{"id":1319795,"date":"2020-05-06T15:29:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T21:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996167"},"modified":"2020-05-06T15:29:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T21:29:45","slug":"a-canceled-season-upends-glenwood-pitchers-ultimate-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/a-canceled-season-upends-glenwood-pitchers-ultimate-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"A canceled season upends Glenwood pitcher\u2019s ultimate goal"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/CRGlenwoodbaseball-GPI-032219-1-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/CRGlenwoodbaseball-GPI-032219-1-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/CRGlenwoodbaseball-GPI-032219-1-1-300x218.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Glenwood Springs pitcher Cole Houston winds up for the pitch in action last spring against the Coal Ridge Titans.<\/strong><br \/><em>Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Four years of high school weren\u2019t supposed to result in a leap of faith for Glenwood Springs High School senior Cole Houston.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As a pitcher who was already nearing 90 miles per hour in his final year, he was set to receive multiple offers to play on scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, those opportunities vanished quickly. It left Houston without a chance to prove himself, and without a chance to finish things he started with teammates who were by his side as far back as little league.<\/p>\n<p>Originally, the Colorado High School Activities Association postponed spring sports. Then they pushed them back further before finally cancelling all activities for the remainder of the school year on April 21.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row gspi-donation gspi-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/PI-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cLast season, I was so worked up, everything was so mental,\u201d Houston said. \u201cComing out of last year, I knew this was a really important season because a lot of people didn\u2019t think the best of me. I knew I could do a lot better.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Houston was already receiving interest during tournaments before the spring season as a member of the Rocky Mountain Oysters, a local travel-ball team.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe played at a couple of tournaments and there were a couple of people that came up and talked to me after,\u201d Houston said. \u201cI was planning on going to a couple of camps too. I was going to go to (The Colorado School of) Mines for one but it got canceled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIdeally, my other top option was to try to get a scholarship from Mines for baseball.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To get there, Houston spent the summer in construction, working out as many muscles as possible. He spent several days throwing 60-pitch bullpens as well to strengthen his already quick arm.<\/p>\n<p>Demons\u2019 head coach Eric Nieslanik recognized Houston\u2019s off-season growth before spring sports were canceled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCole is gifted with an arm with just unbelievable speed and velocity on the baseball,\u201d Nieslanik said. \u201cWe had traveled down to Delta, March 7 for a scrimmage and Cole did a fantastic job. He dominated \u2013 80% strikes, location was there, velocity was up. I saw some great signs for his year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mental hurdles Houston battled in his junior year were gone. His fastball\u2019s always been quick, but now it was under control, too \u2013 a good indicator that his disappointing stats were going to give way to something recruiters could embrace.<\/p>\n<p>Putting together a better season was a priority, but so was embarking on a senior campaign with close teammates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been playing baseball with the kids on my team for the past 10 years,\u201d Houston said. \u201cWe were finally ready to capitalize on what we\u2019ve learned. We all had a lot of goals and our team is just such a great group of guys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was waiting for this season for the past five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The canceled season resulted in Houston committing to go to California Polytechnic State University where he\u2019ll attempt to make the team as a walk-on.<\/p>\n<p>Houston excelled in school, specifically engineering, and hopes to make strides on the West Coast. Competing for a spot on the baseball team will be something he\u2019ll enjoy. Dropping hockey, despite offers to play across the nation for junior-league teams will be hard, but the memories made in both will last.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll miss being friends with the kids you played with ever since you were little,\u201d Houston said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been through every single moment you\u2019ve had, so it\u2019s just fun to share moments with kids \u2013 forming a ton of friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As of now, local coaches are working to organize a 4A statewide baseball tournament for seniors and other players alike who missed out on the season. The event would take place over the summer and serve as a Senior Day for many.<\/p>\n<p>If it doesn\u2019t happen, Houston\u2019s story as a Demon will be over \u2013 a book missing a couple of chapters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody had progressed into such a great baseball player,\u201d Houston said. \u201cTo see the damage we would\u2019ve been able to do as a team would be really cool, but we weren\u2019t even given the opportunity to see it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:lzahlmann@postindependent.com\">lzahlmann@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sports\/a-canceled-season-upends-glenwood-pitchers-ultimate-goal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glenwood Springs pitcher Cole Houston winds up for the pitch in action last spring against the Coal Ridge Titans.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent Four years of high school weren\u2019t supposed to result in a leap of faith for Glenwood Springs High School senior Cole Houston.&nbsp; As a pitcher who was already nearing 90 miles per [&hellip;]<\/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":["post-1319795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-03 23:43:34","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\/1319795","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=1319795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}