DENVER – After capping off a prolific career for Montezuma-Cortez High School soccer and earning his diploma from Dolores High School, senior captain Hayden Tallmadge added one more feather to his cap, as he landed on Colorado’s 3A all-state team.
Tallmadge ran the back line as a center halfback for head coach Kevin McGarigal’s Panthers, helping guide the squad to a 4-4 campaign this spring.
Tallmadge earned a nod on the Honorable Mention team, thanks in part to his consistent play as captain for the Panthers, steadying the back four in front of goalkeeper Trinidad McDonell, while providing an aerial threat for the Panthers as well, both from defensive and attacking set pieces.
The Dolores senior played every minute of the Panthers season, including two clean sheet wins over Telluride and Bayfield. He also scored one of his three career goals in a 7-0 thrashing of the Wolverines that helped ensure their first .500 season in over a decade, and a second-place finish in the 3A Intermountain League.
Tallmadge becomes the first Panther to receive a selection onto the state’s highest honor roll in boy’s soccer since CHSAA established the All-State teams in the 2013-14 academic year. His honor joins a selection onto the first team of the Intermountain League as well.
Also a part of the Dolores basketball squad, Tallmadge ranked among the Bears’ leading scorers just a few months earlier, providing an average of eight points per contest to help Dolores to a 5-9 record.
The Colorado High School Activities Association selects its all-state teams across all four classifications of boys soccer using league nominations and coaches’ voting.
