It’s Play #1 in the Project Play framework: Ask Kids What They Want. The following youth profiles come from the Aspen Institute’s State of Play Colorado: Aspen to Parachute report. The report assesses the opportunities and barriers for more children to access play, sports and outdoor recreation in rural Colorado communities.
Grace Anson, 15
Grace vividly remembers her competitive cheerleading experience around age 6 with a coach who demanded perfection.
“It’s a sport where you have to have the perfect body and athletic ability,” Grace says. “I’ve never been able to do some of that stuff. You get put in the back of the group. I’m like, ‘That’s not fair.’ I think everybody should have their moment to shine. The coach expected everything out of everyone. She would try to change everything about you.”
Grace, now a sophomore at Glenwood Springs High School, found joy elsewhere: in mountain biking. Having started competitive biking only in high school, she regularly competes on her school’s club team and with Roaring Fork Cycling’s Pinnacle team, a top program for high school and elite-level junior racers. Grace wants to see if she can ride in college.
It’s ironic, Grace says, because she used to have to be “bribed” to go on family rides at a young age. Her mom is a certified mountain biking coach. Now Grace can’t get enough of biking, whether it’s leisurely rides or 12- to 18-mile competitive races.
Every new trail is a new adventure. Every coach and teammate is welcoming.
“If you aren’t the best, who cares? If you are, that’s awesome,” Grace says of her mountain biking team. “Nobody really cares how well you do. In other sports, if you’re super good, you talk to other super-good friends. You don’t really expand your social circles like in mountain biking.”
Grace had a rough fall 2023 season, suffering her first concussion after hitting her head on a rock when the bike slipped. She stopped training for about 10 days and gradually came back while the school’s athletic trainer monitored her heart rate and symptoms.
The state championships occurred at the same site where Grace fell. “I started dead last in 74th place and passed 22 girls, which was really awesome,” she says. “I like to say I got revenge on the course.”
Grace also swims the 100 fly, 200 free and 50 free at Glenwood Springs High School, where she plans to start a new sport. She made a deal: If one of her friends tried swimming, Grace would try track and field. “I’ve never done running or track,” she says. “I’ll try pole vaulting.”
Grace finds that sports help get her mind off school. “After I go to practice or a ride, there’s a smile back on my face even if it was a crappy day,” she says.
Yet Grace estimates only about half of her friends are physically active. Some tell her they wish they could ride a bike like she does.
“I say, ‘Of course you can do it, just get out of your comfort zone,’” she says. “I like getting out of my comfort zone. It’s a new experience and living life on the edge a little bit.”
Helina McCracken, 13
Helina epitomizes what it’s like trying to play multiple sports in this region. Multisport athletes are necessary to field teams given small population sizes. Plus, trying different sports is embraced by many young people.
“I don’t like sitting all the time,” says Helina, an eighth grader at Carbondale Middle School. “When I don’t play sports, I feel like I get out of shape because I’m not running around.”
Throughout her young life, Helina has tried soccer (the sport she plays most consistently since beginning at age 3), basketball, gymnastics, skiing, track and field, and volleyball. She recently tried volleyball out of curiosity to see if she’s any good, and she now juggles middle school volleyball and club soccer schedules during the same fall season. She received permission from her volleyball coach to leave practices 20 minutes early to attend soccer practice.
“I wish coaches would remember what it was like when they were in middle school, balancing two different sports at the same time, and how it’s hard to commit to one certain thing — and it’s OK if that certain thing isn’t soccer,” Helina says.
Helina plays soccer for Roaring Fork United, a program that combines travel and rec teams serving Aspen to Glenwood Springs. She joined a more competitive program at Roaring Fork United in the sixth grade, playing up in age with more travel and time commitment. In fall 2023, she switched to a team with teammates her age, and feels more confidence because of the change.
“Roaring Fork United is nice that they offer scholarships, and Helina usually gets at least half,” says Carmen McCracken, Helina’s mother. “The problem is, you don’t know until the end of the season if you get the scholarship or not, so for some parents the cost is prohibitive. The travel is also difficult, sometimes going three hours to play a game.”
