The number of high school graduates in the country peaked in 2025 at nearly 3.9 million and is expected to steadily decline through 2041, according to which has .

About 18 years ago, Americans stopped having as many babies.

Between 2007 and 2025, births in the U.S. declined by 16%. In Colorado, they decreased about 8% during the same timeframe, according to Neal Marquez, projections demographer at the .

The Boulder-based Western Interstate Commission between 2023 and 2041. A total of 60,387 Colorado students graduated in four years in the 2024-25 school year, according to state data.

Higher education officials have watched their pool of typical applicants dwindle little by little. Most have been in talks for years on how to pivot to stave off what education officials have collectively dubbed “the demographic enrollment cliff.”

In Colorado, many institutions have managed to keep a positive enrollment trajectory so far, but now they’re peering over the edge of the cliff, hoping they can incentivize enough new applicants with promises of affordability and resources.

“What we’ve tried to emphasize is that demography is not destiny,” said Patrick Lane, vice president of policy analysis and research at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. “We are here at this inflection point where there will be fewer high school graduates in the future, but throughout history, there have been points where the number of births and potential high school graduates have declined, and higher education has found ways to increase access.

“Are we able to do that now? That’s the key question.”

The reason for the decline is largely attributable to a dramatic reduction in pregnancies among teens and young women — in part due to more accessible contraception — coupled with , Marquez said.

Higher education experts predict fiercer competition among colleges trying to attract students from a smaller cohort, as well as potential enrollment declines that could rock an institution’s bottom line. Not to mention, critical jobs requiring a degree, like nurses and teachers, need the support of a workforce to best serve their communities.

How are universities responding?

a public regional institution in the San Luis Valley, experienced about 15 years of declining undergraduate enrollment before an upturn in the past few years, President David Tandberg said.

In the fall, undergraduate enrollment rose 4.7% from 2024 with 1,721 students attending.

“We’re really proud of that, but it����ap not going to get any easier,” Tandberg said.

There will be much more competition for students among institutions — not only when it comes to Colorado students, but also college-seekers nationwide — as fertility rates decrease across the country, Tandberg said.

“That is compounded by the fact that we, as a state, are not importing people at the rate we used to,” Tandberg said. “We’ve never been great at getting our Colorado high schoolers into our colleges and universities, and yet have had a comparatively high educational attainment rate because we imported people and imported a lot of out-of-state students as a sector, and it looks like that is going to be harder to do.”

Adams State bills itself as the most diverse public university in Colorado. The Alamosa-based college became the first in the state in 1998, and half of its students are the first in their families to attend college. The school’s largest demographic are students of color.

Lane and other higher education experts said institutions must focus on recruiting and catering to non-traditional college students.��It’s a strategy that’s already foundational to Adams State’s mission, as it serves the lowest-income region of the state, Tandberg said.

“We’ve kind of had the market cornered on that and obviously every other college and university is going to want to move into markets of growth, so we expect increased competition in that regard,” Tandberg said. “We’ve got to be more innovative, hustle more and we’ve been doing that.”

The Western Interstate Commission also advises universities on potential ways to offset the decline.

Removing barriers for non-traditional students like prohibitive costs or complicated admissions and financial aid processes is one way to improve access, said Lane, who helps create the commission’s enrollment reports.

Lane pointed to Adams State’s direct admissions program as a smart intervention that attracts students who might have otherwise overlooked college.

Adams State bills itself as the first university in Colorado to offer direct admissions, meaning all graduates of San Luis Valley high schools and a few other districts across the state, including Adams County School District 14, are automatically accepted. That makes Adams State an open-access institution.

“We don’t have an admissions rate we can adjust to hit our enrollment targets,” Tandberg said. “We fight for every single student, and, in some ways, that exposes us a little bit more to the demographic declines because the pool we’re pulling from is the pool we’re pulling from, and we get who we get. From our founding, we have had a mission of serving the underserved. We do it tremendously well because that����ap our entire mission, and I think state leaders ought to consider that in their funding decisions.”

The also guarantees free tuition and fees for any in-state, full-time student whose family makes $70,000 or less.

“For institutions that are more selective, this won’t be a huge deal,” Lane said of the enrollment cliff. “They might just go further down their admission list. But for open-access institutions and community colleges, I think it’s a big deal because, ultimately, enrollment is a big deal.”

Staying relevant

Representatives of the state’s flagship university, for example, appeared less concerned about the decline.

“The is well-positioned to meet our for fall 2026, despite a nationwide demographic decline,” campus spokesperson Nicole Cousins said in a statement. “While enrollment figures will not become available until September, when we release our annual student census data, first-year confirmations are up compared to this time last year.”

At , enrollment has been on the rise, with the Auraria campus institution welcoming more than 18,000 students this fall, a  3.1% increase over last year’s enrollment, according to institutional data.

Notably, there was a 1% increase in students aged 18 to 24 — the shrinking, traditional college-going age.

“From a recruitment standpoint, our admit numbers look strong, so we’re hopeful we can still get one more year where we’re strong on enrollment, but it����ap really hard to tell,” said Megan Scherzberg, interim associate vice president of enrollment management. “However, we are preparing and having these conversations about what to expect as increased competition hits the state. All of us are also having this conversation of how do we keep our market share and increase our market share when our high school graduate numbers are going down.”

MSU Denver — known for serving a large population of , first-generation students, working students, adult learners and parents — is balancing being more appealing to non-traditional college students with competing for that smaller pool of high school graduates as it works to offset potential enrollment declines.

“When we think about the more adult learner, non-traditional student, they’re just harder to find,” Scherzberg said. “You don’t have a captive audience like a junior class, senior class, so that means we’ve got to get more creative: making connections with industry partnerships to think about what the industry needs, digital ads, marketing, branding and showcasing post-grad outcomes related to employment and compensation, too.”

The university is reaching out to veterans and military-connected students and transfer students while simultaneously hoping the traditional college student finds the university’s first on-campus housing project under construction appealing.

While enrollment is on the up and up now, Scherzberg extrapolated on why higher education institutions are taking these demographic shifts so seriously.

“Declining enrollment for an institution, depending on the institution’s ability to navigate these challenges, could mean closing doors for some smaller institutions if we don’t have the pipeline of students to enter,” she said. “It could mean losing jobs for faculty and staff, if we don’t have the students to fill the seats. It may mean institutions have to make some difficult decisions with regards to right-sizing and how many students are we able to serve and how many faculty and staff would we need to be able to serve those students.”

‘Perfect storm of fewer students’

The is going through that right-sizing process now as it grapples with a $30 million budget shortfall. Budget reductions at the private research institution have meant hard conversations about what and who to cut.

The demographic changes are one of several factors that led to cuts, said Todd Rinehart, DU’s vice chancellor for enrollment.

Enrollment declined the past two years at DU after years of growth, Rinehart said. Part of that decline, he said, was an intentional strategy by the university to keep the student population more sustainable financially and return to a class size from a decade ago that might be more manageable.

It’s not just the smaller number of high school graduates keeping enrollment offices up at night, Rinehart said. In recent years, about 70% of graduating seniors have gone directly to college, Rinehart said. , only 60% did.

