Fort Lewis College certainly found a pipeline down U.S. Highway 160.
Continuing the recent trend for Bayfield High School football, senior Brody McGhehey confirmed that he will attend Fort Lewis College next fall when he held his National Letter of Intent ceremony on Monday at Bayfield to play for the Skyhawks.
McGhehey will join fellow Bayfield teammates Wyatt Freier and Noah Loutherback to play at Ray Dennison Memorial Field for the 2016 season.
“It was pretty easy to make the decision because they’re both really good friends of mine,” said McGhehey on playing with his fellow BHS seniors. “It’ll be easy to play football with them at the next level.”
The 2015 Bayfield Wolverines (12-0, 5-0 2A Western Slope League) ran the table to win the Class 2A Colorado High School Activities Association football championship. The Wolverines beat Platte Valley, 28-20.
McGhehey’s signing marks the fourth member of the championship team to move onto the college ranks. Along with McGhehey, Freier and Loutherback, cornerback Cash Snooks signed with Dakota College of Bottineau in North Dakota.
The fact that FLC is taking interest in Bayfield’s success echoes at the legacy that these seniors will leave behind.
“It’s big for this town,” said McGhehey. “When we play, it’s not really about us. It’s more for the community, it really boosts the community’s morale. It’s also big for the school.”
Bayfield has a graduating class of roughly 57 students, so the percentage of athletes coming out of such a small pond is impressive.
“It leaves a good legacy for the kids who are coming up because now it’s a tradition in football,” said McGhehey. “Next year’s class is going to be just as good as us in football. There will be a good legacy in baseball, too.”
Originally from Silverton, Oregon, McGhehey moved to Bayfield 9½ years ago. Bayfield head coach Gary Heide must have been happy his family made the move.
“What they’ve done is set the tone as far as commitment and the pure mental concentration along with the physical effort towards the game of football,” said Heide about the 2016 senior class. “Brody has been a great role model on and off the field this past year. I’m just excited.”
The 6-foot playmaker has the qualities new FLC head coach Ed Rifilato can use. McGhehey is an all-around athlete who can suit up for both offense and defense, but will most likely spend the majority of snaps trying to score touchdowns. Either way, redshirting his freshman season is all but a certainty.
“I’m a little bit of a dual-threat because I can run well, I’m not really predictable running-wise,” said McGhehey, who had offers to play football and baseball at other schools.
On offense, McGhehey finished his senior year with 1,202 all-purpose yards–564 rushing, 316 receiving, 217 punt-return and 105 kick-return. He averaged 100.2 total yards per game with eight touchdowns–four receiving, three rushing and one punt return.
McGhehey, the son of Robert and Robin, had 38 tackles on defense and one fumble recovery.
“I know what his attributes are,” said Heide. “When he said FLC might stick him at the slot position, I thought it will be a fabulous position for him. He’s got great instincts to get open, he’s got great route-running ability with great hands, and he can adjust in the air. I think he’d be just fantastic at that position.”
McGhehey isn’t 100 percent on what he wants to study at FLC, but right now he’s thinking about a business degree.
Before McGhehey can suit up as a Skyhawk, however, there’s a baseball season to finish.
Currently Bayfield is 7-3 and hasn’t been able to play a 2A Mountain League game as of yet because of weather. The Wolverines had a slow start to the spring, going 4-3 to begin the year. Since then, Bayfield has won three in a row.
McGhehey is currently batting .387 with 10 runs scored, 12 hits and 10 runs batted in. On the mound, he is 2-0 with a 3.65 earned run average with 19 strikeouts.
Though already sporting one championship ring and letters of intent to play at the next level, McGhehey feels that these Wolverines are still hungry for more.
“It’s pretty easy to focus on baseball, its one task at hand,” said McGhehey. “We want to go get another ring, we have a good chance. We have a lot of seniors who have been starting since our sophomore year so we have a lot of great abilities and a lot of great players on our team.”
Bayfield baseball will be back on the diamond when the Wolverines take on Olathe at 4 p.m on Tuesday at Bayfield High School.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
