One girl from La Plata County was deemed an all-state soccer player in 2016.
Bayfield senior Maddy Duran was placed on the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 3A All-State Honorable Mention team Wednesday. No girls from Durango or Ignacio were chosen.
Duran tied for the team-lead in goals with 19 along with sophomore Savannah Kaufmann. Her eight assists were second-most on the team behind the nine from junior Makenna Cowan.
Bayfield finished the season 11-3-2 overall and 9-1-2 in the Intermountain League.
Kent Denver’s Sage DiGiuilo was named the 3A Coach of the Year, while Kent Denver’s Krista Sahbreck claimed Player of the Year.
In Class 4A, Lewis-Palmer led the way with Brianna Alger winning Player of the Year and Joe Martin earning Coach of the Year. The 4A First and Second Teams were tough to crack this year, with many elite underclassmen falling short of even the honorable mention.
Durango’s stars were kept off the team despite a dominant regular season. A first-round exit in the state tournament surely didn’t help. But the Demons didn’t have a statistical star during an 11-5 season that included a 9-1 4A/5A Southwestern League record to earn a co-championship. Instead, DHS was a cohesive group that saw results spread around the field.
“Nobody on our team is on top of stat pages,” DHS head coach Dalon Parker said. “That’s what you need in Durango if you want to be all-state or something. The Front Range folks, they aren’t going to give you credit you deserve on the Western Slope unless you jump off the stat page.”
In only six games played, Durango senior Maddie Robertson scored four goals and had one assist. She tied for the team lead in goals with junior Lane Arnwine, and both of those girls were named the All-SWL First Team along with seniors Lauran Morrissey and Leah Stephens.
Also on the All-SWL Second Team for Durango was sophomore Madeline Dearien, who scored three times to tie for second-most on the team with sophomore Taylor Klone, freshman Caroline Knight and Morrissey.
“The biggest thing to our success this year was team chemistry,” Parker said. “All-conference, you have to give awards because everyone wants a trophy. But, at the end of the day, our whole team should’ve been all-conference for how young we are. No particular player put a ton of goals in the net like an Eli Fenton on the boys team, but that’s good to have. I’ll take team chemistry over individual talent or awards any day.”
Fruita Monument senior Baseley McClaskey was the All-SWL Player of the Year with nine goals and four assists, and Grand Junction Central’s Ethan Johnson was selected Coach of the Year by his peers after a 6-9-1 season that included a 3-3 mark in league.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
