All Local, All The Time
All Local, All The Time
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The Niwot girls tennis team has been one of the most competitive programs in Colorado over the past few seasons, and right-hander Rachel Drake is a big part of the reason why. Now as the team prepares to defend its Class 4A state title, head coach Aimee Keronen is looking to her lone senior to help bolster the team’s mental preparedness. “She has been so fun, everybody just loves her, and her attitude is just great,” Keronen said of the veteran, who went 9-1 during her final regular seaso...
In the late 1960s, a handful of Gunbarrel and Niwot parents formed a sandlot baseball league as an alternative to leagues in Longmont and Boulder. Over the next five decades, that ragtag group blossomed into Niwot Youth Sports, which serves hundreds of the area’s budding athletes each year. On Sunday, May 5, NYS kicked-off its 50th anniversary season, and executive director Pat Longseth said it’s on track to be one of their biggest yet. “This is the largest turnout we’ve had for basebal...
Ed Weaver and the Niwot girls golf team have checked off most of the items on their 2019 to-do list: Northern League champions (by 122 strokes), conference Player of the Year (Julia Solem), POY runner-up (Halie Ostrom), and conference Coach of the Year (Weaver). Now they can cross off the penultimate item: qualifying as a team for the upcoming Class 4A championships at Pelican Lakes. “I’m very proud of all the girls,” Weaver said after the Cougars took second overall at the Class 4A Regio...
Despite a few anxious moments, the Niwot girls tennis team punched their ticket back to Pueblo with a rousing win at this year’s Class 4A Region 5 tournament, held May 2-3 in Longmont. Led by sophomore Lucy Lu at No. 1 singles, the 2018 state champion Cougars captured individual titles in six of the seven lines to qualify for a full team berth at the upcoming state meet, which opens at Pueblo City Park on Thursday, May 9. Of course, going to the Class 4A championships is nothing new for the C...
At a public hearing on April 23, the Boulder County Commissioners voted unanimously to approve revisions to the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) land use code, and end the divisive building moratorium that it unceremoniously dumped on the town 215 days before. “I appreciate everybody participating in this,” Commissioner Matt Jones said in his closing remarks before the vote. “I know it’s a lot of work, and nobody’s coming out with everything they want, but I appreciate people that have the...
It’s no secret that college is expensive, but these days even planning for a post-secondary education can be pricey, between exam fees, application fees, and college visits. Unfortunately, these costs can sometimes keep an otherwise deserving student from taking advantage of every opportunity. In 2018, the Niwot High School Education Foundation (NHSEF) partnered with the school’s counseling department to found the Adopt-A-Cougar program, which helps Niwot families with these costs. “What peopl...
Beginning in the fall of 2020, Colorado high school students will have more options for athletics, after the Colorado High School Activities Association sanctioned three new sports for the first time since 1998. At their annual meeting on April 24, CHSAA’s Legislative Council voted to approve boys volleyball, girls wrestling, and unified bowling, the first new sports since boys and girls lacrosse and girls field hockey were added 20 years ago. Niwot athletic director Chase McBride, who is a...
Terri Ward Longtime Niwot girls basketball coach Terri Ward was formally inducted into the Colorado High School Activities Association Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Denver on April 23. Ward was selected for induction into the Hall’s 2018 class back in January, due to her decades-long advocacy on behalf of girls and women in high school athletics and involvement with Colorado Coaches of Girls Sports and Sportswomen of Colorado. She also has a coaching career spanning nearly 30-years, and r...
The wins have been few and far between for the youthful Niwot baseball team in 2019, but head coach Adam Strah said there have been definite signs of improvement down the stretch. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much in evidence in the Cougars’ 10-0 loss to Mountain View on April 27. The blowout capped off a hectic four-game stretch for the Cougars, who are still making up for early season weather postponements. The week started off on a promising note for the Cougars, with an 8-6 win over Ber...
The quadrennial summer Olympic Games brings millions of new athletes to gymnastics, and after the U.S. team’s dramatic finish in the 2008 Beijing games, one of those was then-elementary school student Erica Bortfeldt. Bortfeldt’s affinity for the sport has endured, and now, more than a decade later, the Niwot High senior competes for a club team based at Airborne Gymnastics in Longmont. On April 20, she captured the All-Around title in her division at the 2019 NCAA Youth Gymnastics Cha...
