Football tradition runs deep at Lyons High School, like the top-grade sandstone veins quarried nearby. John Johnson’s Lyons Lions teams of the 1970s and 1980s won two state championships and had four runners-up finishes in his 21 seasons at the helm.
When John Nichols — a former standout lineman at Columbine and in college at Nebraska — took over as coach at Lyons in 1995, expectations were high. On the football field, in Colorado’s smallest 11-man classification, tradition never dies. But it is demanding.
And as Lyons returns this season from a rare missed playoff run last year, the team will see a radically different Class 1A landscape.
A newly formed metro-area conference, led by Lyons, will be 1A’s first Denver-centered league in several decades. Other than Lyons, there hasn’t been a small-school state football champion from near Denver since Silver State Baptist in 1983, and before that when now-defunct Louisville High School topped Meeker for the Class B state title in 1954.
“We’re going to try to make the transition,” Nichols said, “try to get back to the way things were in ’05 and ’06. There are always growing pains. The key is to be positive and patient.”
The shuffled 1A scene created a domino effect that landed right on Lyons’ laps. The Lions for years were a double-wing rushing juggernaut, always eager to smash mouths with opposing defenses. They also were part of one of the toughest conferences in the state, the North Central.
This season, the Lions moved to the Metro North Conference, with Front Range Christian, Lutheran, Lutheran (Parker), Nederland, Resurrection Christian and South Park.
“We’re hoping those teams are good,” Nichols said. “We learned that the best way to advance was to face the best teams in the regular season.”
The Lions also changed schemes, going with a more open, West Coast-style offense.
“We don’t have the personnel for bash ball,” Nichols said. “We have more athletes than bruisers.”
Denver’s Lutheran also has seen a quick change. The Lights, a Class 2A team three years ago with rivals Faith Christian and Holy Family, dropped to 1A in 2006 and are now in their second 1A conference in three years.
“I don’t sense a lot of frustration. We just have to learn to face a new set of teams,” Lutheran coach Joel Brase said.
In 1A, where linebackers double as punters and even the quarterback plays defense, players and coaches seem always ready for change.
“This is ironman football,” Brase said. “Most players go both ways. We know we’re going to have to gut things out. But we know we’re capable.”
Class 1A top 10
1. Akron: Rams sport 26 consecutive wins and two straight state titles.
2. Burlington: Big, bad Cougars will contend in the rugged South Central.
3. Wray: Semifinalists a year ago, the Eagles return to challenge Akron in league.
4. Limon: Badgers are 61-3 since 2003, a winning tradition that will carry into 2008 season.
5. Hayden: Western Slope’s best running back, Coy Letlow, and the Tigers should pace the league.
6. Lyons: That’s the sound of relief, after the Lions escaped the North Central.
7. Rye: Team that generated the most chatter in The Denver Post’s preseason poll of coaches.
8. Highland: Quarterfinalist last season returns most of the skill spots with perhaps the best wide receiver duo in 1A.
9. Holyoke: Dragons, Yuma and Highland will claw for a wild-card berth from the North Central.
10. Sargent: Farmers will contend in a tight Southern Peaks race with Dolores and Del Norte.
Class 1A players to watch
Matt Brown, Limon, Jr., QB
Paul Campfield, Wray, Sr., LB
Jeff Cooper, Calhan, Sr., RB
Jordan Dodge, Byers, So., QB
Brett Green, Peyton, Sr., QB
Coy Letlow, Hayden, Sr., RB
Joe McKay, Akron, Sr., RB
Ben Reinick, Wray, Sr., TE
Ben Rinehart, Burlington, Sr., OL
Dexter Tomczak, Lyons, Sr., HB
Benj Vigil, Akron, Sr., OL
