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Three Aspen High School golfers among those recognized on national signing day

Aspen High School golfers, from left, Dawson Holmes, Jack Hughes and Colter Zwieg take part in the signing day ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018, inside the AHS gymnasium. (Photo by Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times)
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

The journey to get to this point involved a lot more than putting pen to paper, but that’s all Aspen High School senior Jack Hughes had left to do to officially become part of the University of Colorado men’s golf team.

Hughes, along with two of his teammates and senior swimmer Davy Brown, were recognized Wednesday during a signing day celebration inside the AHS gymnasium.

“I’ve worked extremely hard and put in a lot of hours to get to this point to become a Buff, but now I’m ready to work even harder,” Hughes said. “These three boys up here, we’ve all earned it. We worked very hard and to have it pay off in front of the school and our family is really full circle.”



Hughes finished second in the Class 3A state golf tournament last month, leading the Skiers to their first state championship in the sport. Finishing 13th at state was AHS senior Dawson Holmes, who sat to the right of Hughes during the celebration Wednesday, which was the first day of the open signing period for non-football sports.

Holmes is headed to the College of Charleston in South Carolina, which has a strong NCAA Division I program. Holmes had gotten pretty close with former Cougar coach Mark McEntire before he left to take over at Middle Tennessee State this past summer. Thinking the Charleston offer might be off the table, the new coaching staff, led by Mitch Krywulycz, reached out and assured him there was still a roster spot awaiting him.




“My grandparents live about two hours south, so I’ve spent a lot of time down there and Charleston had always been one of my top choices,” Holmes said. “Between the state championship and getting into school and signing to play college golf, it’s a pretty big weight off my shoulders.”

Rounding out the college-bound golfers is AHS senior Colter Zwieg, who will play for NCAA Division III powerhouse Methodist University in North Carolina. In May, Methodist won its 12th national championship, which is tied for the most in Division III history.

“It was awesome to see all the work finally pay off and sit up there with those boys,” Zwieg said. “This, I’m sure, will sink in when I get home and I actually start thinking about what it means and what it means for the future. It’s just all the work finally pays off.”

Both of the AHS golf coaches were in attendance Wednesday. Assistant boys coach Don Buchholz, who had also been the head coach for the girls team in the spring, recently announced he will soon be moving to Florida after having called Aspen home for the past 46 years.

Head boys coach Mary Woulfe, who has guided AHS to the past 10 regional championships, always is the first to commend the work Buchholz and the players have put in over the years to make Aspen into the golf powerhouse it certainly is.

“How incredibly proud can I be as a coach of the character they have shown, the fortitude, the grit and the amazing accomplishments?” Woulfe said. “And the humility with which they’ve all done it — it’s amazing. And we are still waiting for that banner to get hung.”

Brown, who spoke about her commitment Tuesday, will swim for Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

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