Niwot senior Nolan Johan was named Most Valuable Athlete for his outstanding individual performance at the 2019 Boulder County Track & Field Championships last weekend, but it was the first-ever BoCo team win for the Cougars that the hurdler was most eager to talk about in the aftermath. “I knew I had a really good day, so in the back of my head I knew maybe it was a possibility, but it wasn’t really my main focus,” he said of the MVA award, the first for a Niwot boy since 2013. “I was just re...
Fans of contemporary fiction, take note. On Friday, April 26, best-selling author Peter Heller (“The Dog Stars”) will be appearing at Inkberry Books (7960 Niwot Road) in Niwot to discuss his newly published novel, “The River,” the story of a leisurely canoe trip that becomes a harrowing tale of wilderness survival. “It’s very exciting for us,” Inkberry owner Gene Hayworth said. “We try to be a place that encourages both new writers and invites more experienced writers to come into the book s...
Double-digit population growth and competing budget priorities have combined to put financial pressure on the Boulder Public Library, and now the Library Commission wants area voters to consider whether to fund a separate district that could potentially bring new services to Gunbarrel or Niwot. On April 12, Joni Teter, former chair of the Library Commission, and City of Boulder’s Library and Arts Director David Farnan held an informational meeting with representatives from the Niwot Community As...
The Niwot track and field team turned in an historic performance at the Boulder County Championships (BoCo) meet last weekend, with the 10th straight title for the girls and the first-ever title for the Niwot boys. Niwot’s Taylor James and Nolan Johan were also crowned the meet’s Most Valuable Athletes for their high scoring individual performances....
The Niwot girls soccer team hasn’t had much to celebrate this season, so the Cougars’ 10-0 blowout over Greeley Central on April 18 was a much needed respite from this season’s dreary routine. “It was a good game to get the confidence back,” head coach Stephen Dimit said after the win, just their second in 2019. “The finishing was really good today. We actually finished some proper, nice goals today.” More than just “some.” In fact, six players scored on the day, and three had multiple goals, i...
The Niwot track and field team turned in an historic performance at the Boulder County Championships (BoCo) meet last weekend, and now head coach Maurice Henriques can cross a few more items off of the Cougars’ 2019 to-do list. “Our goal was to win this meet on both sides,” Henriques said at the 43rd annual event, held on April 20 at Everly-Montgomery Field. “And, it’s the first time in school’s history that’s happened and the first time for the boys to have a win at the Boulder County Champi...
Led by standouts Julia Solem and Halie Ostrom, the second-ranked Niwot girls golf team has been a top finisher in almost all of its league events so far this season, and now after a 12-stroke win at Centaurus on April 16, the Cougars are poised to win the Class 4A Northern League for the first time in years. “We had a good lead coming in, and I don’t think we gave up much ground, if any,” Niwot head coach Ed Weaver said following the round at Indian Peaks Golf Course in Lafayette. “I know th...
When local realtor Pat Murphy started hosting the annual Niwot Easter Egg Hunt, she wanted to give something back to the community that had supported her growing business in its formative years. Now, after four decades of watching both Niwot and the event flourish, she also feels grateful for the opportunity to create cherished memories for multiple generations of area families. “I am blessed that I’ve be able to work in this town all this time, and as a thank you for everybody’s business and t...
Niwot senior Laure Bourgin wasn’t sure what to expect when she took up golf a little over a year ago, but she wasn’t expecting to uncover a hidden talent. Now the senior is one of the rising stars on the emerging Niwot girls golf team and the sport she once thought of as “relatively interesting” has become a daily habit. “It’s time consuming, but unlike most sports, it’s—I don’t know—elegant, for lack of a better term. I just really like a sport where I can really hone a skill....Golf is on...
Warmer temperatures and increased sightings of yellow-vested flaggers in the area can mean only one thing— the 2019 road construction season is officially underway. This year, Boulder County Transportation is gearing up for a busy one in and around Niwot, so drivers may want to plan ahead. 95th Street The longest project of the summer—the rebuilding of 95th Street between Lookout and Plateau Roads—is set to launch on Wednesday, May 1, with a projected completion date in October. During that...
