First-year Mountain Vista exceeding expectations T
By Paul Willis
he original blueprint has been scrapped. At Mountain Vista, the idea was to quickly
build a competitive high school hockey program, us- ing the first few seasons to learn from growing pains and become established in the circuit. Well, the Golden Eagles are skipping a few steps.
They’re winning immediately and looking sharp doing so - and they aren’t shy about voicing their ambitions for their inaugural season. “I think we have the depth that not too many
other teams have, and I think we can compete for a state title this year,” Golden Eagles coach Lev Cohen said. “We have a long road ahead of us, but we have four lines of players that can compete with any team out there.” Mountain Vista is one of two new teams in the
state this season - Loveland-based Resurrection Christian is the other - and quickly turned heads with high-octane play out of the gate. The Golden Eagles went 3-0-1 in the pre-holiday-
break portion of the schedule, piling up 25 goals in the four games. They started the New Year impres- sively as well with a 5-3 win at Air Academy. How has it happened so quickly? For starters,
Mountain Vista, located on the southern tip of High- lands Ranch, is the only hockey program in affluent Douglas County. That means the Golden Eagles pull athletes from 10 different schools. “When you pull from an entire county you have
every kind of talent, so we’ve been pretty fortunate there,” Cohen said. “The biggest challenge has been bringing the team together and meshing, but so far,
distributed nicely throughout the roster. Offen- sively, forwards Jimmy Morgan andMichael Ellis lead the way. Morgan scored seven goals in the program’s first four games. Defenseman John Deward and Tyler Monteferrante capably patrol the back end, and the Golden Eagles boast two standout goaltenders in juniorBrandon Yinger and freshman Joe Morgan, Jimmy Morgan’s younger brother. Despite the amalgamation of several athletes
from several schools with different hockey back- grounds, things have progressed seamlessly with few snags. “It’s been pretty surprising, actually, because
With success right out of the gates, Mountain Vista has its sights set on competing for a state high school champion- ship this season.
so good. We’re starting to practice better and I think we’re only going to get stronger going forward.” The Golden Eagles’ roster breaks down this way:
Ten are Mountain Vista students; three apiece attend Chaparral and Highlands Ranch; two go to Castle View and Legend; and one each attend ThunderRidge, Douglas County, Rock Canyon and Cherry Creek. Even though the players are from several differ-
ent high schools, many grew up playing together in various youth hockey leagues. “Hockey is such a small community in Colorado
that everybody seems to know everybody,” Cohen said. The deep, balanced squad has marquee athletes
I didn’t know how good we were going to be,” said Montefferante, who attends Legend. “I think it’s just because we have pretty good players from all around Douglas County.” A solid front man helps, as well. Cohen, 25, was
an assistant at Chatfield for three years, one of which was essentially a co-head coach arrangement. He’s a former junior hockey player and played club hockey at the University of Denver. He also serves as a junior scout for both the Janesville (Wis.) Jets of the Tier II Junior A North American Hockey League and the Queen City Steam (Ohio) of the Tier III Junior A North American 3 Hockey League. Most importantly for the Golden Eagles, Cohen
already has them believing and not shy to think on a grand scale. “I think the goal is the championship,” Monte-
ferrante said. “All of us want to get there and, of course, win. It’s definitely possible with the skill we have on this team.”
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