All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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On October 24, 2018, Mr. Jessie Slepicka asked Ms. Jenna Carlson to continue their adventure in life by becoming his wife and moving to a yet to be decided state as he pursues his PhD. (She said yes!) Jenna is the daughter of Ms. Traci Carlson of Colorado and Mr. Jarrit Carlson of South Dakota. Jessie is the son of Jerry & Marsha Slepicka of Niwot. Jenna is a 2014 graduate of Rapid City Stevens High School and a 2018 graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. She is currently employed as... Full story
A close friend of Joyce and Victor Johnson’s brought them to the attention of the Courier, knowing the couple would be interesting to profile in our Familiar Faces column. They’ve made the most of the area by building strong friendships, strolling around town, and enjoying local restaurants and businesses. Their love for each other and the community are inspirational and heartwarming. Here’s a glimpse into their lives. Can you give us a little background on yourselves and how you met? Vic Johns... Full story
The Niwot gymnastics team claimed the school’s second state crown in less than a week with a stirring win at the 2018 Class 4A championship meet, held Nov. 2 at Thornton High School. Led by senior captain Lindsay Chohon and newcomer Hattie Katechis, the Cougars scored 181.500 team points to win this year’s title, the sixth in the program’s history. “I’m at a loss for words,” head coach Marisa Purcell said after winning the championship, her second as head coach. “I’m proud of them for coming... Full story
St. Vrain Valley Schools provide an exceptional variety of instructional programming including the International Baccalaureate® (IB). Niwot High School (NHS) has been IB authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP) since 2001, allowing us to support our talented and diverse student body in their commitment to, and pursuit of, academic excellence. IB DP, established in 1968, is a two-year program designed for high school juniors and seniors seeking academic...
Communities within St. Vrain are thriving and leading the way as Colorado continues to build and attract the top workforce and companies who want to call our thriving state home. St. Vrain Valley Schools is the educational home to more than 32,000 of Colorado’s students, with every school and feeder system committed to providing exemplary programming. While all schools share a high standard of excellence, as a district of choice, St. Vrain Valley Schools readily embraces a systemic approach t... Full story
VOLLEYBALL Sarah Falk (Niwot) has played eight matches for Sacramento State this fall. Falk, a redshirt freshman, is a middle blocker. After seeing action in only three of the first 18 games, she has played in five of the last eight games. Falk has five kills on the season in 10 attacks, with only one error. Mackenzie Fidelak (Niwot) played her first collegiate match for Stanford University in a 3-0 victory over West Virginia Sept. 1. Fidelak, who is listed as an outside hitter/opposite on the r...
With two of the top three finishers in the all-around competition, the Niwot gymnastics team took first in this year's Class 4A state championship meet, held Nov. 2 at Thornton high school....
Niwot’s Ares Reading was not satisfied with his 11th-place finish at the cross country championships a year ago, so he decided to take a new approach for his senior year. Hoping to shake off the lingering effects of moving from California to a mile above sea level, Reading embarked on a grueling off-season workout program with his teammates over the summer in a bid for faster times. “The season before the season is where the work really gets put in, so I decided to focus on that,” he said.... Full story
This is a “Big Year” for Niwot High School’s fall theater production. Only once every few years does an NHS production have a live student orchestra accompanying a big name musical. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella” will take to the stage Nov. 8 through 11 starring a cast of nearly 50 actors. NHS drama teacher and show director Erin Anderson described the production as elaborate and glitzy. The Broadway version, updated in 2013, has songs that will be completely familiar, but the charact... Full story
Long months of hard work and sacrifice paid off in the most satisfying way for the Niwot girls cross country team at this year’s Class 4A state championships, held Oct. 27 at the Norris-Penrose Center in Colorado Springs. Led by one-two finishers Layla Roebke and Taylor James, the Cougars ended with 47 points to claim their first-ever state title, a feat made possible thanks to the unusually strong team bond forged during a grueling regular season, according to junior Joelle McDonald, who was N...