Compounding that trend, larger, “name-brand” research universities are expected to expand their freshman class to make up for fewer international students and federal cuts to research dollars executed under the Trump administration.

“It’s a perfect storm of fewer students,” Rinehart said.

President John Marshall views declining enrollment a bit differently than his peers. He went so far as to call the demographic change “overhyped.” Enrollment at CMU has been increasing with 9,788 students signed up this fall, a few more students than the year prior, and nearly 800 more students than in 2023.

“Most universities are still fishing for kids in a shrinking pond,” Marshall said. “They’re still trying to go after those kids who have typically had access to college… are you conceding the other half of kids have no place in college? You have somewhere between 40 to 50% of high school graduates who are going nowhere, and we’re all wringing our hands as though there’s nothing to be done about that. Let’s go get serious about being relevant to everyone.”

CMU, located in Grand Junction, has invested in trade programs, advisers for first-generation students and merit programs to help support students from middle-income families, Marshall said.

In the K-12 school district , in CMU’s backyard, there were fewer high school seniors last year than the year before, Marshall said.

“The question is, can we still be relevant enough that students vote with their feet in greater numbers and students who haven’t typically gone on to college come to us? And if we can do that, I think we can continue to grow,” he said.

Each year, 10 junior college baseball teams from across the country make the pilgrimage to the largest city in western Colorado for the right to compete for a national title in the NJCAA Division I Junior College World Series.

Grand Junction has been home to JUCO, as it����ap simply known by locals and junior college ball clubs, since 1959. The tournament has not only energized the city of nearly 72,000 people in the six decades since its arrival, but also much of Mesa County and the baseball community on Colorado’s Western Slope.

Teams from across the U.S. battle through 60-game seasons for the right to play in Grand Junction. Those teams then duke it out in a week-long, double-elimination tournament until one is left standing on the final weekend of May.

It����ap not some folksy, podunk event. The fireworks game on Memorial Day usually fills or nearly fills the 10,000-seat stadium. The tournament also draws top-end talent. What Omaha’s College World Series is to four-year Division I schools, Grand Junction is to the JUCO world.

Kirby Puckett, the namesake for the tournament����ap MVP award,. in the late 1990s. Bryce Harper starred for the College of Southern Nevada in 2010 before being drafted No. 1 overall by the Washington Nationals in the MLB draft. And, in 2022, Milwaukee Brewers’ budding ace pitcher Jacob Misiorowski touched triple digits on the radar gun in a hail-delayed win for Missouri’s Crowder College. On Thursday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan called the JUCO World Series “the purest form of baseball” that he’s seen in ages.

Dusty Hart, the head coach of Blinn College in Texas, one of this year’s finalists, is well-acquainted with the tournament. He played for Texas’ Grayson College in the 1998 JUCO tournament and coached Grayson back to the tournament. He guided Blinn to the 2024 national championship.

“It����ap incredible. We’ll go eat lunch in the afternoon, and there’s 10 kids trying to get you to sign their Chick-fil-A bags at lunch,” Hart said. “I’ve had players that have played in Omaha after they played in Grand Junction. And they tell me, man, Omaha is awesome, but Grand Junction is right up there with it.”

This year’s field featured Blinn, Harford Community College (Maryland), Johnson County Community College (Kansas), Louisiana State University Eunice, Midland College (Texas), Miami Dade College (Florida), Salt Lake Community College (Utah), Seminole State College (Oklahoma), Wabash Valley College (Illinois) and Walters State Community College (Tennessee).

As of Friday, Blinn and Johnson County are the last two teams standing.

Grand Junction’s pastime

The first JUCO World Series was played in 1958 in Miami, Oklahoma. As the story goes, attendance was weak, the weather was bad, and the tournament experience was just lacking. So, JUCO moved to Grand Junction in 1959. Then-Mesa College earned auto bids early on as the hosts, though it eventually had to earn its way into the tournament. In all, Mesa made 13 JUCO tournaments before transitioning to a four-year school.

The Grand Junction Baseball Committee, also known as the JUCO Committee, had a series of short-term contracts with the NJCAA to host the tournament. It had to continually bid on those deals to keep the tournament in town. In 2010, the committee secured a 25-year contract with the NJCAA with the promise that it would construct a tower for special seating and a press box, and more seating in the stadium. That contract has since been extended, so .

JUCO is played at Suplizio Field, which also hosts independent baseball and high school baseball. Suplizio shares a facility with Ralph Stocker Stadium, a football stadium that also hosts track meets.

“The $10 million upgrade to the tower over there was done because of grants, income from the sales of tickets here, and getting people to contribute to it without having a tax increase in the facility, ” said Jamie Hamilton, who was the chairman of the JUCO Committee from 2003-2024 and first volunteered with the tournament in 1986. “People own this facility. High school players get to play in this facility. The community gets to walk on the football field and the track.”

Hamilton was born in Grand Junction, raised in Arvada, won a state baseball title with Regis Jesuit High School, played for Mesa State College and for the then-California Angels in their minor league system before returning to Grand Junction and helping out with JUCO.

Patti Arnold, a longtime Grand Junction sportswriter and JUCO volunteer who died last year, wrote in a 2017 book on the tournament that fans would camp in front of Suplizio Field the night before the first JUCO game, before seating was expanded at the stadium. She also wrote that, when putting together a special JUCO section for the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, coaches “bent over backwards” to help out when they heard “Grand Junction.”

Once the 10-team field is set and everyone arrives, the fun begins. Players and kids participate in a baseball clinic, and some teams get to play Challenger Baseball with kids who have physical or mental disabilities. Each team and some community members then attend a banquet the night before the first day of games to honor the latest inductees into the NJCAA Hall of Fame. The likes of Tony La Russa and Drew Goodman have delivered the keynote speech at the JUCO Banquet.

For Darren Coltrinari, the current JUCO committee chairman, the annual tournament is about community and tradition.

“You sit through a nine-inning game that could be two-and-a-half hours, it could be four-and-a-half hours. In baseball, less now, but there is dead time and a lot of the time, you’re sitting there talking,” said Coltrinari, who graduated from Grand Junction Central High School and played baseball at New Mexico. He’s also Hamilton’s godson.�� “You’re reviewing the last pitch, you’re talking about what you’re doing tomorrow, things like that. There’s a social aspect to baseball.”

Coltrinari added: “Our goal as a community is to make this the best tournament possible.”

That effort comes through partnerships with local partners — the school district, business community, government, media outlets and about 83 volunteers. The regulars’ hearts are heavy this year following the deaths of longtime volunteers Arnold, the former sportswriter, and Greg Hazelhurst.

“Losing both of them was hard because they’re really the anchors; they’re really the rocks of everything that goes on up here,” said Jermaine Williams, who helps run media operations for JUCO. “(Saturday morning) was tough to not have them here. Obviously, we will continue to move on and do what we need to do. But both of them just meant a lot … I wish we had taken the time to hug them one more time.”