Despite Helina’s love for soccer — her goal is to make the varsity high school team by her sophomore year — she can’t play the sport at her middle school. The region doesn’t offer middle school soccer for boys or girls. Even if middle school soccer were available, Helina isn’t sure her school would have enough girls interested to field a team. “I would play club more than the middle school because I have more of a commitment to club,” she says.
Besides, Helina has other sports she likes to try. For instance, she skis and runs the 200-meter dash in the offseason to condition her legs for soccer.
Mostly, though, Helina tries different sports for a simple reason: “I like feeling athletic.”
Hillary Maravilla, 9
To watch Hillary aggressively skate at hockey practice, constantly moving and rarely shying away from incidental contact, you wouldn’t know she’s a hockey newcomer in the last couple years. Why would she know about hockey, which is traditionally a sport only played in winter communities? Her family came from El Salvador, where soccer rules.
Since Hillary was exposed to hockey, the sport has dramatically improved the self-esteem of this fourth grader at Basalt Elementary School who lives in nearby El Jebel.
“She used to always say, ‘I can’t do this. I’ll never be able to do this,’” says Ada Maravilla, Hillary’s mother, through a Spanish translator. “Now her mentality is, ‘I can do it. I’ll keep trying.’ If it was up to Hillary, she would be on the ice every day.”
Hillary discovered hockey through a learnto-skate flyer in the mail from the Colorado Extreme, a third-year youth hockey organization gaining recognition for its messaging around equitable access to hockey. All of Hillary’s costs to play, including equipment, are currently free.
“I really wanted to try because I’ve seen a lot of kids play and they say it is fun,” Hillary says.
Learning to skate turned into loving the physicality of hockey while playing mostly against boys. Hillary loves contact, in part because that’s not allowed as much in soccer, which she also plays.
“In soccer I usually push and I get fouls, so that’s how I got the attitude to hit in hockey,” Hillary says. “I like hitting. It feels like a good sensation, but it also feels weird because you could get out for a few minutes in the penalty box.” USA Hockey prohibits body checking until age 13.
The girl who knew nothing about hockey now watches the NHL on TV, especially the Oilers (and her favorite player Connor McDavid), along with the Avalanche, Red Wings and Devils. She says she doesn’t understand why her team includes only three girls while other girls stick to dolls and makeup.
“Maybe because they’re more like a girl and not like me,” Hillary says. “I’m tougher. Maybe if girls have a little tougher attitude, we could make them go into hockey or any sport.”
Hillary now has dreams tied to hockey, like playing in high school or college. If nothing else, she gained confidence in who she is.
“Before hockey, I was just the shy girl and I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I just wanted to follow the coaches, be quiet and be my best,” she says. “Now I feel more confident. I talk more and say good things about my teammates.”
Kiah Eklund, 13
Kiah exudes passion for sports, whether it’s soccer, skiing, horseback riding or tennis. But without question, the sport Kiah most wants to try is gymnastics. She imagines one day completing roundoff front and back handsprings like she watches other gymnasts do online.
“It’s just so much fun,” she says. “I want to do that, but I’m just a Level 1 gymnast right now.”
Kiah, a seventh grader at Aspen Middle School, was registered for a gymnastics class through Aspen Gymnastics, a private program that operates in an Aspen Recreation facility, until her parents pulled her out during the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid crowded spaces. Kiah is at higher risk to become sick because she has Down syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes developmental delays.
The difference between Kiah’s development level and her age group causes challenges to register her for a team sport. “She was delayed from infancy,” says Jodie Eklund, Kiah’s mom. “When other kids were learning to walk and run, she was still just working on being alive. Some kids start playing sports at 3, and Kiah was still starting to walk at 3.”
A family friend, whose daughter also has a disability, started inclusive soccer outings in Glenwood Springs. “It was sort of initiated as a school project by a high schooler and then it continued because there was a need,” Jodie says.
Every Sunday, kids of all ages and ability levels (including some in wheelchairs) meet to play. These aren’t structured games. They’re a chance to learn some skills, kick the ball and have fun. Soccer has become Kiah’s favorite sport.
“My No. 1 rule is, make a team with your friends and have fun,” she says. “We don’t care if we win or lose. It’s how we play the game.”