Editor’s note: Niwot High senior Hailie Johnson is eyeing a career in journalism and will be contributing to the Courier from time to time during the school year. She profiled her grandfather and great-grandfather and their efforts to maintain the Niwot Cemetery for this article. The Niwot cemetery is a historical landmark that has been around since the 1800s. It all started in 1881 when Nancy Hindmans’ great-grandfather Jerome Gould donated the 1.74 acre parcel to Niwot for a cemetery aft...
Though he hasn’t been a Niwot student for long, junior Ben Bicknell is happy with his decision to transfer from neighboring Silver Creek, especially after his weekend with coach Miikka Keronen and the boys at this year’s Class 4A Tennis Championships earlier this month. There, the junior lost just three games in a run through the No. 3 singles bracket to his first-ever state finals match. Though he ended as state runner-up, Bicknell recalled the event as “the best time I’ve had this year....
The Niwot girls put an exclamation point on their “amazing” regular season with a dominating win at the Class 4A Region 3 cross-country championships, held at Lyons High School on Oct. 18. Running in a pack, the Cougars posted four of the race’s five fastest times to claim the team title and qualified to represent Niwot at the Class 4A State Championships in Colorado Springs on Oct. 27. “We had four girls, and any one of them could have won it,” Niwot head cross-country coach Kelly Christens... Full story
Residents of Niwot showed up in force at the community meeting to both question county officials and for many, to hold their ground regarding what their preferences are for development within the business district of their town. For the residents on 3rd Avenue, many of whom have lived in Niwot for several decades, two topics were high priorities: the county’s process around the development and the moratorium and secondly, the sanctity of the alley between their homes on 3rd Avenue, and the m... Full story
Niwot is throwing its biggest costume party of the year when the 21st Great Pumpkin Party takes place on Saturday, Oct. 27. Children of all ages, dogs of all breeds, and scarecrows from every field are invited to join in the celebration on 2nd Avenue and in Cottonwood Square. Supported by Niwot’s Local Improvement District, through the Niwot Business Association, and organized by Pat Murphy, owner of Niwot Real Estate, the event has become a much anticipated annual tradition. All activities are... Full story
Niwot tennis coach Miikka Keronen normally isn’t one to be content with a second-place finish, but even he had a hard time finding fault with the Cougars’ performance at last weekend’s Class 4A state tournament in Pueblo. Niwot placed a finalist in five of the seven championship matches and had two more in Saturday’s playback finals. Unfortunately, they ran up against an opponent that came within one match of making it into the Class 4A tennis record books. “I felt like we did not underachi...
September 2018 was a big month for Flagstaff Academy Preschool. The program reached its 10th anniversary, and it also achieved a level five quality rating from Colorado Shines. Colorado Shines, a Colorado Department of Human Services and Department of Education free resource, enables families to find licensed programs in their communities that are committed to offering quality services. Using a comprehensive approach to evaluate early learning programs, the organization looks at health and...
For the much of the past two decades, students in Finland have been ranked at or near the top of an international study that compares the academic achievement of 15-year olds in reading, math and scientific literacy in 73 countries worldwide. So when Niwot High principal Eric Rauschkolb was offered the chance to travel to Helsinki over the summer for an in-depth review of the Scandinavian country’s educational system, he jumped at the chance. “The educational company Education First, they off...
This year’s Jazz on 2nd Ave, the eighth year for the event, welcomed more than 1500 participants over the weekend of Sept 15-16, according to organizers. With the event’s profits used to fund jazz education, Colorado Jazz Group, the 501(C)3 non-profit organization that stages the festival, hopes to expand its visits to Front Range schools and continue to inspire a new generation of musicians. 2018 Jazz on 2nd Ave’s Funk and Jazz Festival Festival director Rachel Cohen said total sales were...
