Shortly after Brylee Harvest stepped down, one month before the start of the school year to take a teaching and coaching position at Taylorsville, the Colts were left needing a new head boys soccer coach. 

Enter Dan Fergusson, hired by new Cottonwood Athletic Director James MacIntyre. 

Having last coached at Brighton High School where for several years he manned their junior varsity teams, thus preparing them for more advanced roles later in their high school careers, Fergusson was already adept at taking much younger kids where they didn’t think they could go in the sport. 

It was probably hard for the community to know how coach Fergusson would do at Cottonwood, considering he’d never been a high school varsity coach before. 

But, on March 27 the Colts broke through and got their first win, outlasting Juan Diego Catholic 7-6 in a penalty kick shootout. The game was knotted at 0-0 at halftime. In the second half, the Colts got a goal from sophomore Luis Montiel to equal Juan Diego’s, sending the game into overtime. 

It was Montiel’s second goal of the season; he would add another in Cottonwood’s other win in the season, a 2-1 victory at home April 3 against Highland. 

Aside from that, there have been a lot of growing pains from a Cottonwood team returning just three seniors. 

Cottonwood (2-7) has notched two victories in a tough Region 10 loaded with great programs. With the additions of schools such as East and Judge Memorial Catholic—two perennial powerhouse programs—to an already impressive group featuring Murray and Park City, there are no easy games in this league on any given day. 

Also, Fergusson and his new staff have made a few changes to the program—as most new high school coaches tend to do. 

The first was that Fergusson moved the Colts boys from the grass soccer pitch they typically play on into the school’s football stadium, thus taking advantage of Cottonwood’s athleticism, a tactical move, on the faster turf surface. 

As anticipated, that move has required adjustments on the fly. On the one hand, Cottonwood does play its game faster on the surface; on the flip side, the Colts are often left at a disadvantage when they’re playing against teams that have equal or better athletes. 

Absorbing twin 8-0 shutouts—such as what was the case against Brighton and Farmington in the preseason—and giving up nine goals against rival Murray March 20 probably caused a bit of a surprise. 

The young Colts accepted the lessons that losses like those tend to teach and rebounded at Judge Memorial four days later (March 24) with a better performance. After trailing 3-0 to the Bulldogs at halftime, Cottonwood held Judge scoreless in the second half and kept it at 3-0 at the final whistle. 

That led to the shootout win over Juan Diego at home three days after that, marking Fergusson’s first victory at Cottonwood. 

So far, the Colts have been led by the sophomore Montiel, who has three goals. Kaleb Jakomino, another sophomore, has scored once and Rustam Junior Biswa, a freshman, rounds out the players that have scored. Underclassmen have also provided all of Cottonwood’s assists thus far. 

Despite some of the Colts struggles, they’re still ranked No. 24 in Class 4A, good enough to make the state tournament if it started today.