LOVELAND — They passed one another with barely a nod at a Nike camp in Boulder nearly a decade ago. Kyle Orton and Justin Holland, two of the nation’s most coveted quarterback prospects in the summer of 2000, nearly became in-state college rivals.
Now, Orton is preparing to be a starter for the state’s most recognizable football team, the Broncos.
Holland only hopes his injured shoulder will heal in time to take the lesser-known Colorado Ice into the postseason.
Holland is scheduled to return in time for the playoffs, which start July 18 at the Anchorage Grizzlies. Except for crushing the winless Alaska Wild 73-38 on June 6 after Holland left early with a shoulder injury, the Ice lost all momentum gained under Holland. The team’s regular season closed with a 51-18 loss at El Paso on Saturday.
“It’s right about the time I’m getting the hang of the indoor game,” Holland, a Colorado State product, said recently. “I felt something ripping in there and thought, ‘OK, that hurts.’ ”
Holland has waited since his 2005 senior season at CSU for consistent playing time at any level. He came out of Bear Creek High School with a live arm, one of the best pure throwers ever seen at CSU. He had only one full season to himself as the starter, 2005, and he passed for 3,184 yards and a school-record 23 touchdowns.
Holland isn’t about to call it a career yet, even if he eventually needs surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation. The magnetic resonance imaging of his injury showed no rotator cuff tear.
“You’ll always get that itch,” he said. “Especially if I have an opportunity to play with these guys again or the arena league opens back up.
“I never was interested in the indoor game. I was pleasantly surprised by the league and speed of the game. It kind of got me hooked.”
Every practice for the Ice, it seems, is a CSU reunion with former Rams tackle Dane Stratton, receiver George Hill, safety Travis Garcia and linebacker John Clark on the team. Hill may leave the team during the playoffs for a “real job” in Texas.
The Ice shares the Budweiser Events Center with the Colorado Eagles, a minor-league hockey team that frequently sells out its home games.
“People like our games, they are exciting, but I don’t know how people know about us,” Holland said. “We should probably be the Colorado Eagles and the Eagles should be the Ice. It would make a lot more sense.”
On the move
The Loveland entry in the Indoor Football League is Holland’s fourth team, and league, in as many years.
On draft day 2006, he signed as a free agent with the Miami Dolphins, only to be cut in training camp. Then he tried the Canadian Football League, where he was cut again. Last year he was with the Colorado Crush for a few weeks, but Denver’s Arena Football League team had a veteran quarterback of the indoor game in John Dutton, who recently signed with St. Louis of the IFL.
Orton, meanwhile, is trying to keep his grip on being the starting quarterback of the Broncos, his second NFL team. The Broncos obtained Orton from the Chicago Bears in a trade involving Jay Cutler, which prompted an immediate flashback for Holland to that Nike camp.
“That was the one and only time we were out on the field together,” Holland said of himself and Orton. “You are showcasing your skills. I don’t know if he knew my name. I knew his name from the list. Neither of us probably knew each other’s faces.”
A self-described lifelong University of Colorado fan until his senior year at Bear Creek, Holland’s heart had been set on becoming a Buffalo. Just before making an official visit to CU the summer before his senior season at Bear Creek, he was told the Buffaloes had a commitment from Orton.
Two days later, Holland called Steve Fairchild, the CSU quarterbacks coach at the time, and committed to the Rams.
To this day, one of Fairchild’s few regrets about initially leaving CSU to coach in the NFL was not getting an opportunity to coach Holland.
As if Holland hadn’t undergone enough recruiting turmoil, Fairchild left the Rams just a few weeks before signing day in 2001.
“He was as talented a pure thrower as I had seen on that level,” said Fairchild, now the CSU head coach. “I had looked forward to coaching him.”
Orton eventually turned his back on CU to attend Purdue, leaving an opening for Holland to reconsider the Buffs.
“Once I made my mind up, I wasn’t going to change it,” Holland said.
Returning to CSU roots
It didn’t take long for Holland to reunite with Fairchild last season as a frequent observer at CSU practices and as a sometime volunteer assistant. He often hangs out with the Rams’ quarterbacks after practice.
Fairchild expects Holland to go into coaching once he is finished playing.
“I enjoy having him around. He knows a lot about football, and his future is in football,” Fairchild said.
Holland works with quarterbacks at the Young Gun Player Development camps for middle school and high school players. The instructional camps and passing leagues are conducted several days a week throughout the summer.
“The reason we got into this? We remember growing up, there were five-day or three-day camps . . . you learn for five days and where does it go? You’re off playing baseball or summer basketball,” he said.
Holland wants to see more year-round development opportunities for football players instead of pushing disinterested kids like himself into baseball in the spring, for instance. He balances the camps with his obligations to the Ice.
Just in case Holland has any urge to request complimentary tickets to a Broncos game, he doesn’t anticipate jogging Orton’s memory about a high school workout long ago.
“I doubt it. I’ve got Clint Oldenburg if I need tickets,” Holland said of his ex-teammate.
Natalie Meisler: 303-954-0268 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
