When Ed Stevens left Wheat Ridge High School after winning the
football state championship and took a job as the athletics
director and head football coach at a school that hadn’t even
opened yet, everyone thought he was crazy.
Wheat Ridge was a school rich in tradition. The only tradition
Chaparral had was that of the construction workers. The football
program at Wheat Ridge was the best in the state. The best the
Chaparral football program had was freshmen. Yep, Stevens was
looking certifiable to a lot of people.
Six years later, after taking his team to the quarterfinals of
the Class 4A state playoffs and coming 1 yard away from upsetting
the No. 1 ranked team in the division, Stevens isn’t looking so
crazy anymore.
It has been a lengthy building process to get the Wolverines to
where they are now and one that, ironically, mirrors Stevens’
experience at Wheat Ridge.
In 1984, Stevens took the job as the head football coach at
Wheat Ridge. It was his first job as a head coach.
“I had been an assistant coach for 10 years and felt that I had
learned my trade and knew what I was doing,” Stevens
said.
But Stevens soon realized he still had more to learn. In his
first season at Wheat Ridge, the team finished 3-7 and promptly
followed that with a 1-9 season.
In 1986, Stevens found success and had his first winning season
as a head coach. The team went 7-3 that year but slipped again the
following season and went 5-5.
In 1988 things went from good to bad. Stevens switched his
coaching philosophy to a robust offense that focused on the running
game. That season his team won only a single game.
The Farmers continued that streak and opened the ’89 season by
losing their first four games. Their fifth game was against
Arapahoe, the top-ranked team in the state, and it looked like
things would continue to get worse for Stevens.
But something happened in that game. Something that would change
everything.
“I don’t know what it was,” Stevens said. “It just clicked with
everybody what we had to do. It was a real defining
moment.”
Although they lost that game 15-14, the Farmers didn’t lose
another game that season.
“Up to that point we had lost 13 games in a row,” Stevens said.
“After that game we didn’t lose 13 games for the rest of the time I
was there.”
But the games he lost at Wheat Ridge weren’t nearly as
impressive as the games he won. Specifically, the state
championship games in 1994 and 1996.
But, always the competitive person, Stevens sought out new
challenges. Enter Chaparral High School.
“I was just looking for something else,” Stevens said. “To come
here and order all the equipment and see the first touchdown and
all that history in the making, I wanted to be a part of
that.”
But the history he became a part of seemed more like deja vu.
Stevens’ first year as head football coach with the varsity team
was in 1998. That year the team went 2-8.
“That’s when it sunk in that we were really behind,” Stevens
said. “We knew that we had a lot of work to do.”
But Stevens didn’t compromise his philosophy of football, which
he had proven to be successful at Wheat Ridge, just to get a
winning record. He continued to teach the kids and build the
program.
“Along the way we were raising the bar of expectations so that
the kids and everyone else knew what it was going to take,” Stevens
said.
Stevens knew from experience what it was going to take, and he
knew that it didn’t happen in one, or even two, seasons.
So the next season, when the Wolverines went 3-7, Stevens still
didn’t contemplate changing his approach.
“It’s proven that it works,” Stevens said. “Just give it
time.”
Stevens thought that time would come in 2000, when all the
pieces seemed to be in place for Chaparral to have a winning
season. But the pieces didn’t hold, and Chaparral went 5-5 and
failed to make the state playoffs.
“Last year we felt like we would be about 7-3,” Stevens said,
“so it was really a blow to us that we didn’t make the
playoffs.”
Patience and determination paid off in dividends for Stevens and
the Wolverines this year, however, when they dominated opponents
and didn’t lose until their sixth game.
The Wolverines went on to win the remaining four games in the
regular season and made it to the state playoffs for the first time
in school history. But they didn’t stop there.
In the preliminary round, Chaparral beat the Greeley West team
that had shut out the Wolverines in preseason. The Wolverines went
on to the quarterfinal round, where they matched up against
Broomfield, the top-ranked Class 4A team in the state.
The 31-24 overtime loss to Broomfield proved that the Wolverines
matched up very well with the best in the state and, Stevens
thinks, that they are ready for the next step.
“I think it’s a good transition for us now to go to 5A,” Stevens
said. “It would’ve been very easy for us to stay in 4A and probably
do very well again.”
But Stevens has shown that he doesn’t always do what’s easiest,
just what’s successful.
“Let’s raise the bar again,” Stevens said with a smile.