There are a lot of new and exciting things happening with the Bobcat football team this year. First, is a new head football coach, Steve Urban who moved up to Estes Park to take the coaching job. He and his family moved here from Marfa, Texas. Urban brings with him a lot of experience of working with small athletic programs and he hopes to be able to use this experience building the Bobcat Football team.
“I`m hoping to not only work with the high school players, I also intend to be present with the 7th and 8th grade programs and I`ve already talked to the coaches of the youth teams that will be playing in the Loveland Youth Recreation football program this fall,” said Urban. “If Estes Park wants to see success in football, then we need to start kids playing the game as early as possible. I hope to really make all ages of football programs work together and instill within the coaches the mentality of an entire ‘Estes Park` football program.”
Helping this year with Bobcat football will be returning defensive coach and assistant coach, Butch McCown and assistant coaches Josh Flores, Brian Horner, Brian Lund and Scott Meuller. Urban feels great about the football coaching staff and he says that the administration of the school district has been wonderful to work with.
The Bobcat football team will find themselves in new jerseys and a new look to their helmets.
“The new jerseys look really great, and the face masks on the helmets are being changed to black so they too will look different and intimidating,” said Urban.
Urban will use the KISS coaching philosophy, “Keeping It Simple Sally.”
“I want the team to be good at what we teach them and I want them to have fun playing football this year,” he said.
The coaches also want to see the team hustle and keep going every minute playing the best ball that they can.
Many of the team players have been participating in the Tuesday and Thursday skill and conditioning practices at the high school from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and have also been in the weight room throughout the summer keeping in shape and getting stronger.
The Bobcats will officially begin practice on Monday, August 16th from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. Any player wanting to play high school football needs to be at the high school gym on Monday with their “Athletic Card” completed and ready to practice. Urban wants to encourage all boys with any level of interest to come out on Monday for the Bobcats. He says that every boy will have a position on the team. “Every kid is valuable to the entire team, whether they are actually playing on the field or helping run the team administratively,” said Urban.
Urban and the coaching staff “can`t wait to start playing football.” The first game will be here in Estes Park on Friday, Sept. 3.
