RANGELY I It wasn’t the season Rangely football coach Tim Galloway hoped for, but there was still plenty to cheer about.
In what he referred to as a rebuilding year, the Panthers finished with a 2-7 record, Galloway’s first as coach.
Leading the way were senior quarterback Patrick Phelan, who was named most valuable offensive player, and sophomore linebacker Justin Goddard, who was named most valuable defensive player. Both players were honored at the team’s end-of-season awards banquet Tuesday.
“Justin led the team in tackles and big hits,” Galloway said. “And, offensively, we just decided if we didn’t have Pat, we weren’t going to go as far as we could have.”
Both players — along with senior lineman and punter Kindal Cushman — were also named first-team all-league. Phelan was named as a defensive back, while Cushman was named as the punter. Cushman was also named Rangely’s special teams MVP.
“That was for both punting and kickoffs as well as he had a few game-saving tackles after he punted the ball, where they could have gone all the way, but he made the tackle and kept them out of the end zone,” Galloway said.
Rangely also had four players named to the all-league honorable mention team. They were junior Cole Barlow, junior Brandon Gray, senior Mark Perzinski and junior Zakk Wenzel.
The team’s “big heart” award went to junior lineman Brian Rector.
“That award goes to the kid that showed us the spirit of Panther football and the go-getting attitude of what we want football players to be,” Galloway said. “Brian’s got a bad hip, something he was born with. He probably shouldn’t even be playing football, but he never complained. He just sucked it up and played. That meant a lot to us coaches and should be an inspiration to the other players.”
In addition, Rangely had three players named to the all-state academic first team: Barlow, Phelan and senior Jason Stults. Named to all-state academic honorable mention were: senior Mike “Butter Bean” Dillon, junior Brandon Gray and senior Logan Osborne.
“I’d like to thank the administration, Dr. Williams and Mark Skelton; Alicia Cushman, maintenance director, and the custodial crew; transportation director Ron Reich and all the bus drivers; Dr. Adams and the ambulance crews; Crandal Mergelman and Jeff LeBleu for announcing games; Steve Herndon, Mark Barlow and Jake Osborne for doing the stats; Jeff Rector and Erik Striegel for filming the games; Jerry LeBleu Jr. for working the clock; the chain gang crew of Shane Mecham, Gary Denny, Alvin Halcomb and Andy Shaffer; Melissa Dembowski and the cheerleaders; and all the people who bought a gold card and helped support the program that way,” Galloway said.
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