Student-Athlete of the Week: Thomas Carnagie

Niwot's 26-20 win over Thornton in the final football game of the 2020 season wasn't just the team's sole victory of the year, it was also a breakout game for running back Thomas Carnagie, who ended the night with an impressive 227 yards rushing and his first career touchdown. In 2021, as a senior, Carnegie has picked up where he left off, and is now one of the Cougars' most potent offensive weapons. In two games for Niwot, he has 201 yards on 35 carries, and was a key factor in the season-opening win over Greeley Central.

But Carnagie's path to star running back hasn't been a smooth one. He was new to the sport as a freshman, and had a hard time finding his groove as a fullback on the junior varsity team. Poor grades kept him off the team as a sophomore, and resulting clashes with the coaches nearly derailed his football career entirely.

He got back on track academically, thanks to hard work and support from Heather Rumrey in Niwot's front office. And when a new coaching staff joined the football program before his junior year, he decided it was time for a fresh start there, too.

"I got a really good first impression from Coach Blume," Carnagie said of second-year head coach Nikolas Blume. "If it weren't for the new coaches, I don't think I would be playing football."

Carnegie has blossomed as a player under Blume's system, though he admitted that the transition from being a spectator to being in the starting lineup was a little abrupt.

"At first, I came out really nervous, because I had never played a snap of varsity," he recalled of his first game in 2020. "With COVID, we didn't really have that many people come out, so I just got thrown into the fire, but I really liked it."

After his memorable performance in the 2020 finale, Carnegie has lofty ambitions for his senior season, and has been putting in extra work in the training room to achieve them. That work is clearly paying off on the field, and not just for Niwot's offense. Carnegie has also been one of the Cougars' most effective defenders, with 15 tackles, nine of them unassisted. That has caught the attention of Blume, who said that watching Carnagie develop both as a player and a person over the past two seasons has been immensely gratifying.

"Tom is currently making a big impact on both sides," Blume said of the senior. "He's a full time leader....And he's just a different young man now than 18 months ago when I first met him, so I couldn't be more proud of the way that he's carried himself on every single front."

Carnegie is hoping to turn his recent football success into a college scholarship, and has been exploring the recruiting process. After graduation, he hopes to study psychology and eventually become a police officer. When he's not at school or playing football, Carnegie also holds down a part-time job. In between all of that, he enjoys sleeping.