Greeley West played its first official game of the season last Friday night, August 30. They lost to Arapahoe 14-13 after missing a two-point conversion. Some can’t help but wonder if the results may have been different without some of the hysteria that occurred before the game.. 

The team was away for this first game, which means they had to travel. Varsity took one bus down to Arapahoe and junior varsity took another. While on their way, the junior varsity bus broke down, leaving them waiting for assistance and late to the first game.

“We still had some time to warm up when we got there because there was also a lighting delay, but everyone was in a rush because Coach was late too,” senior Josh Hernandez said. 

The varsity coach, Mr. Jason Renouf, drove down in his own car with his wife. Minutes after hearing about the JV bus breaking down his car starting acting up. 

“It’s funny because I had just heard about the JV bus and was saying that the district needed some better buses, and then my car decided to catch on fire,” Renouf said.

Renouf’s car overheated on I-25 and he and his wife had to seek help from some nearby construction workers. 

“Some parents were driving by and saw us on the side of the road and stopped to take me to the game, which is only proof that the program as a whole is a team,” Renouf said.

Coach Renouf was able to make it to the game safely and on time and used the lightning delay as a chance to clear his head. 

The players were hit with quite a few obstacles for the first game of the season. The stadium lights even ended up going out in the fourth quarter, which begs the question, is this a look into what the rest of the season will look like? 

According to senior defensive end, Daniel Berrelleza, “Those events aren’t anything we can control. But how we handled it and still played the best we could is what this season will look like.” 

West plays its next game at Monarch on Friday, whether or not obstacles get in the way again.