LEADVILLE – Perspective comes naturally 10,200 feet above sea level.
Under a sapphire sky with abundant sunshine on a recent Saturday, Rob Paine surveyed the Rocky Mountain skyscrapers that surround this proud mining town and almost sighed.
“Is there a better place to watch a football game?” the first-year Lake County High School football coach asked.
Probably not.
Paine still had that contented air about him hours later after the Class 2A Panthers had been handled 45-7 by Monte Vista on the afternoon of Sept. 22. Having already snapped a losing streak that went back five years, Paine was just happy to see his young players compete before a sizable homecoming crowd.
Last season, the Panthers didn’t play football. The season was canceled for reasons no one in this tightly knit community really cares to discuss. All eyes are looking forward at a program that is coming back stronger than years ago.
“It doesn’t matter what the score is out there. We are winners just because we were out there,” said Paine, whose team is 1-4 going into Saturday’s game against Bayfield.
A tragic loss
The king went down shortly after being crowned.
Justin Lopez, better known as J-Lo by friends, received his golden diadem as the homecoming king before the fourth quarter of the Monte Vista game. Leading the charge later on an onside kick attempt, Lopez hurt his knee and spent the remainder of the game lying on the sideline before he was whisked to a doctor.
Still, it was worth it, considering last year Lopez would have been crowned at a volleyball game. Nothing was the same last year at Lake County when football was shut down.
Coming off a 0-9 season in 2005, the first under varsity coach George Gipson, the Panthers pulled out of their intended 2006 schedule. The team had won just three games since 2001.
Opposing coaches were left scrambling to find an opponent, and everyone outside Leadville was left to wonder what went wrong.
“A lot of negativity” is a phrase echoed by many when asked what the prevailing mood was then.
Athletic director Lisa Baskall, in her second year, said the decision to cancel football was extremely difficult. In early September, Baskall seemed ready to talk about the events but quickly changed her mind, choosing rather to look at everything that has gone right this season.
“All it’s going to do is relive the past, and we don’t want to go there,” Baskall said.
Lopez and a handful of other Lake County athletes bent on playing football in 2006 joined the ranks of Buena Vista, located 34 miles south.
“It’s a lot different playing for your rival,” Lopez said.
While everyone agrees no one was happy with the decision to cancel football, it was particularly hard for a former two-way player who had given everything he had to the Panthers – in the weight room and on the field, back when 24 players made up the entire team.
Nick Palmer played his last season at Lake County in the fall of 2004 and graduated in the spring of 2005.
“He was embarrassed,” said his older brother and current assistant coach Dustin Palmer. “I talked to him on the phone a couple times. He felt ashamed. He felt bad.”
Nick Palmer joined the Marines after high school, went to Iraq and was killed Dec. 16, 2006, by a sniper while on patrol in Fallujah.
Nine months later, Nick’s number, 53, was retired at halftime of the Sept. 22 homecoming game in a somber ceremony that included Marines, the playing of “God Bless America” and a eulogy where it was said Nick “lives on in every hit and every handshake.”
“These kids play every game with Nick in their hearts,” said Dustin Palmer, 24. “There’s no doubt about it.”
“His devotion to the game was second to nobody’s,” said Nick’s father, Brad Palmer, also an assistant coach. “I told these kids ‘You play with half the heart that he did, you’d be winners.”‘
Football returns
The Lake County cheerleaders never broke stride during the homecoming loss. For seniors such as Sierra Palumbo, Alicia Fetters and Tierney Gallegos, missing a season of supporting the football team makes this year special.
“You should see how much school spirit is up, because our homecoming pep rally last year was really small and there really wasn’t much to it,” Palumbo said. “This year it was crazy.
“There was, like, beyond the spirit. They were saying the football team was more excited than we’ve ever seen them.”
A 19-6 victory over Alamosa’s junior-varsity squad in Week 2 – Lake County’s first victory since Week 6 of the 2002 season – has certainly helped. It’s a victory Paine takes pride in considering Alamosa’s tradition and the fact he has just four seniors.
Rebuilding is something Paine seems to enjoy. Assistant coaches, Baskall and players don’t hesitate to credit Paine’s enthusiasm for making this fresh start run smooth.
With nearly 50 players out for football, participation is up to a level not seen in recent memory.
“I’d like to take credit for bringing football back here, but the bottom line is I was in the right place at the right time,” said Paine, who coached at Minturn Middle School and models his style after friend and former Rifle coach Darrel Gorham, now at Highlands Ranch.
Paine’s coaching staff, which is all new from two years ago except for Brad Palmer, has refused extra pay.
Baskall estimates that’s a savings of more than $7,000, which has been used to help fund new goalposts, a blocking sled and travel expenses.
Paine and his staff are doing everything possible now to lay the foundations for a program that was once feared for its tenacious play.
“I commend the kids for actually coming out and saying ‘Hey, I’m a sophomore and I’m going to play varsity for you,”‘ Paine said. “That’s only going to help us next year.”
And that is the new perspective at Lake County.
