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Wayne Voorhees gets fresh start at Riverdale Ridge

Former Legacy Lightning football head coach Wayne Voorhees is tackling a new project this fall, as he'll guide the Riverdale Ridge Ravens in their inaugural season.

THORNTON — Starting a project can be a daunting task. Between the foundation, new tools and the workforce, every new build needs a cornerstone.

Enter Wayne Voorhees.

Voorhees spent the past 15 years as head coach of the Legacy Lightning, but this year, he was ready to construct a new blueprint. This fall, he'll look to guide Riverdale Ridge High School in its inaugural season.

"At this point in my career, I've been coaching for 26 years," he said. "At some point, you just need a new change and a new challenge."

Voorhees is no stranger to new schools. As a student-athlete, he opened Horizon High School. In 2000, he was an assistant football coach at Legacy, when it first opened. By 2003, he had taken over as head coach. Now, he'll be resuming that role at the newest Colorado high school.

"This is a great opportunity for me to open a school as a head coach and teacher," Voorhees said. "You've got to be in the building if you're going to be a head coach, in my opinion. You get to know the kids on a personal level, you see them in class, you see them in hallways, and that accountability is really, really important."

During his tenure at Legacy, Voorhees led the Lightning to a 96-64 record and more than a dozen playoff runs. Yet to the Ravens -- who will be comprised of only freshmen and sophomores this upcoming fall -- he's the only high school coach they've ever known.

"I think he's a great coach," Riverdale Ridge sophomore Alexzander Mestas said. "He looks out for his athletes, he always has our backs and we know we can come to him whenever we need to."

Riverdale Ridge will play its first two seasons in the 2A classification, before likely moving up to the 4A classification when it gets its first class of seniors. Until then, the opportunity for experience at a new school is limitless for the players.

"The [coaches are] going to make plates for first catch, first touchdown [and] first 1st down, and they're going to put them on a wall for future generations to see," freshman Cooper Stolte said. "It's pretty amazing that one day some kid is going to look at the wall and it might be me."

"It's great to know that I can get my name known and be part of history here," Mestas added. "When kids in further generations can look back and say, 'That kid is a beast.'"

The groundwork has been laid and the walls are going up. The foundation starts this summer, and Voorhees and his team are ready to build.

"We're going to build a great culture here academically and athletically, and I think it's going to be a great fit," Voorhees said.

"I think a lot of schools think we're going to be not as good, and we're going to be soft [because we're young]," Mestas said. "They're going to be surprised."

Riverdale Ridge opens the 2018 football season

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