{"id":1305346,"date":"2019-03-12T21:54:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T03:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=450849"},"modified":"2019-03-12T21:54:47","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T03:54:47","slug":"remembering-lauren-mutter-with-laughter-and-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/remembering-lauren-mutter-with-laughter-and-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Lauren Mutter with laughter and love"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Alexander daughters grew up with their mother, Cathy, as the coach and Saints volleyball. And, yep, that\u2019s Taylor Alexander and Lauren Mutter way back when.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cody Brown interned for the Vail Daily when Lauren Mutter was coaching soccer at Vail Christian High School.<\/p>\n

I made assorted rules for Cody when he went to games, which included introducing himself to the coaches of a contest before the game started.<\/p>\n

So Cody went up to Lauren and said, “I know you babysat for me, but Chris is going to check if I did this, so I’m Cody Brown from the Vail Daily and I will be covering the game today. Would it be OK if we talked after?”<\/p>\n

When I called Lauren to confirm that Cody had acted professionally and introduced himself properly, she just laughed and laughed.<\/p>\n

You remember that laugh.<\/p>\n

What do you say when something like this happens? Lauren, 31, and seemingly in the prime of her life, died on Saturday. There is no rational explanation. There is no satisfying answer to why. You\u2019ll tie yourself up in circles trying to do this.<\/p>\n

\n

Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018She just exuded joy\u2019<\/h2>\n

So back to that laugh. It was just pure joy, and it seemed to touch all who came in contact with Lauren. She even laughed when I said \u201cHello, Mutter,\u201d all the time when I saw her. (Yes, I\u2019m a sucker for a corny joke, and she humored me.) And, holy cow, she touched a ton of people in her 31 years.<\/p>\n

The outpouring on Facebook alone has been amazing \u2014 current students, alumni of Vail Christian, parents of said students, college friends, people she met through Eagle County Young Life, people who worked with her in her professional career at Vail Christian and during her burgeoning fitness career and on and on.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just exuded joy,\u201d said Barbara Wilson, who coached Vail Christian girls soccer with Lauren. \u201cEveryone felt like Lauren cared about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A cynic might think that no one could be that outgoing and upbeat, yet that was Lauren.<\/p>\n

And it started early when she was a student at Vail Christian, Class of 2005. She played volleyball and basketball for the Saints and soccer for the Vail Mountain School. (A reminder, folks, there was no soccer team at Vail Christian at the time.)<\/p>\n

Speaking of Vail Mountain School, Lauren was on the first Vail Christian volleyball team to beat Vail Mountain back in 2003.<\/a> This may not seem like a big thing now, but the Gore Rangers had throttled the Saints for years and this was one of those turning points in the history of the program.<\/p>\n

Longtime Vail Christian volleyball coach Cathy Alexander recalled: \u201cI just don\u2019t know how to explain Lauren. She was the funniest kid. I don\u2019t think she ever got in trouble. She was just a pleaser. She worked hard as an athlete a captain and a leader. She wasn\u2019t afraid to take on responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that flowed off the court as well. The Mutter household was the de facto spot for team dinners when Lauren played and later coached with Alexander.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that island in her kitchen well,\u201d Alexander joked.<\/p>\n

In the winter, it was Saints basketball, and, come spring, Lauren suited up for Vail Mountain School soccer and was on the first girls\u2019 team to wear orange<\/a> in the spring of 2005.<\/p>\n

Returning to Eagle County<\/h2>\n

Lauren was somewhat a fan of Baylor. OK, a huge Bears fan, having earned her undergraduate degree in Waco, Texas. She got her postgraduate degree from Kansas State and returned to Vail Christian as part of the administration and as a coach.<\/p>\n

Returning to Saints volleyball and soccer was a natural. In soccer, Lauren was instrumental in keeping the program going after some rough years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outside, it may have seemed like it was all about the fun, the music, the (bus) rides, and the dinners,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut when you were in the middle of a game, you could see how she was a critical thinker. She understood the game so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This really isn\u2019t a surprise given that she had played for Bob Bandoni at Vail Mountain School, and the Bandon pretty much echoed Wilson\u2019s sentiments.<\/p>\n

Then there was volleyball. Having played for Alexander, she coached with her. Just like soccer and the halls of the school, she became a big sister to pretty much everyone, including Alexander\u2019s daughters, Kylie and Taylor.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Lauren was pressed into the position of varsity head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a proud moment, watching her coach,\u201d Cathy Alexander said. \u201cShe was making the decisions I would, but she\u2019s the opposite kind of coach of what I am and it works. She blossomed into her own coaching style.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is praise from Caesar.<\/p>\n

Hashtag time<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t remember if I told my father that I loved him during our final conversation before he died of a heart attack back in 2006. It\u2019s likely I did, but I can\u2019t say for certain.<\/p>\n

From persuing Facebook the last few days, lots of people who knew Lauren feel the same way. With those posts have come #livelovelaughlikelauren. Not only is it alliterative, but it\u2019s time to turn that into action.<\/p>\n

As Lauren\u2019s all-too-brief life has shown us, we don\u2019t know how much time we have, so there\u2019s no time like the present. Tell the people in your life that you love them. Guys, if this is awkward \u2014 and it can be \u2014 try the bro hug.<\/p>\n

So to start, we love Lauren\u2019s family, Mike, Terry and Caitlin. We can\u2019t begin to imagine how you are feeling or what you are enduring. We can tell you that we\u2019re here for you and we thank you for sharing Lauren with us.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Celebrate Lauren<\/strong><\/p>\n

What: Celebrate Lauren Mutter\u2019s life<\/p>\n

When: 4 p.m. Friday<\/p>\n

Where: Vail Christian High School\u2019s Grace Auditorium<\/p>\n

More information: VCHS students who played on teams Lauren coached are encouraged to wear their warmup shirts or jerseys. Coaching you meant the world to her.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Alexander daughters grew up with their mother, Cathy, as the coach and Saints volleyball. And, yep, that\u2019s Taylor Alexander and Lauren Mutter way back when. Cody Brown interned for the Vail Daily when Lauren Mutter was coaching soccer at Vail Christian High School. I made assorted rules for Cody when he went to games, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1305346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 23:49:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1305346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1305346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1305346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1305346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1305346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}