Thousands of people pack the stands for the first weekend of games. Chatter echoes through the ballpark, only to be interrupted by the smack of an aluminum bat, cheers and a foghorn sound effect after a player hits a home run. Sometimes, you’ll even hear the ball thumping off a car in the parking lot beyond center field.

Each team has a deck of baseball cards for sale. Local food vendors line the concourse, serving up foot-long corn dogs out of a 20-foot red tent, ice cream, or kettle corn, to name a few. No alcohol is served at the games, keeping in line with the family-friendly atmosphere.

Williams has been involved with JUCO since 2009. He once worked in athletics for Colorado Mesa University and is now an assistant athletics director at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. He and his family — wife Shayla, daughter Emma, and son Jaxon — still make the 1,600-mile trip every year for JUCO.

Williams has worked in athletics at five universities. While he hasn’t been to Omaha, he thinks it����ap hard to compare many college sports events to JUCO.

“The big events that I’ve been a part of are events that drop into a city, they’re there for four days and then they move on to the next city. The NCAA Regional or a Final Four or something like that,” Williams said. “The difference for me is just the homegrown feel of this event. It����ap been here for (67) years, and you’ve got people who grew up watching JUCO baseball that are now helping. You got families, kind of like ours, that are either in the Grand Valley or on the Front Range or anywhere in the country, and they come back for this week.

“And I think that����ap what makes it special.”

‘This was my big leagues’

Hunter Smolinski, the lead-off second baseman for Blinn, is from nearby Fruita.

Smolinski played for Division I Grand Canyon last season and was there until last fall, when it seemed unlikely he’d be an everyday player, he said. So, Smolinski got in touch with Hart, the Blinn coach, and got a spot on the Buccaneers’ roster.

Smolinski is one of three Colorado kids who played in this year’s tournament. The others were Erie’s Holden Pantier (Walters State) and Montrose’s Gage Wareham (Salt Lake).

When he was growing up, Smolinski’s parents would drop him off at the stadium for the morning game. He’d meet his friends there — they, too, dropped off by their parents, he said — and they’d spend all day hanging out at the stadium and watching baseball.

“There’s no money, no nothing involved in this. This is just straight passion for the game,” said Smolinski, who was hitting .500 with a 1.245 OPS on 20 at-bats as of Thursday.

Smolinski added that he thinks that mindset is clear to Grand Junction fans.

“I think that����ap the reason you see so many people coming out to watch these games,” he said.

Most of the schools that make it to JUCO come from areas of just a few dozen thousand people. And even those from larger areas — Miami Dade and Salt Lake, for example — are far from the main event in their communities.

And because many of these JUCO players won’t reach Omaha, let alone the majors, JUCO is their time to have that big-league attention.

Many JUCO teams don’t report their game attendance. Generally, though, those games are lucky to have 100 folks in the stands. Playing in the nightcap fireworks game on Memorial Day, Johnson County and Walters State drew a crowd of more than 11,000 people.

Hart����ap Buccaneers are on the precipice of another championship. His kids are in the midst of a week they’ll probably remember for a long time. It����ap been 30 years since Hart played in JUCO and he can still recall that experience.

Hart hit leadoff for Grayson in 1998. In his team’s second game, sent the first pitch he saw into Suplizio’s left-field bleachers.

“That����ap literally my best memory as a player … I don’t even remember going around the bases. It����ap just such a surreal moment,” said Hart, who admitted he probably played in front of bigger crowds later on in his career, “but never in a World Series type environment … This was my big leagues.”

The backstory: Blank’s father, Rob Blank, married Cat Scully when the Colorado Mesa third baseman was in middle school. With those nuptials, Joey got a new step-grandpa — Vin Scully, the legendary Dodgers broadcaster.

“I’d always sit there with him at dinner each week and talk to him about my games,” Joey Blank said. “He always wanted to hear about how I did. I’d show him videos of my at-bats, and he’d always chime in with some old-timer advice like, ‘You’ve gotta keep your (back) elbow up!’

“Having those little bonding moments during a really important time in my life and my career will always stick with me. With him as my step-grandfather, even though it’s not a real blood relative, we formed a connection over the game that I’ll always appreciate.”

Blank, now , is a pillar for the Mavericks as they host UT Tyler in the NCAA Super Regionals this week in Grand Junction. The winner of the best-of-three series, which begins on Thursday at The Diamond at Hamilton Ballpark, heads to the that starts May 29 in Cary, North Carolina.

The third baseman is hitting .354 this season with eight homers, a .551 slugging percentage and a .454 on-base percentage. Every morning, he’s reminded of��his grandfather’s influence on his career when he looks at a framed, signed portrait drawing capturing the late Vin Scully, , hanging��on his bedroom wall.

Daily glimpses of that portrait remind Blank of his love for the game and the memories he shared with the broadcaster that date back several years before his dad and step-mom were even married. Blank played on a youth baseball team with some of his current step-cousins.

“He would always try to make it to our games, but it was hard to get him out in public because of his fame,” Blank said. “We’d have to throw a huge sun hat on him and some weird glasses and just hope for the best that he didn’t have to leave too early because a bunch of people are like, ‘Can we get a picture?!'”

Blank said he’ll “never get over how (Vin’s) voice sounded the same” at the dinner table as it did while calling Dodgers games for 67 years. Blank believes his grandpa would have appreciated the way this year’s Mavericks team plays, with an emphasis on getting on base, small ball, run manufacturing, pitching depth, and quality defense over trying to out-slug teams with hordes of homers.

The broadcaster’s legacy came up during Blank’s recruitment, which occurred shortly after Vin’s death. Longtime Colorado Mesa head coach Chris Hanks is a diehard Vin Scully fan who has tons of memorabilia celebrating the broadcaster. Hanks even named his Aussiechon dog after the broadcaster — Little Vin Scully, or Scully for short.

“When (Joey) was on his visit, I couldn’t help myself from bringing up Vin,” Hanks said with a laugh. “(Cat) was in my office and I said, ‘I’ve just got to tell you that sometimes in the summer I would turn on the Dodgers, not because I liked the Dodgers. I would be working around the house and turn up the volume because I just wanted to hear Vin Scully’s voice and how poetic he spoke about the game.”

The Mavericks are attempting to reach their fifth College World Series under Hanks, whose teams were national runner-up in 2014 and ’19. Mesa is also in a position to avenge its sour end to last season, when UT Tyler beat the Mavericks twice in regionals to send them home.

Mesa (52-5, RMAC regular season and tournament champions) put up 15 runs in each of its three wins in this year’s regionals. That included erasing a 9-0 deficit in the round’s opener against Lubbock Christian, rallying again in the second game against St. Mary’s University, and then beating St. Mary’s University soundly in the clinching game.

Blank believes this year’s team has what it takes to return to the College World Series for the first time since ’19.

“We’re in every game, even the few games we’ve lost,” Blank said. “There’s no doubt with this team. There’s never any questioning that we can win in the dugout, regardless of what the score is. We just have to keep going, keep pushing through whatever adversity comes up this week, and we’ll get back there (to the College World Series).”

These annual events are money grabs disguised as baseball, but our roster had college-worthy players who were receiving legitimate interest. It felt worth it. Little did I know how much Morris would lend credence to our 1,400-mile trek.

