{"id":1320218,"date":"2020-05-27T17:12:13","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T23:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=996642"},"modified":"2020-05-27T17:12:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T23:12:13","slug":"carter-pressler-commitment-to-cmu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/carter-pressler-commitment-to-cmu\/","title":{"rendered":"Carter Pressler commitment to CMU"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-640x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-640x1024.jpg 640w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-768x1229.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-960x1536.jpg 960w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-1280x2048.jpg 1280w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/05\/PresslerCMU-rct-052820-scaled.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Rifle\u2019s Carter Pressler pulls in a reception during the Bears home playoff game against Englewood last year. Pressler will continue his football career at Colorado Mesa University this fall. (Kyle Mills \/ Citizen Telegram)<\/strong><br \/><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The bloodline at Colorado Mesa University for the Pressler family runs deep. Carter\u2019s great uncle Wayne Jensen, his father Rod and his brother Brooks all attended the school and played sports.<\/p>\n<p>Carter\u2019s father and brother both urged him to attend Ottawa University in Arizona to play basketball after his senior year concluded at Rifle High School. Carter\u2019s dream was to receive a scholarship to play basketball in Grand Junction.<\/p>\n<p>The majority of the house insisted, but one ride cleared things up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCarter and I just took a drive alone and Carter looked at me and said, \u2018Mom, I\u2019m not ready to leave my family,\u2019\u201d Carter\u2019s mom, Erin Pressler said. \u201cAnd he wasn\u2019t afraid to discuss that.\u201d<\/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>During his senior season, Carter had the same problems his older brother endured. A torn ACL in his third game of the year against Glenwood Springs spelled the end of a season \u2013 at least everyone thought.<\/p>\n<p>After talking to doctors, Carter made the decision to continue playing with a less-than-healthy knee. After each tweak of that knee, through the tears and pain, he continued and finished a final year worthy of being considered a college prospect.<\/p>\n<p>The potential for collegiate football showed itself a year earlier though.<\/p>\n<p>Against Delta, through the pouring rain, Carter intercepted a third-quarter pass and returned it for a touchdown \u2013&nbsp;a play which ended up being the turning point in his career. They went on to win the game 34-7 after trailing 7-6 at halftime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDelta\u2019s always so tough and when we went down to Delta, it was pouring rain \u2013 maybe as hard as I\u2019ve ever seen it rain in Western Colorado,\u201d Rifle head coach Damon Wells said. \u201cWe were having a tough time dealing with exchanges and stuff because the ball was so slippery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe energy change \u2013&nbsp;he changed the outlook. And I think one of the things that a lot of people don\u2019t pay attention to is, when Carter did that, it was sheer joy for everyone on the sideline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erin watched and hopped out into the pouring rain in celebration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was raining so hard you couldn\u2019t see your hand in front of your face,\u201d Erin said. \u201cI tried to stay out there as long as I could, and I finally gave up and went to the car.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll never forget that. Right when I turned on the windshield wipers, all I could see was Carter running towards me and I got out of the car \u2013&nbsp;It makes me teary-eyed thinking about it. I got out of the car, there\u2019s all these people next to me and I scream, \u2018Oh my god, that\u2019s my kid! Oh my God, that\u2019s my kid!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From that point on, the path for Carter swapped from one of a high school athlete to a possible college career. A meeting with former Rifle State Champion, Casie Dunlap, also added to the change.<\/p>\n<p>Dunlap came to practice during Carter\u2019s season and simply asked, \u201cHave you ever considered playing college ball?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The confidence boost from the exchange carried through much of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Junior year) was my first time playing cornerback, I really didn\u2019t know what to expect,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThen after that, I had the feel, I felt like I had everything on lockdown \u2013 keys, reads, all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the talk, Carter went on to intercept eight passes in the next two years and deflect seven passes.<\/p>\n<p>Heading to CMU, Wells sees a player who has the skillset to stand out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that the way the game is played now lends itself to those athletic kids that could run and that are smart and selfless as well,\u201d Wells said. \u201cWhen I say you can do whatever you want with Carter, I mean he\u2019s not a kid that has to be a boundary corner or has to be a field corner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can move him (between) positions and he\u2019ll do anything you ask him to do. And the beauty is that there\u2019s the same level of expertise and level of care and effort wherever you move him around.\u201d<\/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\/carter-pressler-commitment-to-cmu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rifle\u2019s Carter Pressler pulls in a reception during the Bears home playoff game against Englewood last year. Pressler will continue his football career at Colorado Mesa University this fall. (Kyle Mills \/ Citizen Telegram) The bloodline at Colorado Mesa University for the Pressler family runs deep. Carter\u2019s great uncle Wayne Jensen, his father Rod and [&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":{"0":"post-1320218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 09:21:21","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\/1320218","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=1320218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1320218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1320218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1320218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1320218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}