If the first half of the 2019 season is any indication, the undefeated Niwot girls tennis team will once again be a strong contender for the Class 4A state championship. But with some marquis challengers on the schedule heading into next month’s regional tournament, head coach Aimee Keronen knows her team will need to stay focused. “We’re right where we want to be right now,” she said after the Cougars’ shutout win over Greeley Central on April 4. “I think Cherry Creek will be a tough test...
South Korea native Jongwon “Jon” Lee came to the United States with his family five years ago, determined to soak up as much of the American experience as possible. Now a highly accomplished student and athlete at Niwot High, Lee’s schedule is almost always packed to the brim, and the busy senior wouldn’t have it any other way. “I want to try as many things as possible, which kind of put me in a situation where I’m having a hard time dealing with all the schedules I have,” he admitted. “Bu...
The Niwot LID advisory board got a preview of the warm-weather months ahead at their monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 2. Treasurer Bruce Rabeler was first up with his budget report through the end of March 2019. To date, the LID has approved $38,401.11 in funding requests, or about 30 percent of its annual $132,854 budget. With nearly $30,000 in pending requests for April, total expenditures for the year are set to exceed 50 percent of the budget with eight months still to go in 2019. Rabeler...
Nearly 20 interested stakeholders came together at the Left Hand Grange on Wednesday, April 3 to continue the discussion with Boulder County officials about how upcoming changes to the NRCD land use code will impact the 600-foot long alley separating the rear properties of 2nd and 3rd Avenues east of Franklin Street in Niwot. A mix of residents and property owners participated in the sometimes-heated roundtable with land use director Dale Case and county transportation engineer Mike Thomas, who...
Nevin Gilbert may still be a few weeks away from his high school graduation but the future engineer already has the resume of a seasoned professional. Between a demanding robotics internship and a collaboration with a CU professor, the Niwot High student’s precocious talent for math and computer science has created opportunities not afforded to most college students, let alone those still in secondary school. Later this month, Gilbert will get a chance to add another achievement to the g...
Boys volleyball is one of the fastest growing high school sports in America, and this spring it could be among the first new team sports to be sanctioned by the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) since 1999. On April 24, members of CHSAA’s Legislative Council will vote on whether to add boys volleyball, girls wrestling, and unified bowling to the list of “official” Colorado high school sports, which has been static since field hockey was sanctioned 20 years ago. So far, boys vol...
Nothing energizes a project team like a last-minute and potentially catastrophic failure. So when a routine maneuver to reset their robot's climber somehow went wrong during the final round of the FIRST Robotics Colorado Regional, both students and mentors from Longmont's Up-A-Creek Robotics crew flew into action. "It was super-stressful," Niwot senior and team software lead Nevin Gilbert said of the rush to repair a snapped release lever before the decisive match. "We really thought we had it i...
After nearly two weeks of bad weather and snowy course conditions, the Niwot girls golf team finally made its 2019 debut on March 20 in Northern League Event #1 at the Olde Course. If the lengthy delay had any effect on Niwot golfers, it wasn’t evident in their play or their scores. In fact, it may even have been an advantage, as three Cougars set brand new career-best marks on the day, as Niwot cruised to the team title by 36 strokes. One of those new PRs was for junior Julia Solem, who c...
Longmont-based Up-A-Creek Robotics is home to one of the top high school robotics teams in the country, thanks in large part to Niwot couple Terry and Cathy Olkin, recipients of this month's Left Hand Laurel. When the Olkins signed on for a stint as mentors to the Up-A-Creek Robotics team five years ago, they were just hoping to spend more time with sons Jake and Zach. Before long, however, the naturally competitive duo found themselves enjoying not just their extra time with the boys, but also...
Organizers of the 2019 Boulder Roubaix are shifting into high gear as the biennial tribute to the famed French bike race gets set to return to the area on Saturday, April 6. Modeled after the world's oldest single-day cycling competition, the local event may not have the legendary cobblestone-paved stretches of its grueling Parisian namesake, but that doesn't mean riders won't be tested by the partially-paved 18.7-mile course that winds through the hills of northern Boulder County. "It's a...