For those not familiar with the out-of-state event, you can be assured of getting your ears boxed without quality pitching. After a disappointing performance in Albuquerque the week before, adding an arm was a priority.

Luke Martin, a longtime Team Colorado member, said he knew a kid who could fit — Morris, a high school teammate at Monarch High School in Louisville.

Morris met us in Atlanta. He was 5-11 or so, 145 pounds with disheveled hair. Imagine running Tim Lincecum through the copy machine at 80 percent, and that was Andrew.

Affable, smiling, he informed me and fellow coach Craig Gienger at the field the next morning that he could throw 90 mph. His build and the scarcity of fireballers in Colorado made me pessimistic.

We put him on the mound against the 643 DP Cougars, and a striking metamorphosis took place.

His first pitch clocked 91 mph on the scoreboard. I turned to Gienger and blurted, “Where has he been all of our lives?”

“I just remember hitters returning to the dugout with that look, ‘what was that?’ ” said Gienger, the longtime head coach at Douglas County High School. “They clearly were not picking the ball up.”

Morris dazzled in Georgia, throwing a no-hitter in 1-0 loss, combining on a no-hitter in relief and delivering a game-winning single at the plate.

“We should have won my first start. I had six walks,” Morris said, taking blame for our offense. “All those guys were like 2019 grads on the team. I was a 2018 grad and they were all older than me. It was kind of funny. But, man, I had a lot of fun.”

The last time I saw Morris was a week ago in Minneapolis. He walked from the back of the Minnesota Twins clubhouse and gave me a hug. He was in the big leagues, a long reliever in the Twins bullpen.

Having covered MLB for nearly 20 years, I have chronicled countless journeys to The Show. But this hit different, a mixture of pride and overwhelming joy.

Let’s be clear, I had nothing to do with Morris’ pitching development and talent. But the four games he took the mound for us that summer — and the plates he broke at Six Flags over Georgia to win an oversized donut — made me convinced he would get drafted.

Seeing Morris, now 24 and married to Anaya after a courthouse ceremony two years ago during spring training, reaffirmed my faith in hard work and dreams.

“Since forever, that’s how long I have been imagining this. It was always what I wanted since I was little,” Morris said. “I think that competitor was always in there. I was going against older kids, and I was the young guy, the underdog. My attitude was, ‘I can do this. It doesn’t matter how big I am.’ ”

So much about Morris is unique. He graduated from high school at 16 years old, the result of starting preschool young and testing out of the second grade.��He went from battling an injury in his junior year and throwing 83 miles per hour, to being named��

He signed with Colorado Mesa University as a two-way player, and dominated on the mound, posting an 18-2 record with 215 strikeouts in 175 2/3 innings. He needed a new challenge, transferring to Texas Tech for his final college season, a move that served its purpose and also reset his personal compass.

“The last year at Mesa, there wasn’t a lot of adversity. It was good for me to push myself. And I was able to have a Friday night role in the Big 12. I think it made the transition to pro ball a lot smoother,” said Morris, who makes Colorado his offseason home. “They wanted me to put on 20 pounds. I was on board with that. But my mechanics got out of whack. I can’t even watch videos from then. In the end, I learned a lot.”

Morris is a thinker. A problem solver. He returned to 185 pounds this offseason, leaving him “strong, mobile and twitchy.” He positioned himself to reach the big leagues.

But, he thought he was ready last summer. Morris lives in an apartment near Target Field, and never felt further away as he pitched for Triple-A St. Paul.

“I had a forearm strain, and when I came back, I was throwing well. Everything felt good. All I wanted to do was get up there and help the team. Every time they needed someone, I was ready. And it didn’t happen,” said Morris, who compiled a 2.98 ERA in 68 minor league appearances. “The ups and downs of emotions were hard. Going into this spring training, I was in a much better headspace, not worrying about stuff out of my control.”

The Twins told Morris during the Grapefruit League that they viewed him as a candidate for a role in the rotation and bullpen. He went to work, and after two strong minor league outings, received the call he had been waiting for since his mother, Tricia Leines, held a birthday-themed party for him when he was 2 years old.

“We were in Toledo at the time. And we flew into Detroit, which is about an hour away. So I had to run back to the hotel to get my stuff, literally run,” Morris said. “I told my wife you have to get a ticket to Toronto and I will call everybody, my mom and dad. She was freaking out. To be able to make my debut (on April 12) with family there was so cool.”

Morris has held his own with a 5.17 ERA in 15 2/3 innings, becoming “an awesome” addition, said all-star starter Joe Ryan. Coming out of the bullpen, his fastball has added nitro, topping out at 98 mph. He throws a four-seam, two-seam, cutter, changeup, sweeper and curveball.

“Andrew said he was game for anything to reach the big leagues, which is always an encouraging mindset,” Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll said. “He has shown some really good signs in his outings and we think his future is really bright.”

Morris intersected with his past in February. LaTroy Hawkins welcomed him as the Twins’ new bullpen coach. The same Hawkins who helped the Rockies reach the World Series in 2007.

“So I went to a Rockies spring training game when I was a kid. I was near the bullpen with my dad and yelling for LaTroy to throw me a ball. He wouldn’t give it to me,” Morris said. “I left there thinking he’s the worst. And now he’s one of my coaches. LaTroy is great. But, I couldn’t wait to tell him that story.”

Hawkins laughed when it was brought up. He promised to make it right.

Can’t say I am surprised. It felt like things were going to go Morris’ way the first time he unleashed that fastball at LakePoint.

“Oh man, I felt so bad about it,” Hawkins said. “We are going to take a picture of me handing Andrew a ball and send it to his dad. He’s a good kid.”

It was the 2014 Division II national title game, and Colorado Mesa was locked in an extra-innings battle with Southern Indiana in Cary, North Carolina. CMU, the home team, got runners in scoring position in the 10th and 11th innings but couldn’t cash in, and then stranded the tying run at third in the 12th in

Mesa lost in the national title game again in 2019, falling 3-1 to the University of Tampa. Those two games were the closest the Mavericks — who have made 22 NCAA Tournament appearances and four College World Series in Hanks’ 28-year tenure — have gotten to the pinnacle of Division II.

But as Mesa looks capable of another title run this season, Hanks explains he’s looking through the windshield, not the rearview.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t ruminate on (the national title losses) a little bit, but it’s softened over the years,” Hanks said. “And I’ve let go. Winning a national title, that has to be a result of hard work and good timing and good fortune. I found that if you focus on that too much, you do ruminate, you do obsess, you do want it too bad.

“Getting there again and winning it, that drives me, but I refuse to let it define our program or my career or our coaching staff’s career. We’ve got to focus on some things we have a little more control over.”

The Mavericks are ranked No. 1 in Division II by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. At 45-4, they have won 27 of the last 28 games, and finished 31-1 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play to clinch their 19th RMAC title under Hanks. Mesa split a four-game series to start the season against Cal Poly Pomona, including a 5-1 loss in the opener, but has been defeated just two times since.

