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Aspen, Basalt football players named all-state

Dale Strode
The Aspen Times
Aspen senior John Heaphey kicked his way onto the CHSAA Class 2A All-State Footbal Team as a kicker/punter.
Aubree Dallas / The Aspen Times |

Merry Christmas, Ryan Fitzgerald. Merry Christmas, John Heaphey.

And Merry Christmas, Jake Levy.

Fitzgerald and Heaphey, two senior standouts on the Aspen High School football team, and Levy, a Basalt senior standout, received special holiday presents this year: All three were voted to the CHSAA Class 2A All-State Football Team.



Levy, named the lineman of the year in the 2A Western Slope League, was voted to the all-state second team by voters with the Colorado High School Activities Association. The senior led the Longhorns in tackles and also saw double duty as a tight end.

Levy was coached by Carl Frerichs at Basalt High School.




Heaphey and Fitzgerald were coached at Aspen by Ryan Triece, who won coach of the year honors in the conference in his first season.

The two Skiers were voted to the all-state first team by CHSAA.

Fitzgerald, in spite of a leg injury that limited practice time, still led the conference in rushing for the second consecutive year.

His 1,500 yards this season pushed him over 3,000 rushing yards in his last two seasons at Aspen High School.

Heaphey, a double-duty athlete in the fall for AHS, was voted to the all-state first team as a kicker/punter.

Heaphey, in addition to earning All-Western Slope League honors in football, also was voted all-conference in boys soccer.

He has been all-league in football and in soccer for two consecutive seasons.

And this year, he was voted to the all-state 2A football team. He converted a 48-yard field goal for the Skiers this season.

Other players from the conference named to the all-state first team include Michael Howard (senior) and Brady Wilson (junior), both from Gunnison. Gunnison’s Nick Koch was voted to the all-state second team along with Jake Wallin and Ty Percival.

Randy Haley of Montezuma-Cortez also made the all-state first team, which was dominated by players from undefeated, state champion Brush.

In fact, Brush was honored this year with the player of the year and the coach of the year.

Veteran Randy Dreitz, in his 13th season as the head coach at Brush, was voted coach of the year for 2014.

Running back/quarterback/linebacker Kyle Rosenbrock of Brush was the player of the year.

Other first-team all-staters for the state champion Beetdiggers are lineman Joe Carwin, running back Michael Gutierrez, receiver Alec Petterson and lineman Jose Rodriquez.

Cameron Alexander, Niko Guzman and Clay Shaver of Brush were voted to the all-state second team.

State runner-up Kent Denver landed five players on the all-state first team: Carl Schmidt, Will McKissick, Jaden Franklin, Gordon Ellis and Connor Dooley.

Brett Loyd of Moffat County was named to the second team along with Victor Perez of Cortez.

dstrode@aspentimes.com