Kiah learns tennis through her occupational therapist at school. Again, there are no matches, just developing understanding of the sport.
Kiah used to regularly ski with Challenge Aspen, which supports inclusive participation for individuals living with physical and cognitive disabilities. She took a break during COVID-19 and planned to begin skiing lessons again in the winter of 2024. She probably won’t take a group lesson with kids her age given the social gap. Jodie wants Kiah to ski with an individual instructor, so she gets coaching from people other than her parents.
Kiah is currently working on learning how to ride a bicycle independently. She has easy access to outdoor activities like snowboarding, hiking, camping, swimming and paddleboarding because of the interests of her parents, both of whom are snowboarding coaches.
Jodie isn’t sure Kiah will ever be able to play team sports. The most realistic hope might be participating through Special Olympics, which has some programming in Glenwood Springs. But driving from Aspen to Glenwood Springs — much less to perhaps one day play against a Special Olympics soccer team in Grand Junction — is challenging for Jodie.
“If I wasn’t a working mom, sure, I could take her to everything she wants to do,” she says. “But there’s only so much time.”
As for gymnastics, “it was unfortunate we lost our spot,” Jodie says. “We’d love to get back in, but from what I hear, we’d have to be pretty lucky because it’s such a long waitlist.”
Gabriel Mendoza, 17
From an early age, Gabriel loved the feeling of hitting in football. “It just creates more of a spark in me,” he says. “I find it more fun to go out and thump somebody.”
Gabriel, a high school junior at Grand Valley High School in Parachute, started tackle in the third grade. In the seventh grade, he volunteered to play back-to-back games each week because the eighth-grade team was short on players. Gabriel isn’t surprised to learn that more elementaryschool-age children locally play tackle than flag football — the opposite of national statistics.
“We’re all country kids,” he explains. “Before I was able to play (organized) football, I was playing tackle football in the field with my friends, no helmets, no nothing. It’s just the culture. Flag makes sense maybe for kids 6 and under.”
Gabriel thinks most kids are scared of football’s violence because they’ve never tried the sport before. He sells them on the skills they could use at certain positions and the social bonding from being on a team.
“I try to encourage them that you’re not really going to get hurt,” he says. “You’re all padded up and it’s not as bad as it looks, except this season I bloodied up my nose, so it was a little harder to tell them that.”
Gabriel is a three-sport athlete. In the spring, he’s on the track and field team (100-meter dash, 300-meter hurdles and discus) to train for football. During the winter, he wrestles at the 144-pound class.
“It’s a love-hate relationship with cutting weight because I love food, but I love the hard work that gets put into it,” he says. “You go into a wrestling room and fog up the entire room, and you might be hating it during practice, but when you’re done, you think back, ‘I put in the work.’ I enjoy wrestling for the hard work and the feeling of dominating someone at the mat.”
Work drives Gabriel. He works as a ranch hand on the outskirts of Parachute, maybe once a week during the school year and regular 9-to-5 days in the summer.
Gabriel loves the outdoors and participates in 4-H, a community of young people learning leadership, citizenship and life skills. Through 4-H, he shows sheep and participates in archery, a useful skill he hopes to use later in life when hunting.
Gabriel dreams of playing college football but recognizes how difficult that will be. As for the potential risk of long-term brain injury due to repetitive hits to the head, “I think about it a little bit, but I’ve never really taken too many hard hits to the head,” he says. “With all the new technology in the helmets, you trust the helmets more and learn to fall correctly to protect yourself.”
Mostly, Gabriel is proud that the Grand Valley football team is getting more serious about its program.
“We were getting those kids who wanted to be lazy and it kind of infected our team,” he says. “Now the coaches are being a lot tougher on us, and on top of that, we’ll play a game after practice and do a fun thing. The coaches will encourage us and that gives our kids hope. The hope for success is the biggest thing. That’s what every little kid wants to have: the hope to play in the NFL or be a wrestling champion — and the coaches pushing them to their limits, and then after practice telling you in a calm voice, ‘You’ve got this, you can do this, keep going.’”
Jon Solomon is Community Impact Director of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play initiative. Jon can be reached at jon.solomon@aspeninstitute.org.