“Always gaining inches”

Hanks’ mindset from championship-obsessed to putting in the work, playing hard and letting the baseball gods take care of the rest began to shift in 2020. That was when a loaded Mesa roster, featuring many of the same players who carried the program to the national title game the year before, didn’t get the chance to fulfill their potential after the season was canceled 18 games in because of the COVID pandemic.

Since that shortened 2020 campaign — and in the couple of seasons that followed where talented Mavericks squads failed to make it back to the College World Series — Hanks is OK with letting the chips fall where they may.

“One thing that he’s talked about a lot this year is always gaining inches,” explained senior southpaw , the team’s No. 1 starter. “That just means every day you’re at the field, whether it’s for practice or a game, doing the little things to make yourself better. The team this year has really taken that to heart.”

With the RMAC tournament on the horizon this week and the start of the NCAA tournament looming next week, a new program record for wins (53 in 2019) is within reach. This year’s team isn’t as dynamic offensively as the national runner-ups of 2014 and ’19, but the know how to win close games (nine wins by three runs or less) and possess better defense and deeper pitching than those other two teams.

“The pitching and defense has been the biggest difference, then along with hitters who don’t strike out very much and walk a lot,” Hanks said. “Our on-base percentage is really good (at .468, fifth in Division II). But the biggest thing is this team is steady, and even-keeled.”

Beyond Ruter, a Faith Christian graduate, Mesa’s rotation also features junior right-hander Rafael Espinoza, freshman right-hander Jackson Eisenhauer and freshman right-hander Simon Lunsford (Green Mountain). And in the bullpen, senior right-hander Sage Ferguson (Elizabeth), redshirt freshman right-hander Jett Walker, senior right-hander Cayden Clark and junior right-hander Gabe Jacobs (Ponderosa) give the Mavericks plenty of options.

“We’re deep with power arms, and we have some really effective finesse guys,” Hanks said. “So there’s a lot of different looks we can give people. We have 16 kids that are over 90, including five that are in the 93 to 96 range.”

also features intriguing storylines. Senior right fielder Kolby Felix is the team’s leading hitter, with a .430 average, 14 homers, 20 steals and an .824 slugging. Plus, the Mavericks have Vin Scully’s step-grandson (third baseman ) and a player who spent three years in the Phillies organization before being released and coming to Mesa (outfielder ).

“True to our roots”

What the team doesn’t have is a wave of transfers.

In the new era of college athletics with the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness deals, the Mavericks get players out of the portal very sparingly. Mesa, which has lost some top players to the portal over the past few years, has only a few Division I transfer portal players among the 46 guys on its roster.

That is despite Mesa losing 25 players to graduation last year. And NIL remains a nonfactor for Mesa, as it is for the majority of Division II baseball programs.

“We’re staying true to our roots, which is high school-based recruiting, and then secondarily would be junior college transfers,” Hanks said. “We really reserve the portal for immediate needs. So there’s��some purity to it still, and I think it’s the way (program-building) should be.”

Felix, who could potentially be drafted this summer, says the culture that Hanks has built in his decades in Grand Junction is why many of the Mavericks’ best players stay for their entire college tenure instead of jumping to Division I, where the norm has become high annual roster turnover.

Mesa currently has two players in the majors, pitchers Andrew Morris (Twins) and Kyle Leahy (Cardinals), and has put , the most notable of which was longtime Giants reliever and three-time World Series champion Sergio Romo.

“I believe Hanks and this coaching staff can progress you to a level that can surpass what many Division I schools can do for you,” Felix said. “For a D2 school, we’ve put a lot of players in pro ball, so the track record of that and consistent team success speaks for itself.”

Whether Hanks, 57, can finally achieve the final piece of his illustrious coaching resume this season remains to be seen. But the 1993 Mesa graduate who was MVP of the 1988 JuCo World Series with College of Southern Idaho isn’t going anywhere. And if the retirement timeline set forth by his wife, Nikki, is accurate, Hanks is going to have many more cracks at getting that elusive ring.

“My wife has always said, ‘You’ve got to coach until you’re 70 because I don’t think I can have you around the house that much,'” Hanks said with a laugh. “And then, when she found out Nick Saban retired at 72, she goes, ‘Well, hell, he went until he was 72 and that was big-time SEC football. Can you imagine the pressure there? If he can go to 72, you can go that long, too.'”

Two years ago, the Fossil Ridge SaberCats had dynastic Valor Christian in deep trouble. In the fifth and deciding set, Fossil Ridge led Valor 11-8 and was on the brink of a major upset. But the Eagles won seven of the last eight points to capture their second consecutive Class 5A state volleyball championship.

Now, the SaberCats, stocked with college-bound talent, have a chance to avenge that loss when it matters most.

The ‘Cats entered this year’s tournament with a 23-2 record and the No. 1 seed, having secured it with a four-set win over Valor on Oct. 14. The ‘Cats ended Valor’s run of 72 consecutive victories that dated all the way back to the 2021 state tournament.

But Fossil Ridge’s streak-stopper won’t mean much if it doesn’t hoist the championship trophy on Saturday night at the Denver Coliseum.

“We still look back on that loss (in 2023) and it sucks, it still hurts,” said Fossil Ridge senior and Wyoming commit Emery Johnson. “So this is a huge chance for us.”

The SaberCats’ only two losses this fall came in an out-of-state tournament, and they had dropped only eight sets all season going into this weekend’s tournament. That number was still at eight after their second-round sweep of ninth-seed Pine Creek (25-9, 25-9, 25-18) on the first day of competition Thursday.

But to win a championship, Fossil Ridge will likely have to topple mighty Valor in the finals. The second-seeded Eagles (22-2) are playing for history. Last year, they won their third consecutive state championship, becoming the first team to win three titles in a row in Colorado’s largest classification since Evergreen won eight straight titles from 1978 to 1985.

“It’s a challenge for us,” first-year Fossil Ridge coach Kayla Afoa said. “Valor is a very well-coached team. They’re very gritty and they know they’re legit.”

However, Afoa’s SaberCats feature a talented team that grew up playing together for the NORCO Volleyball Club, based in Loveland. Bringing some recognition to northern Colorado’s volleyball scene gives the players some extra incentive.

“We want to show that northern Colorado volleyball is just as elite as Denver,” said 6-foot-5 senior middle blocker Olivia Ewing, who’s headed to Colorado State on a volleyball scholarship.

Her older sister, Delaney, is a Fossil Ridge graduate who lost to Valor in that classic 2023 championship match. Delaney now plays for Florida State.

This season’s Fossil Ridge team has five players who played in that excruciating loss to Valor in ’23: Senior libero Trinity Burchett, who’s headed to Colorado Mesa; senior outside hitter Alyssa Cottingham, who’s debating her college options; junior middle blocker Ella Wilson, who’s committed to Idaho State; and Johnson and Ewing.

“It would just mean everything to win it this year,” Ewing said.

The victory over Valor earlier this season, on the SaberCats’ home court, was a milestone. Doing it a second time inside the Denver Coliseum could be even harder.

“Absolutely, that win was a big deal, but we look at every single game as a big game that brings us a step closer to our end game,” Afoa said.

