Three years ago, Green Mountain put some pennies down, with the belief that investment could one day make them millionaires — at least in the prep football sense.
Now, the Rams are three wins from coming into the money as the No. 1 seed in the Class 3A state playoffs. They don’t plan on squandering the opportunity.
Green Mountain’s been blasting teams this fall, with a point differential of plus-508 en route to 11-0 and the quarterfinals. The Rams are doing it with a robust 23-man senior class, majority of whom started as sophomores.
“You can decide you want one million dollars up front, or you can let a penny double for 30 days and you end up with over $5 million,” sixth-year Green Mountain head coach Jesse German said. “That compound interest is how our culture is built. The kids just keep leaving legacies behind and really impacting the next class. And now this class is close to leaving the ultimate legacy.”
The Rams were a Class 4A juggernaut in the 1990s, culminating in state titles in 1995 and ’99 under Jeffco Hall of Fame coach Don McGatlin, the father of current Valor Christian coach Bret McGatlin. But it’s been nearly a quarter-century climb to get back to that point.
Green Mountain won just one game as recently as 2015, but under German — a Texas native who arrived in Lakewood by way of Bear Creek and Northfield — the Rams have been steadily ascending. They made the playoffs four of the last five years, including their first postseason win since ’99 in 2018, and saw their season end at the hands of the eventual state champion in three of those campaigns.
They’re determined to write a different ending to the script this year, buoyed by one of the state’s most organic rosters and a camaraderie among the seniors cultivated by them playing together on the Rams’ Jeffco Youth League team since their middle school days.
“We don’t get transfers from other schools. This is truly a neighborhood team,” German said. “And we’re very intentional in trying to create relationships early on with our athletes and parents in our middle school and our youth program, and working with them in the summer.
“With that, these guys have to be reminded sometimes of where the program was in the not-too-distant past. And they have to be reminded about what allowed us to get to where we are now — and it’s all these little things that’s not as much talent-based as it is choice-based. We’ve always said we want to get back to where Green Mountain was when Coach McGatlin was here, and that’s been a goal of ours for a long time.”
German’s instilled five mantras in his program as the Rams stair-stepped from 6-5 in 2021 to 12-1 last year to eyes on a sparkling 14-0 mark this fall. Those core values, printed on the back of their practice jerseys, are energy, discipline, toughness, finish and F.A.M.I.LY. — an acronym for “Forget About Me, I Love You.”
Perhaps no player epitomizes those traits more than tailback/cornerback Nowell Dacres, one of eight two-way starters for the Rams.
Nowell and his twin brother Jahlonnie, a linebacker/special teamer, come from a single-parent household. When their mom got laid off from her job at the start of the summer, the duo had to grow up quick. They both got jobs. Now after practice and on the weekends, they go to work — Nowell as a host at P.F. Changs and Jahlonnie as dishwasher at Manning’s.
Nowell said that grind has cemented his work ethic, while his team “gives me a place to relate to and my teammates have never made me feel alone with what I’m going through.”
“A lot of people don’t know how to get hit and get back up,” Nowell said. “Not even in terms of football, but in terms of life. A lot of people, something happens to them and they’re slipping down the drain every day. Football has taught me to stay strong and that anything is possible. This team, we weren’t projected to be the best team in the state three years ago. But with hard work and dedication, you can really get yourself anywhere.
“I understand that life isn’t easy, and it’s definitely not fair. The only way that kids like me and my brother can stay afloat and stay where all these other kids on my team who are more fortunate are, is to work harder. When you work hard for a little bit, it gets easier. It becomes a routine.”
The Rams’ roster is filled with a handful of 3A football stars, even if their stats are muted compared to other top players in the classification. Green Mountain’s starters have played full games only twice this year due to their tendency to blow opponents out.
No one has come close to contending with the Rams, meaning the JV players have been going in at halftime as Green Mountain is posting scores like 50-0 (twice), 58-0 and 69-0. Their playoff opener against Glenwood Springs was the same theme, with the Rams running away to a 52-7 victory.
German called quarterback/middle linebacker Blake Weslin “the player of the year in Colorado.” Weslin’s fellow seniors in edge rusher/tight end Austin Contreras, left tackle/nose tackle Colton Patterson, left guard/defensive tackle David Ives and tailback/tight end/nickel George Soppe are also impact players.
Some of them have Division II offers, but German believes his team is “under-recruited.”
“Colleges, including Division I’s, should be taking a hard look at our roster,” German said. “I know an endorsement like that is not be taken lightly, but I mean it. “
The Rams’ combo of experience and dominance faces its first major test Saturday in a showdown against No. 9 Roosevelt at 1 p.m. at Jeffco Stadium. The defending champion Rough Riders ended the Rams’ season last year with a convincing 30-3 win in the semifinals, something Green Mountain hasn’t forgotten.
“We know who we’re playing, and there’s some added motivation there just because of what happened last year, but we feel like we’re ready this week,” Weslin said. “Even with how we’ve been blowing out teams, Coach (German) is keeping us grounded.
“He always says, ‘Good-to-great.’ And when we watch film from our games, he always asks us, ‘Are you wining the game or are you beating the team?’ If you get by with a tackle against a (less talented) team, but you didn’t do certain things right that would’ve made it a great play, that’s going to show up in these bigger playoff games. We’ve taken all that (constructive criticism) to heart.”
With all that in mind, the Rams are three wins not only from the state title, but also from cementing themselves as the greatest football team to ever play on Green Mountain Drive.
“Three years ago, our coach saw the potential in a whole bunch of 15-year-olds,” Nowell Dacres said. “And now, none of us want to go home yet. And (at) the end of the day, what’s going to keep us rolling is our faith that we can make a run at this state championship, but also that any day could be our last day playing together. We don’t want this to end.”
