Living In The Hard

Emily Brey • September 15, 2017

Fossil Ridge falls to Rocky Mountain High School in second game of the 2017-18 season. Photo Credit: Ayden Adair

On Friday, September 8, Fossil Ridge (0-2) football took on Rocky Mountain High School (1-1) in their second league game of the 2017-18 season. The Cats took an unfortunate 0-30 loss to the Lobos, and will face Poudre High School this evening, September 15.

Last year the SaberCats were crowned city champions after beating Fort Collins (33-7), Rocky Mountain (21-17), and Poudre (35-28). With that said, everything comes in turns; the Cats are off to an ugly start this season, and it won’t get any easier as league play continues.

Following the Cat’s game last Friday, September 8, Head Coach Zak Bigelow was interviewed. Even though his head was packed with thoughts on the game, thoughts on the team, and thoughts on the program as a whole, his biggest focus was himself; more so, how his decisions and his work ethic affect the team. Bigelow commented, “My personal goals are always the same; to use the platform of football to shape young lives while being the best husband and father possible. Every week I’m looking at the man in the mirror trying to improve and get better.” Bigelow has changed the dynamic of this program since joining the SaberCat family last fall, and will continue to develop Fossil players not only this season, but throughout the rest of his time here at Fossil Ridge.

The program’s motto is “Live In The Hard” and Bigelow is very passionate about not only talking about that, but exemplifying it through his actions and decisions. Fossil Ridge football has never had such a strong sense of brotherhood and commitment, and it is really showing through the boys this year. “Our program will always be about ‘Live In The Hard’. To be great at anything, you can’t be average, you can’t take the easy way out. You’ll have to handle tough situations, you’ll have to outwork your opponent at all times, you’ll have to live in the hard.” Nothing is more effective than having a coach that isn’t only a leader on the sideline, but a positive influence in life, and that is exactly the kind of figure Coach Bigelow is for the team.

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Of course Bigelow can’t do it all on his own, he has a very passionate group of coaches behind him. The coaching staff works day in and day out to help the players, and everyday at practice the coaches are pushing the athletes, and the athletes are pushing the coaches. Athletic success is only attainable if an effort is made by both players and coaches to better themselves each and every time they step out onto the field. When asked about the team’s response to their last loss, Bigelow commented, “The team’s plan is to continue to work hard and test ourselves as men to see how we handle tough situations. The team was very focused this week at practice following the Rocky game, they are a special group of kids who continue to stay motivated, especially with this city game against Poudre coming up.”

A big part of the team’s attitude is influenced by the leadership of its captains: Riley Jones, Garrett Brown, Sean Bowerfind, and Zach Heckman. It is important to delegate some of the team responsibility to the players, and fortunately, Fossil has a great group of very dedicated captains who face that responsibility head on.

The boys are looking to redeem themselves tonight against Poudre, and Bigelow believes that this team deserves a win. “Our plan for Poudre is to run plays that challenge Poudre’s secondary stars to step up and make plays. We want to take away what they do best and challenge them to use secondary options to beat us”, commented Bigelow. Come out to French Field tonight at 7, and help cheer on the team as the take on Poudre High School.

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About the Contributor

Emily Brey, Sports Editor

Emily Brey is a senior at Fossil Ridge High School who is in her third year on the Etched In Stone staff and is Co-Editor of the Sports BEAT. Emily plays varsity soccer for Fossil and also plays for Arsenal Colorado on the ‘00 Academy team. She is committed to play soccer at Colorado State University - Pueblo and plans to study business and law in college. After attending CSUP, she hopes to attend CU where she will go for her MBA.

Between taking on a full schedule and all of her extracurricular commitments, Emily is a very busy bee this year. Emily is serving as Vice President of FBLA here at Fossil, and is a member of Key Club and NTHS (National Technical Honor Society). She is an ambitious young lady whose reliability, organization, and work ethic has helped her achieve many goals in her time thus far at Fossil Ridge. She is a huge fan of Lana Del Rey and the bands, All Time Low, SWMRS, Waterparks, and The Wrecks. She enjoys spending time outside and organizing things, which relaxes her. When she isn’t covering a story or playing soccer, Emily enjoys being a homebody and watching movies.

The friendly, family-like environment that the journalism program at Fossil encompasses has been something she has valued since freshman year. She would love to be able to continue journalistic work after high school. Emily looks forward to leading the Journalism 1 writers, no matter if that’s in journalism or just life in general. Plus, she hopes to inspire the younger writers to report on other topics besides sports, just because that’s something that she wishes she would’ve done the past two years. Her main goal for the year in journalism is to get better with her coverage, especially with using multiple media platforms. Emily wants to try and expand from her comfort zone of sports writing, hoping to experience writing different journalistic topics.