And how can the SaberCats dethrone Valor?

“The keys, as I explained to the girls, are winning the serving and passing game to keep (Valor) out of their system and not let them set up their offense,” Afoa said. “I like how we are playing. We are a very mature team, and we play at a high I.Q.”

The 6-foot-5 right-hander always had ability on the mound, but he struggled to harness it. He started his career at Illinois, then got cut. He went to Arizona State and was cut again. By the time he landed at Colorado Mesa last fall, he got cut for a third time as he still lacked the control to pair with his 98-mph fastball.

“When we cut him in the fall, he didn’t make excuses, he didn’t challenge us,” recalled. “He knew what the issue was, and he knew we gave him an avenue to get back on the team.

“I didn’t specifically tell him that we needed to see him working, but behind the scenes, us coaches pretty much said to ourselves, ‘Let’s see how bad this guy wants it.’ And he was out here all the time, throwing on his own. The perseverance is a great story, and if he can keep it going, it can have a really interesting ending.”

On Wednesday, Pogue takes the mound in CMU’s opening game at the RMAC Baseball Championship in Grand Junction. After starting the season as a bullpen arm who appeared in low-leverage situations, Pogue stair-stepped to relieve in close games before finally earning status as the team’s No. 1 starter.

“Getting cut three times, it feels like three strikes and you’re out,” Pogue said. “But I guess last year was a foul ball. I got one more chance at it, and I was determined to make the most of it.”

Now, Pogue is a central factor in Hanks’ belief that the Mavericks can make another deep postseason run.

Hanks says that with Pogue as the team’s unexpected ace, CMU could make this spring one to remember. The Mavericks will host this week’s RMAC tournament after winning their 13th straight regular-season conference title.

The goal is the same as always for the Division II power, which has produced four College World Series appearances and two national runner-up finishes in Hanks’ 27 years at the helm.

“If Pogue can keep pitching well, we really have a shot at (another College World Series appearance), because he’s a difference-maker with that fastball and slider as long as he’s throwing strikes,” Hanks said.

“This team is, in many ways, as good and in some ways better than the previous World Series teams we’ve had. The two teams that have played for national titles (in 2014 and ’19), this team has every bit the personnel of those teams.”

Leadoff center fielder Paul Schoenfeld, two-hole right fielder Kolby Felix and three-hole left fielder Cameron Cartwright (Legend High School) constitute what Hanks says is “probably the best outfield we’ve ever had.” Shortstop Kennedy Hara and second baseman Joey Blank, Vin Scully’s grandson, are also key contributors in the Mavericks’ lineup.

On the mound, CMU’s No. 2 starter is right-hander Sage Ferguson (Elizabeth), its No. 3 is right-hander Liam Hohenstein (Rock Canyon) and its No. 4 is right-hander Gauge Lockhart (Delta). Senior right-hander Ethan Voss is the top reliever. Like Pogue, Ferguson did not start the year in the rotation. The club got him going around midseason after he recovered from elbow tendonitis.

For his part, Pogue says his emergence as a rotational pillar for CMU down the stretch was three-fold.

He built confidence outside of baseball amid all the cuts. After ASU didn’t work out, he went back to Illinois, graduated and passed the Chartered Financial Analyst exam. Then Pogue put himself on the cusp of an MBA from CMU and lined up a job in the financial sector upon his graduation in a few weeks.

He worked closely with longtime CMU pitching coach Jeff Rodgers, who helped him simplify his delivery and thought process. That allowed Pogue, who registered an alarming 14 walks per nine in two partial seasons at Illinois, to cut that rate down to a career-low 4.4 this year.

“The biggest thing for me was to stop thinking about mechanics when I’m out on the mound,” Pogue said. “Previously, I had an internal focus: I was thinking about where my arm should be at this point in time (during my delivery), how I should finish. Instead of that, I now have an external focus, and that’s on my catcher, where his glove is at, where he wants me to throw this pitch.”

His consistent training led to a breakout moment at intersquad games in January, when he hit 97 and 98 mph for the first time while blowing the ball by surprised teammates.

“An object in motion stays in motion: I was able to execute in the classroom, I was able to stay consistent with my training,” Pogue said. “Taking care of things outside of baseball at that time was huge for me, and passing the CFA exam was also huge for me to build my confidence. That’s really all I needed.

“And it was realizing that baseball was going to go away. Now, here I am with a few weeks left of college baseball and I finally get to start again. I couldn’t be more thankful to be in this position.”

Pogue complements his heater with an effective slider and changeup. That repertoire has scouts interested. While Hanks isn’t sure if anyone from the RMAC will get drafted in mid-July — ever since the draft got cut to 20 rounds in 2021, it’s been much harder for D-II players to hear their name called — he believes Pogue has a shot at a professional future.

“I’ve fantasized about giving my future financial employer a call, and saying, ‘Hey, I just got drafted by the Cubs, I can’t come,'” Pogue said. “Until then, I’m keeping my head down and working and trying to help this team win and get to Cary, North Carolina, (for the Division II College World Series) so an opportunity like that can present itself.”

Three Stars to Watch at RMAC championship

Sr. C/LF Adam Paniagua, Regis University: The 6-foot-2, 225-pound standout was the lone D-II player named to the for the award presented to the top amateur baseball player in the country. After his 2024 season ended prematurely because of a broken wrist on a hit by pitch, Paniagua returned to the diamond with force in ’25. He is third in D-II with 26 homers and is second in slugging at .958 as a centerpiece on a Regis team that set a new regular season wins record at 34.

“The fall was a little bit of a challenge, because I was having a hard time getting back into the flow of things because I had been out of baseball for about two months,” Paniagua said. ” … But towards the end, I started to get back into my comfort zone, and once the spring season rolled around, I was ready and I quickly got into a groove.”

Sr. 1B Easton Amundson, Metro State: In his first season at Metro State after transferring from Division I Liberty, the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder is mashing. The lefty is with pull-side power. There’s some K in his approach, but if he can cut those down, he believes he’ll get a chance in pro ball. He is two homers off the national leader, Brevin McCool of Lubbock Christian, and a hot streak could help him overtake McCool.

“I’ve always had the power to do what I’m doing this year … but this year has been the most homers I’ve ever hit in my life. I’ve developed even more power throughout my college career,” Amundson said. “(To lead D-II in homers) would be really cool. I can’t be thinking about it during the games, but I definitely am capable of doing it.”

5th Yr. 1B/OF Christian Castaneda, CSU-Pueblo: With an up-the-middle, line-drive approach, Castaneda’s been a tough out. He leads the RMAC and is sixth in D-II with a .444 average, and is 10th with a .549 on-base percentage. The 6-1, 220-pounder’s provided quality defense at first and in the corner outfield. Chris Hanks describes him as “very dangerous, and one of the best hitters in the league.” He steps into the box with the memory of his who drowned in September 2019, heavy on his mind.

“Being able to play for (Cruz), and continuing his legacy through me, that really drives me every day,” Castaneda said. “I say a prayer before every game and ask the Lord to help continue his legacy and help me play for what he stood for as a person and as a (would-be college) athlete. I know the next day is not given. I appreciate every moment I have on the field.”

