Levi Deaguero’s hair stands out like a traffic cone in a blizzard. You might even say it glows.
And that’s the whole point.
The Adams City High School wrestlers love to stand out. They relish honoring their school’s gritty wrestling tradition.
Deaguero was one of 11 Adams City wrestlers who competed at the state tournament this weekend at Ball Arena. All of them showed up sporting flaming orange hair.
“There wasn’t a single person that didn’t do it,” Deaguero said. “Sometimes we get called ‘Carrot Top.’ But that’s all right, it comes along with it.”
Deaguero, a junior, is the nephew of Eagles head coach Jared Deaguero. Levi won the Class 5A, 145-pound title against Ponderosa’a Tyler Eise Saturday night, taking a 3-2 decision.
Jared Deaguero, a two-time state champion, inherited the head coaching job from his father, Tom, who led the Eagles from 1995-2016. The orange crush began in the mid-90s.
“This program is special,” Jared said. “We come down here and we fight people. We show that we’re special. It’s a good group of kids.”
Adams City entered the finals in third place in the team standings behind 5A powerhouses Pomona and Ponderosa.
“It’s an honor to dye your hair orange, you have to earn it,” said senior Cy Renney, who finished fifth in the heavyweight division. “We do it for team spirit, for the unity.”
Elena Nunez, one of the wrestling moms, did the dye jobs on Monday and Tuesday nights at her house.
Coach Deaguero sported orange locks when he won his back-to-back state titles in 2000-01. But the tradition waned over the years until, according to Tony Deaguero, it was resurrected in 2016 during his senior year.
“That’s the year we started kicking it back up,” said Tony, who qualified for state three times.
Tony, by the way, is Jared’s cousin.
Tony swears that Cheetos-flavored hair is not just a family thing. It’s the choice of color for the school in Commerce City.
“It’s the blood of Adams City — orange and green,” Tony said. “It’s a family thing, but also a community thing. It’s representing the crazy, orange-headed kids.”