Altona Middle School (AMS) choir director Kim Needham Watkins’ routine mammogram earlier this year prompted doctors to recommend further testing. Follow up images indicated that she had cancer in her lymph nodes. The doctor’s phone call with the diagnosis came an hour before she, husband Jason Watkins, and their eight-year-old son Daniel boarded a flight to Germany to meet Jason’s biological family for the first time. With the frightening news heavy on their minds, the family spent the next... Full story
There’s a school in Kyengera, Uganda named Mwebaza. Two hundred students and six teachers spend their days learning and teaching there. More than 8,000 miles away, at Niwot Elementary School (NES), 450 students and 18 teachers spend their days doing the same thing. Dale Peterson is one of NES’s teachers and he has helped bring together the hearts, minds, and souls of the people of Mwebaza and NES. Peterson began his career as an educator 23 years ago as a student teacher at NES. As part of a w... Full story
Niwot head golf coach Ed Weaver wouldn’t say he was disappointed in his team’s performance at the Class 4A Region 3 tournament on Sept. 19, but it wasn’t the outcome he expected either. Bedeviled by unpredictable greens and a treacherous back nine at Loveland’s Olde Course, the Cougars finished in fourth place overall, and missed qualifying as a team for the Class 4A championship tournament for the first time since 2015. “The reality is, as a player, unless you’re trying to win the tournament,...
The annual Fall Crawl fundraiser hasn’t been a Sunset Middle School tradition for very long, but it has quickly become a favorite among parents and students alike. Last year’s event raised nearly $20,000 and helped the school purchase a new scoreboard, a sound system for the choir, and a 3-D printer. Now in its third year, the 2018 Fall Crawl is coming up on Friday, Oct. 5, and the Sunset Parents Advisory Council is inviting past and future students to come out and lend their support. “All of ou...
In a ceremony at the Longmont City Council chambers, the Longmont City Council designated Sept 11 as Mwebaza Day. The proclamation acknowledged the work of the Mwebaza Foundation, an organization founded by Niwot Elementary School teacher Dale Peterson to build and improve schools in Uganda. The proclamation reads: Whereas, the citizens of Longmont recognize that cross-cultural awareness and service learning enrich and strengthen a community; and whereas, the Mwebaza Foundation has been...
The football team managers may be highly visible during games as they sprint to and from the sideline with water, but the majority of their work is invisible to most fans. Uniforms, gear and game balls don’t just load themselves onto the bus, after all. For Niwot senior Hailie Johnson, however, being a team manager isn’t just about logistics. It’s about focusing on the details, so the players and coaches can focus on football. “A lot of people think that we just get water for the guys, but there... Full story
In a surprise announcement on Sept 10, St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) Superintendent Dr. Don Haddad informed those attending the school year’s first community meeting at Niwot High School (NHS) that the district has decided not to store an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the school as proposed by the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s proposal earlier this year was described as a way to allow school resource officers quicker access to a long range rifle to compensate for longer emergency response times to Niwot and L...
In an effort include a broader cross-section of the community, Niwot High will be hosting a carnival at Everly-Montgomery Field ahead of this year’s football game, instead of the traditional Homecoming parade through Old Town Niwot. “It’s going to give all of our feeder schools a chance to participate and get excited about becoming Niwot Cougars,” Principal Eric Rauschkolb said of the upcoming event, which is being modeled after similar events at other district schools. Niwot’s official...
Fresh off their head-turning performances at the season-opening Vista Nation 2-Mile on Aug. 24, Niwot’s top distance runners stepped aside for their underclass teammates at the Centaurus Warriors Invite on Sept. 1. For Cougars head coach Kelly Christensen, it was an exciting glimpse into the future of his program, as well as a way to solidify his 2018 varsity lineup. “They’re all ready, physically,” he said of the runners still competing for the remaining spots on the varsity roster. “It’s t...
The Courier wants to hear your stories It’s been five years since the September 2013 flood that devastated portions of Boulder County. According to Wikipedia, the county received a total of 26 inches of rain from Sept.12 to Sept. 15, 2013. Boulder County’s average yearly precipitation is 20 inches. Two hundred and sixty-two homes were destroyed and over 1,600 people were evacuated. Niwot High School was designated as an evacuation center. Many evacuees were flown in from Jamestown, which was especially hard hit. The high school received hun...