RMAC Baseball Championship

Schedule for the first round of games on Wednesday in Grand Junction.

No. 3 CSU-Pueblo vs No. 4 Metro State — 11 a.m., RMACNetwork.com

No. 1 Colorado Mesa vs No. 6 UCCS — 3 p.m., RMACNetwork.com

No. 2 Regis vs No. 5 Adams State — 7 p.m., RMACNetwork.com ]]> 7123516 2025-05-06T17:07:17+00:00 2025-05-06T17:07:17+00:00 /2025/03/27/colorado-mesa-university-jared-taylor-white-supremacist-free-speech/ Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:00:56 +0000 /?p=6982866 A student’s invitation to a white supremacist to speak at ignited weeks of pushback from the campus community, but the school’s president is defending the event even as he denounces the speaker’s views as “vile.”

John Marshall, the Grand Junction school’s president, said in an interview Wednesday that the university’s role is not to “platform” or “deplatform” a controversial speaker, but to “allow space for all opinions across the political and ideological spectrum.”

In this case, the opinions of Jared Taylor — scheduled to speak Thursday evening — fall under the that white people are biologically superior to non-white people, according to the which classified the website Taylor founded, American Renaissance, as a “white nationalist hate group.”

Marshall said that as he considered the correct way to handle a speaker whose views he finds “abhorrent,” he asked himself, “What if the shoe was on the other foot?”

“What if it was a trans speaker or a pro-Israel speaker?” Marshall said. “Would you feel empowered to disinvite, censor or cancel them? The answer is no. To me, the whole issue at play here is how do you protect the ability of minority views to not get silenced, and I think the uncomfortable and hard truth is the only way to do that is to protect all of it. Frankly, that doesn’t feel very good in the moment and it����ap somewhat counterintuitive.”

For decades, colleges across the nation, including in Colorado, have provided a platform for speakers with in the name of free speech.��Experts who research white nationalism say the current political climate — one in which universities are under federal investigation for supporting diverse students — calls for a different response than the old playbook.

“We are in unprecedented times where it’s not enough to say all speech is equal, because we’re in a situation in which some speech is going to be protected by this federal administration in ways that other speech is not,” said Jennifer Ho, an ethnic studies professor at the and the director for CU’s .

Max Applebaugh, president of a newly formed CMU student group called the Western Culture Club — which says it seeks to “foster and promote the values of Western culture through presentations, cookouts, community building and more” — invited Taylor to speak on the Grand Junction campus at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Applebaugh did not respond to a request for an interview.

The reported that Texas-based attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke donated $1,000 to help fund the event. Reached by phone Wednesday, Van Dyke said the Western Culture Club reached out to him for help because he’s well known for representing right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys and “groups that have been more credibly alleged to be racist,” such as the neo-Nazi group Aryan Freedom Network.

Taylor waived his speaking fee, but Van Dyke helped cover event logistics, he said.

“The reason I did it had nothing to do with the fact of whether I agree with Jared Taylor or not,” Van Dyke said. “I really don’t know him. What I did learn from my research is he’s one of the most censored people in America… That alone is what piqued my interest.”

Van Dyke, who was planning to attend the event, said he was “pleasantly surprised” by Marshall’s response and admires the university president’s respect for the First Amendment.��He said he hopes the evening will become a discussion about the importance of free speech.

“I would shut it down”

Jessie Daniels, a professor at the and internationally recognized expert in the rise of racism, said white supremacists have been targeting college campuses for years as an opportunity to advance their ideology.

“If I were the college president, I would not allow an avowed white supremacist to come onto my campus,” Daniels said. “I would shut it down, and then I would take the heat.”

Daniels acknowledged college presidents are now facing financial pressure from the Trump administration, which has threatened to take away funding over schools’ support of diversity initiatives.

“It’s a horrible situation, but by providing a space for this guy, you’re offering a quite literal platform for him,” Daniels said. “What everyone does when they allow them to speak publicly in a legitimate setting is they are advantaging their ideology. They’re legitimating it.”

Ho, the CU Boulder professor, said a January executive order issued by the Trump administration “ending federal censorship” would likely influence colleges’ decisions about shutting down white supremacist speakers.

“Colleges and universities are all too aware they are under a different kind of microscope now than they have ever been in the past,” Ho said.

Marshall said the university’s decision to allow Taylor to speak was influenced not by the federal administration, but by the university’s mission, vision and .

“I would argue the antidote to ugly political movements and bad ideas is almost always more speech,” Marshall said. “Not less speech. That����ap hard because it drives at all of our abilities to keep our cool when someone is making comments that we find dehumanizing. We also have to have in a democracy enough faith in our neighbors that we all have to listen to each other and sort out good ideas from bad.”

“I hope they change their mind”

Sarah Miller, a 21-year-old CMU freshman who grew up in Grand Junction, said she was disappointed and angry at her school.��She referenced a March 7 email Marshall sent to the campus about the event in which he highlighted the university’s values.

“Two of those values are love and dignity,” Miller said. “If you’re going to provide a platform for a neo-Nazi to come speak, you’re throwing those completely out the window. It sends a message that protecting free speech is more important than you being safe and comfortable where you go to school.”

Miller said the event sparked an uproar on the campus, with upset students covering the school in posters asking whether Marshall supported fascism. Graffiti that said “No Nazis at CMU” was found on campus, the .

The Grand Junction Police Department will be stationed at the campus event for security, Marshall said.��Student leaders also have organized a unity counter-event featuring live music and food at the same time. The campus expects protests, Marshall said.

“We’ll do everything in our power to ensure it doesn’t get disrupted,” he said. “That would be the worst-case scenario if he’s prevented from speaking.”

Marshall said he hopes student organizers are not bullied or shouted at but treated with kindness.

“I hope someone puts an arm around them and gives them a hug,” he said. “I hope they change their mind. If students are able to navigate this by animating our campus values and pushing back on all these ugly ideas with a much more hopeful, much more loving future, well, that would be something.”

Although Taylor may not associate with the white supremacist label, he has been widely described as one and as a white nationalist by experts and watchdog groups. He believes in what he calls “race realism,” often seen in that context as a euphemism for the pseudoscience of scientific racism, and believes in other racist conspiracy theories.

John Marshall, president of CMU, wrote in an email to students on Tuesday that reiterated opposition to Taylor’s views and said he would not attend the speech. Marshall wrote that he plans, “to be there to peacefully and respectfully demonstrate our values.” He also reinforced the university’s stance to allow Taylor to speak.

“This speaker has been invited by students of a campus student club. CMU’s role isn’t to dictate to student clubs, or faculty, who they can invite and what content they present,” Marshall wrote. “Our job as a university is not to ‘platform’ or ‘deplatform’ speakers invited by students or faculty. Our task is to empower you to pursue truth, create space for civil (nonviolent) disagreement whereby we can all continue to refine our understanding of the world and follow our conscience.”

.

They were lying in bed together last September after a particularly rough day. He was crying, depressed, — literally and figuratively — wearing a diaper, unable to move.

“Will you marry me?” LaDonna Lewis asked.

