Glenwood hockey wins Mountain league for first time in history
Courtesy photo
The landscape of high school hockey in Colorado hasn’t been the same since Glenwood Springs High School created its program.
It’s been seven years since the Demons first put a team on ice and the Colorado High School Activities Association state hockey championship tournament has only seen three years without a Glenwood representative.
But for the first time in the young program’s history, the Demons were crowned as the Class 4A Mountain league champions after cruising through another regular season. The Demons locked up the crown after a dominating 9-2 home win on Tuesday over Aspen.
“Our mindset remains steady,” Demons coach Tim Cota said. “Winning our conference was the first goal of the year and then from there, hopefully finishing with the best record in 4A and in our program history. Each game brings a different goal and challenge. Our mindset is reaching each weekly goal together and ultimately improving as a team along the way.”
The numbers show the Demons weren’t just the best team in the small but competitive Mountain conference — they were easily the best team in all of 4A and arguably one of the best high school hockey teams in the state.
The Demons still have one more game on their regular-season schedule, but their 16-1-1 record is too steep for their competitors to catch up. They finished three wins above Summit, the second-best team in the 4A mountain division, and ended as the seventh-ranked high school hockey team in the state.
“It means a great deal to win the conference,” senior captain Wylon Deter said. “We have been trying to win this thing for two years now, and seeing it finally come together is a relief. Coach Cota has been chasing the conference for 20 years and to see him finally get it is something that brings a lot of joy to the team.”
It is the Demons’ third consecutive 16-win season, and with at least two more games on the schedule, they could potentially end the 2024-25 season with the most wins in the program’s young history.
“We certainly want to enjoy the conference title with the understanding our work is not done yet,” Cota said. “It was a goal at the onset of the season to not let it come to tiebreakers and we accomplished that. We want to use the positive energy to progress, but understanding our goals that we set moving forward will only become more challenging. We need to stay focused on what’s ahead and use what we’ve learned as fuel.”
Making it to the state tournament isn’t enough for the Demons. This will be their third consecutive playoff appearance, but they are still searching for the first state championship banner.
The Demons are a young team led by seniors who still remember Glenwood’s last trip to the state championship game. This tournament will mean more to the few Demons that still remember the sting of the triple overtime loss to Cheyenne Mountain in the final game of the 2022-23 season.
“The heartbreak of the state championship loss, and the loss in last year’s semifinals, flipped a switch for our seniors,” Deter said. “We have worked harder than anyone so that doesn’t happen again. We know what it takes to win and have been doing everything we can all season to do that. It’s all or nothing this year and we know it. Winning the conference is nice, but we have bigger and better things to work toward. There is no other option but to win out — the job isn’t finished.”
Jacob Stockdill transformed the Demons 2024-25 roster after he missed all of last season due to a torn ACL. Stockdill returned to the locker room without missing a beat and currently sits top five in the state in goals scored. The senior netted three goals during Tuesday’s matchup to help secure the league title.
“To be top five in scoring is something I never thought would have happened,” Stockdill said. “All the work I put in over the summer helped me regain confidence in myself and gave me the sense that I could still compete even though I missed a year.”
The Demons will next travel to Colorado Springs on Saturday to face the Air Academy Kadets in their final regular-season game.
Seeding for the state tournament will take place on Monday.
Aspen High School students pursue interests, ambitions through International Baccalaureate projects
The future of the Roaring Fork Valley is in good hands. Or at least that’s what one would conclude after witnessing the ingenuity of Aspen High School 10th graders as they presented their personal projects Wednesday.
Colorado biologists caught 3 rare Colorado pikeminnows. What does that mean for the future of this critically endangered fish?
In October, Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists were conducting a routine fish survey on the Colorado River when they made an extremely rare catch.