Niwot head coach Aimee Keronen knows that it won’t be easy to defend the Class 4A state tennis title, but with eight returning starters plus a handful of talented newcomers, she knows it’s not exactly a longshot, either. “We’re still in a good position,” she said about the upcoming 2019 season. “We definitely have some holes we need to fill, but the girls are using it for motivation. They got that taste of winning and want it back.” Winning is just about all the Cougars did last season. Led b...
Stalled plans to build a public parking lot west of old town Niwot could be getting a jump-start after Boulder County Commissioner Deb Gardner strongly suggested revisiting a county policy that has prevented the lot’s developers from moving ahead with construction. During a March 12 Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) public hearing on proposed updates to the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) land use code, Gardner questioned a provision in the 2011 Niwot Transportation and Connectivity P...
For a second straight week, the Niwot track and field team found itself without a weekend venue after weather and field conditions forced a last minute cancellation, this time of the Windsor Invitational on March 16. Fortunately, the Cougars were able to find more than a dozen other teams in a similar predicament, and a local school in Longmont willing to play host, resulting in the NoCo Qualifier #1. Niwot won the team title on both the boys’ and girls’ sides handily, with Emrick Wells and Tay...
March can be a tense time of the year for ambitious high school students waiting on college acceptance letters, but so far that hasn’t been the case for Niwot’s Aidan Peairs. The Rotary Student of the Month has already been accepted to two of the top schools for his intended major, so he isn’t exactly hurting for attractive options. “I applied early to Harvard and got deferred, and I’m waiting for Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Tufts, NYU, Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt,” he said. “My number one is...
In a move that caught some stakeholders off-guard, Boulder County Commissioners voted unanimously at their March 12 public hearing to extend Niwot’s development moratorium until April 23 in order to address, among other things, concerns from property owners about proposed limits on Floor Area Ratio (FAR) for the non-historic blocks of the NRCD. FAR is a measure of a building’s above-grade floor area in relation to the total area of the lot it’s built upon. A FAR of 1.0 means that a 10,000 squar...
DNA testing companies like 23&Me can tell you about your genetic origins, but they can’t tell you much about the fateful encounters, harrowing escapes and happily-ever-afters that helped those genes make their way to you. For those curious about the human drama in their family’s story, researching and preserving genealogical information doesn’t have to be a major undertaking, according to local historian and Gunbarrel resident Dina Carson. Carson is hosting the workshop Publishing Your Herit...
The Niwot girls golf team found its way back to the Class 4A state tournament in 2018, and head coach Ed Weaver has every reason to believe that the Cougars are headed back there in 2019. With a mix of returning veterans, plus an influx of promising newcomers, Weaver said this season’s team has the depth to challenge the top teams in the league. “My goal is to win the conference, and qualify as a team for state,” Weaver said. “I’ve got two returning qualifiers, and we’ve got good representat...
The Niwot track and field team lost a number of its top performers to graduation after last season, but Maurice Henriques isn’t fazed. In fact, the ninth-year head coach thinks the 2019 Cougars are poised for even more success, thanks in part to many of those departed stars. “I actually think we’re a better team this year than we were last year, as a complete team,” he said. “All of those girls are a year older, and the leadership that Mary [Gillett] and Mackenzie [Fidelak] passed down has been...
The Niwot LID advisory board is back at full strength, following the appointment of three new members late last month. Joining the six current members are residential representative Lisa Rivard, and business representatives Cornelia Sawle, owner of the Niwot Inn, and Mary Coonce, co-owner of Porchfront Homes, who was also elected to the Niwot Business Association’s executive board recently. The three fill the vacancies left by the departures of Harris Faberman, Carrie Wise, and Jay Champion d...
It’s been the better part of a decade since teenage rocker Jackson Cloud made his St. Vrain Valley Schools debut, and now the Niwot senior will get a chance to end his school performance career the same way he started it—co-headlining with local recording artist Mojomama. “Mojomama came to my school for their music academy when I was in, I think, second grade at Niwot Elementary, and I got a chance to play with them,” Cloud said in an interview about Spectacle 2019, an upcoming concert to bene...