Lamya Deeb may look familiar because she and her family are longtime residents of the area. Shopping, running errands, or taking children to and from school, it is inevitable that we all cross paths many times over the years. But you might find Deeb out in nature too, facing a glorious scene she’s capturing on her canvas. Or you may have met Deeb while she worked at Osmosis Art Gallery on a First Friday Art Walk. In any of these settings, you’ll find Deeb appreciating a connection with the envir... Full story
World-class jazz will be wafting through Niwot, Sept. 15 and 16. The once secret-ish festival, Jazz on 2nd Ave, will be staging its eighth event with high caliber entertainers letting loose in Niwot’s unique small town outdoor venue. This year’s musical line-up welcomes back Liquid Soul and Jeff Coffin as festival headliners along with several groups new to the scene. The first day’s five acts begin with Niwot High School’s (NHS) jazz band which will have worked with Mars Williams of Liquid... Full story
Back to school season is a sensible time to be evaluating who influences and makes decisions for our area’s educational institutions. November 6 is election day for the Colorado State Board of Education member from the Second Congressional District (CD2). A Niwot resident since 1989, Johnny Barrett (R) is challenging incumbent Angelika Schroeder (D) for the position. Schroeder is the chairwoman for the predominantly democratic board and has held the CD2 position for nine years. She was a... Full story
Terry Olkin and Mike Ott, founders of Left Hand Robotics (LHR), are bringing the SnowBot to market and the name says it all. Unlike a human, this autonomous snow clearer doesn’t think twice about heading into the dark, frigid night to work tirelessly. “The genesis of the company is that I never had to deal with snow until I moved to Colorado,” Olkin said. “When I first moved here, I thought, yeah, I’ll get a snow remover and do my driveway. But after a short period of time, I realized this was...
Members of the Niwot High baseball team, under the supervision of local contractors and other volunteers, helped erect framing inside one of a pair of shipping containers bound for Uganda as part of the Mwebaza Foundation’s Cougars Creating Classrooms project. While in Colorado, the containers will be transformed by Niwot students and other volunteers into a functional classroom, then shipped and reassembled in Uganda at the Mwebaza school....
World-renowned distance runner Melody Fairchild is bringing her vaunted Boulder Mountain Warriors school-age running club to Longmont. Launching in September, the 13-week Fall Cross Country program is open to students ages seven to 14 who have a passion for running and want to develop their skills both on and off the course. “We want students to leave with a solid knowledge-base about how to be a healthy balanced runner,” Fairchild said of her six-year old program. “I want them to have the n...
Niwot head boys tennis coach Miikka Keronen’s state-title-or-bust expectations for his team are nothing new, but this year they’re carrying a little more freight. Stinging after last year’s fourth-place finish at the championship tournament in Pueblo—their worst since 2008—the Cougars buckled down during the off-season and are heading into 2018 looking for redemption. “We don’t like to make excuses, we make adjustments,” Keronen said of his team’s renewed intensity. “We decided to get ever... Full story
Sunset Middle School (SMS) is welcoming 10 new staff members to its team this school year, starting with the top two administrative positions in the school - principal and assistant principal. Additional new staff members coming onboard include language arts, science, art and special education teachers, a new band director, a new school psychologist, attendance clerk, and school registrar. Anthony Barela is SMS’s new Principal. He grew up in Durango, CO, earned his master’s degree in edu...
Rosemary Allen Bruce, 87, of Niwot, CO, passed away in her home on Aug. 15, 2018. Rosemary was born on Sept. 28, 1931, in Bairdsford, PA. She graduated high school as valedictorian. She attended the University of Pittsburgh where she met and married George Bruce, “the love of her life.” After for 68 years together, George passed away in February this year. Rosemary was an energetic and involved member of the Niwot community. She was the President of the Left Hand Grange in Niwot. She att... Full story
A parade can’t organize itself. There are participants to approve, cars to be rerouted, decorations to be purchased, and the parade lineup had better not have any horses in front of a Girl Scout troop without a cleanup crew in between or it might get messy. Julie Breyer knows these things well because for the past five years she’s given a lot of thought to organizing Niwot’s Fourth of July parade. Breyer is a member of the Niwot Community Association’s (NCA) Fourth of July committee, which i... Full story
The Niwot boys golf team captured two first place titles in the first two tournaments of the 2018 season, but head coach Ed Weaver doesn’t want anyone getting too comfortable. “I expected them to be very competitive early,” he said following the Cougars’ six-stroke win at the Spartan Invitational in Greeley on Aug. 13. “But I also know it’s a long season, and we still have to play consistently.” That said, it’s hard not to get excited about the team’s performance in the early going, even if th...