Jeff Tootle blanched.

“I don’t know, LaDonna,” he replied, a familiar grin creeping back. “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”

But he said yes.

“We’ll get this (expletive) figured out,” LaDonna vowed. “I know we will.”

“I’m smiling so perpetually,” Tootle cracked, “my face is starting to hurt.”

Four aching legs. Two bad backs. One heartbeat, stalwart and true, through sea and sand, against the worst tides imaginable.

“It has been a struggle,” LaDonna sighed.

He’s a former three-sport star at Regis Jesuit, , and an NFL veteran. She’s the love of his life, a partner for more than 35 years, and dangling from her wit’s end.

In July, LaDonna went to the hospital after problems with diabetes and myopathy. The next day, out of the blue, Jeff was admitted.

Prostate cancer, the doctor told him, hands never leaving his hips. Stage 4.

By the autumn, it had spread to the rest of his body.

“All he can do,” LaDonna said, “is take his meds and be happy with the time that he has.”

Only a funny thing happened at the end of the book: Jeff Tootle, 62 years young, started writing more chapters.

Cancer had snatched his leg with a wicked arm tackle. It couldn’t bring him down. Not with LaDonna watching his wing.

“She’s something else, that’s all I can say,” Tootle said. “And that’s coming from my soul. Because I didn’t think I was going to make it. I was in a bad way. I looked up, and she’s still there, washing me up, just taking care of me like a big ol’ baby. My attitude was so jacked up. I don’t know how she put up with me. I wasn’t real nice.”

He’d dealt with heart failure in the winter of 2023 and suffered an infection in his left leg, making it difficult to walk. But the cancer knocked everybody for a loop.

Once overnight, Jeff fell out of bed at their Denver home, around 3 a.m. LaDonna struggled to get Tootle — who played at 240 pounds in the NFL and was heavier during his life’s work in the private sector — back up again.

She couldn’t get the kids on the phone because of the time of day. She eventually found a neighbor, someone she’d never met, and convinced him to come up and help.

“My dad used to say that getting old ain’t for sissies,” Tootle said. “I never really understood. Now I’m like, ‘Dad, I get it.'”

LaDonna got a wheelchair, which Jeff doesn’t love. Sometimes, she’ll help him between points A and B by putting both of Tootle’s arms on the back of her shoulders, so he can more or less use her as a living walker.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, well, you must be well-off,'” LaDonna said. “We’re just regular people who had regular jobs who have regular problems.”

Suddenly, money is becoming one. Jeff can’t work. Tootle’s three appearances with the Giants came during the NFL players’ strike of 1987. He’s not currently eligible for NFLPA benefits, LaDonna was told.

She had to quit her job last year and stay home with Tootle full-time, picking up gigs as they come.

Now, she wants to get the word out. There’s more story to tell. And a wedding to plan.

“We’re going to have to do it soon,” she said. “It’s just (about) getting your life right. I don’t want to wait a year.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

Tootle grew up the son of an Air Force man, having lived in Kansas, Texas and Guam before settling in greater Denver. Jeff excelled in football, basketball and track at Regis, then helped to turn around Colorado Mesa’s gridiron fortunes.

Because Jeff, young Jeff, could bring it. Tootle was an NAIA All-American in 1982 and ’83 — a 6-foot-2, 240-pound defender who could close and cut on a dime. He was inducted into Mesa’s Hall of Honor in 2022.

, he hooked onto the Giants, jumping onto a moving train driven by the likes of Lawrence Taylor, Harry Carson, Carl Banks, Leonard Marshall and Bill Parcells.

“Playing with LT was a lot of fun,” Tootle recalled. “He used to kill me. ‘Come on, 92! Come on, 92!’ I can still hear his voice coming around that corner.

“He was a heck of a player. Just a free spirit. He was something else. He’d be in one spot on the field, and I’d say, ‘Wow, I didn’t even see him get over there.'”

“Ever run with him off the field?” I asked.

Jeff laughed.

“He was a heck of a player. He was all right,” Tootle said. “He was a little different.”

So was Bill Belichick, his position coach.

“I just couldn’t get Belichick to love me,” Tootle cracked. “He was a different kind of coach. Different than I’ve ever had. You didn’t ever know where you kind of stood.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

With LaDonna, that’s never been an issue. Theirs is a romance that started like all classic soaps: The debt collection department at Citibank, inside

LaDonna was already entrenched in the company’s collection wing in 1989. That’s when Jeff found work after the NFL stopped calling.

“I just had a baby, I was getting a divorce. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m so happy to be single,'” she recalled. “Then I met Jeff and was like, ‘What’s going on here?’

“He was like, ‘Hey, I’m Jeff.’ I’m like, ‘So?'”

LaDonna didn’t care about LT. Or Belichick. Or football. He asked her out anyway.

“She couldn’t stand me,” Tootle chuckled.

He broke the ice, though, thanks to the popcorn stand downstairs. LaDonna dug caramel and cheese mixes, so Jeff offered to share a bag. Then he started gifting them.

Snacks became lunches. Lunches became dates.

“Pepsi Cola and some popcorn,” Tootle said, “and we would talk.”

It blossomed into that quintessential ’90s American love story: escalators, shopping malls, sodas and office gossip. Only this one held fast. Through thick and thin.

“It’s like oil and water, me and her,” Jeff said. “Because we still get along, but we don’t. We learned how to argue and we know how to smile at each other the next 15 minutes after she says her piece.”

On Valentine’s Day, they had only one firm rule.

“We just try to be loving that day,” Tootle said. “If something’s between us, we’ll bite our tongues for that day.

“‘Be sweet. Just be sweet.’ We’ll pick it up tomorrow.”

•�Ģ�Ģ

The good days and bad days have one thing in common. Everything aches. Even joy.

“How am I going to deal with this?” Tootle asked. “Keep marching.”

Tootle takes four of what he calls his “horse pills” in regular doses. Last summer, he lost 75-80 pounds.

After a nadir of about 198 pounds, he got his appetite back and has climbed back to 210-ish.

The pills have slowed the pain. But they also kick him square in the backside, a cycle of naps and fatigue that gnaws away at the clock.

His legs gave. His energy waned. It’s not just the lack of independence, but the dependence. Moving. Bathing. Dressing.

“I can do it, I can do it,” Tootle liked to say. “I’m just a little bit slow.”

“A lot slow, Jeff,” LaDonna countered.

In sickness and in health …

“LaDonna has replaced my backbone with her backbone,” Tootle said. “I don’t know how else to put it. Her backbone became mine. I was on my deathbed for several weeks. I couldn’t keep anything down. It counts to have a good woman in my corner.”

Especially when the good woman who wanted to stay single all those years changes her mind.

“It caught me off guard,” Jeff said of the proposal. “I’m like, ‘Whoa, after all these years, now you want to marry me?’

“I guess you’re OK.”

They’ll pick it up tomorrow. Tootle laughed again, softer this time. A smile never hurt so sweetly.

For more information or to donate to Jeff Tootle and LaDonna Lewis’ GoFundMe, visit or email ladonnatoot@yahoo.com.