One day while riding with her dad and chatting about autonomous (driverless) cars, Boulder Country Day seventh-grader Zoë Wagner noticed something at a four-way stop. “We saw that the car across from us turned right and then the car next to us turned right, and I thought ‘well, if this were an autonomous intersection, then both of those cars could have gone at the same time.’” Not content to let the question lie, the precocious Wagner eventually decided to investigate the idea further for her...
The Niwot baseball team didn’t fare too well on the field in 2018, but second-year head coach Adam Strah is optimistic that some off-the-field improvements will help the Cougars get back on track in 2019. “I am excited to see this group put into action what we have been talking about this year,” he wrote in an email interview about the upcoming season. “We have focused on our team building, leadership, and culture. There is a lot of baseball talent on this team and it will be fun to watch t...
All soccer teams are inherently “goal-oriented,” so when third-year head coach Steve Dimit referred to the 2019 Niwot girls soccer team as such, it wasn’t the squad’s on-field play he had in mind. “They’re a team that’s really goal-oriented and very, very focused on making another run at the league title, and making the playoffs and having a really good experience this year,” Dimit said. “They’re just committed every day to making this a great season.” Of course, having a great season will depen...
The Niwot Business Association (NBA) welcomed two new members to its executive board following officer elections on Feb. 12. President Tony Santelli and vice president Deborah Reed Fowler received new terms. Joining them are Nancy Bureau of Left Hand Animal Hospital, who replaces Linda Klueber as secretary, and Mary Coonce of Porchfront Homes, who is set to become the new treasurer. “I want to thank Linda for having served five years as secretary and Dayna [Roane] for serving three years as trea...
Senior AJ Metlay wins Maggie Long Award It’s been a highly successful season for the Niwot forensics team and now they have some state hardware to show for it. At the CHSAA Speech & Debate State Festival held last month at Heritage High in Littleton, Cougars brought home six medals, including first place in Creative Storytelling and a co-championship in Public Forum Debate. “This is the best we’ve even done at the state tournament,” co-captain AJ Metlay said of the team’s performance. ”We’ve ha...
Niwot sophomore Misha Barrett loves two things: playing basketball and “making the fans happy.” As shooting guard for the Silver Creek unified basketball team, Barrett gets a chance to do both. “I love going out there and showing people what I’ve got,” Barrett said, his enthusiasm for the sport evident. Barrett is one of a handful of Niwot special needs students who play for the Raptors unified team, which competes weekly throughout the district. In their final game of the season on Feb. 27,...
Neither Niwot wrestler made it very far into his bracket at this year’s Class 4A Colorado Wrestling Championships, but first-time state qualifiers Daniel Torres and Jovani Lopez didn’t walk away from the Pepsi Center empty handed, according to head coach Bobby Matthews. “They both fought,” he said after Torres and Lopez were eliminated on day two of the tournament, held Feb. 21-23. “They never gave up in any match, and that’s huge….These guys now know what it takes to win here. As coaches, we’v...
At a public hearing on Wednesday, Feb. 20, the Boulder County Planning Commission gave its blessing to land use staff’s proposed code updates for the Niwot Rural Community District (NRCD) with two alterations. The first was the removal of a sentence reading “Where alley access is available, curb cuts should not be permitted.” Curb cuts are what the county is defining as access to off-street parking spots from 2nd Avenue. The second change was the addition of wording encouraging the explo...
Niwot senior Natasha Ragland recently completed a course in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) training at nearby Front Range Community College, and while it didn’t change her future plans to become a doctor, she said it was life-changing experience nevertheless. “I took a lot away from the class. It was a lot of work and sometimes the work was very challenging, especially knowing what the emergency medical services deal with. And, it kind of gave me a new perspective on life.” Ragland first...
Dig out that oversized spoon and put on your elastic-waist pants for the 23rd annual Soup, Soup and More community dinner and fundraiser, coming up on Saturday, March 2 at Niwot United Methodist Church, located at 7405 Lookout Road in Gunbarrel. Event organizer Janet Gates said this year’s event will be familiar to repeat visitors. Doors open at 4 p.m., and there will be a wide selection of soups, chilis, stews, and chowders available, as well as bread, salad, desserts and drinks, served in a...