The 2017 Niwot softball season was memorable, but not for the any of the right reasons. With barely enough players to field a complete varsity lineup and just one experienced pitcher, last year’s youthful squad struggled against the powerhouse programs in the Northern League, and their dearth of veteran talent was painfully obvious at times. The Cougars finished the season with an unimpressive 6-13 record and missed the playoffs for the third straight year. Heading into 2018, head coach Bobby M...
Joey Dapolito started volunteering at the Rock & Rails summer concert series four years ago for a very simple reason. “I like helping out my community,” the 10th grader said. “It’s important to keep these parks clean.” But, like many of his longtime gargoyle cohorts, it’s the music that brings him back year after year. His favorite show so far this year has been The Long Run, even though the large crowd the band attracted added both to his workload and stress level. “The hardest part is tryin... Full story
On July 27-28, students from Niwot High kicked off the fabrication phase of ‘Cougars Creating Classrooms,’ a building project spearheaded by the Mwebaza Foundation to transform used shipping containers into instructional space for the Mwebaza Infant Primary School in Kyengera, Uganda. Over the two days, representatives from the football, girls tennis, golf, cross country, and track teams, as well as the IB program, Robotics Club, and Boy Scout Troop 161, unpacked materials for the project and...
Head coach Ed Weaver has high expectations for the 2018 Niwot boys golf team, and he makes a convincing case for them. On paper, his projected varsity squad is almost an embarrassment of riches. He is returning all three state qualifiers from last season, and expects to pick up a talented incoming freshman. Add in a handful of rapidly improving juniors and sophomores behind them, and Weaver anticipates having enough depth to vie not just for event titles, but eventually the conference and...
The act of a person, animal or thing that runs is what you will find in the dictionary when you look up the word running. For David Perry, running is that and so much more. It embraces what he does – twice a day; what his job revolves around – partnering with Adidas on creating their apparel and footwear; how he helps others – motivating groups of runners in the community. It’s a conduit for expressing creativity and using his business sense – pouring it into his own clothing brand, and it di... Full story
To the Editor: RE: Von’s Colorado Concepts Development on 2nd Ave. We are residents of 3rd Ave. in Old Town Niwot and many of our homes border the alley corridor between the commercial zone on 2nd Ave. and our residential zone on 3rd. Many of us have lived on 3rd Ave. for over 30 years. We read the article in the Courier regarding the mixed-use project proposed by Von’s Colorado Concepts on the parcels at 364 2nd Ave. and 376 2nd Ave. We were particularly struck by Von Eschen’s comment acknowledging neighbor’s concerns about “the alley sit... Full story
Skye Messinger, University of Kansas infielder, has a couple of weeks off before heading back to school August 18th, but he’s not wasting an opportunity to work on his game. Messinger and his older brother, Connor Messinger, go down to the Niwot High School baseball field weekday mornings at 6 a.m. to get some work in before Connor heads off to his day job working for his father, Cary Messinger, at Flying Colors Painting in Niwot. “We work on ground balls and various defenses,” Skye said. “Then...
It has been a dramatic year for the Niwot cheer squad. After nearly disbanding last August, former Niwot High and University of Colorado cheerleader Alexis Bellinger assumed the helm, and led the team to an inspiring top-15 finish at the Class 4A state competition in December. A successful spring recruiting drive added a new crop of ardent freshman, and then two weeks ago, the cheerleaders dominated the competition at CSA Cheer Camp at CU-Boulder and brought home two first-place trophies for...
The Courier would like to welcome Jocelyn Rowley as our new editor. Rowley, a Colorado native and current Mead resident, began writing local sports for the Courier, quickly moved into general reporting, and is now the editor. Rowley was instrumental in adding the Student-Athlete of the Week and Volunteer of the Week features to the Courier. She has a son who will be a freshman at Colorado State University, and her daughter attends Niwot High School. Rowley is a frequent volunteer at the Rock &...
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...
