on April 28, but that wasn’t enough to overcome uneven defensive play and a lack of timely hitting. Failing to capitalize on the senior’s second consecutive complete game, the Cougars committed four errors and stranded six batters on their way to a 4-0 loss, their second against the league-leading Trojans in three days. Despite the losses, Niwot head coach Adam Strah sai...
Behind strong performances from seniors Benjamin Willett and Christopher Wingfield, the Silver Creek boys swim team closed out the 2018 regular season with a second-place finish at the Mountain View Invite on April 28. Silver Creek’s team consists of swimmers and divers from both Silver Creek High School and NIwot High School. Wingfield claimed individual third-place medals in the 200 free (1 minute, 53.53 seconds), and the 100 butterfly (55.18), and picked up fourth-place finishes with the 2...
