PUEBLO — It’s common knowledge around here that Tanner Rogers and his 24-year-old legs are the oldest wheels rolling around CSU-Pueblo facilities this side of the second-year football coaching staff’s.
Word travels fast when there’s ribbing to be done.
“Yeah, they razz me,” Rogers said. “But when we’re in the weight room at 6 a.m., they know I’m there to outwork every single one of them.”
Age jokes aside, Rogers, a 2003 graduate of Columbine High School and perhaps Colorado’s finest schoolboy option quarterback, has now opted for college football after five years of minor-league baseball.
Some kids refuse to grow up.
“I feel like I’m 12 years old,” Rogers said.
CSU-Pueblo coach John Wristen realizes he has an unexpected gift dropped into his young program.
“He’s just a very competitive player who put his (high school) team on his back and led them,” Wristen said. “Great athletic ability, and I think he’s grown up a little bit, really, and made an impression on our work ethic. He makes guys work hard.”
Like former in-state prep stars Matt Brunson and Joel Klatt, Rogers no longer is paid or pays to play. He just wants to play.
A career .232 hitter in the minors, Rogers called his release last year from the Florida Marlins “mutual” and has no regrets.
The former catcher enrolled for the spring semester here as a freshman with a goal of becoming a high school teacher and a coach upon graduation. First, though, he wants to get back on the football field for the Division II RMAC program that was resurrected in 2008 and went 4-6. It is a career change that will keep his former minor-league teammates watching from afar.
“Funny story,” Rogers said. “I had a senior (football) video made and I’d pop it in once in a while. One of my roommates came home and was watching, and my name popped up. I downplayed it, but even in spring training, people wanted to see it. It became kind of a hit.”
Rogers topped the charts in 2002 when he led Columbine to the Class 5A title, its third in four years. The Rebels were the last big-school team to go undefeated (14-0). Only Jefferson County rivals Arvada West and Bear Creek came within two TDs.
Rogers became the first in-state quarterback to surpass 2,000 yards rushing with 2,157. He also led 5A in scoring (204 points) and earned Denver Post player of the year honors.
“He’s the best option quarterback I’ve seen in my 16 years,” Mullen coach Dave Logan said. “He was a magician.”
Now 6-feet-1, 225 pounds (and dropping), Rogers believes he can reclaim his football skills. He chose baseball first after two stellar high school seasons as a catcher and getting chosen in the eighth round by Florida. However, from 2003-07, Rogers stalled on the Rookie and Single-A levels, and got only three at-bats in Double-A.
“Life throws you obstacles, but you find out what kind of character you have, what kind of person you are,” he said. “It was an awesome journey.”
He commuted from his home in Littleton to Metro State in the fall semester, earning a 3.5 grade-point average, then enrolled at CSU-Pueblo. Intrigued by the newness of the program and its location, Rogers decided to put his uniform back on.
“He’s one of the quickest kids I’ve seen and he made great reads,” said Columbine principal Frank DeAngelis, who began coaching in 1978.
Said Rebels coach Andy Lowry: “He can still move. He still runs pretty well. I think he can be a dominant player in that league. He probably could have played at a bigger place, but there he can get going and compete right away.”
Brunson and Klatt know well the path Rogers is taking. Brunson was drafted ninth overall by the Detroit Tigers in 1993 out of Cherry Creek and signed an $800,000 contract. By 2001, he was a wide receiver-returner at the University of Colorado, the same year Klatt, from Pomona, abandoned his baseball career. He walked on at CU to play quarterback after a couple of seasons in the lower levels of the San Diego Padres’ organization.
Klatt became a three-year starter, made team captain, set records in career passing yards (7,375), completions (666) and passing touchdowns (44) — and seemed to be born again.
“It’s a lifestyle change,” said Klatt, who conferred with Rogers about his decision. “It’s a breath of fresh air, like a second chance. It’s a tremendous opportunity.”
Rogers agrees. He gives Wristen’s fledgling program a marquee talent. And it’s not as if his 24-year-old freshman quarterback, who won’t require a scholarship — the Marlins are paying for it — hasn’t been competing. A typical minor-league day, Rogers said, “was getting to the ballpark at noon, leaving at 1 a.m. . . . You have no idea what it takes.”
Klatt does, and is convinced Rogers is better prepared for college football.
“You don’t discount the maturity,” Klatt said. “He has learned the importance of working hard, being on his own and managing his time.”
Rogers enrolled early to be ready for spring practice.
“I lived baseball and loved it,” he said. “Now, I’ve had two opportunities to go live a dream.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
