As former AHS football head coach Karson Pike pursues his coaching career at the NCAA Division II Bemidji State University in Minnesota next season, Travis Benson will take his position. Benson, a 1995 AHS graduate, coached the AHS football team in 2005 and 2006.

Benson started his career playing Division II football at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction.  Benson’s love for the sport led him back to his home turf to coach the AHS football team for two seasons. After coaching 12 consecutive years, he then found his way back to the Skiers in 2018. He believes the momentum Coach Karson Pike created with the Skiers of having an overall record of 8-2 in the 2017-2018 season must be continued when he takes over the program.

“I think a lot of it is just the continuation of it, the continuation of a high-speed offense with an up-pace tempo and a strong defense (and) very similar coaching staff, so I think everything that was happening last year just carries forward,” Benson said.

Wide receiver and rising senior Noah Hollander said he is excited to work with Benson during the 2018-19 football season and believes coach Benson has a lot to offer to the young Skiers.

“I think we will adjust great with Coach Benson because most of us have had him every year of high school as an assistant coach,” Hollander said. “He’s a great guy who understands our skills and we will utilize it the best we can.”

Coach Pike explained that he will miss the athletes and the Aspen community next season, but believes that Coach Benson will adjust easily as head coach for the Skiers.

“The most difficult part of being the head coach for the Skiers was creating a weight room culture,” Pike said. “It is extremely important in football to train the body year round.  There is also a lot of camaraderies built during that time and that alone can help you win games.”

Like Pike, Coach Benson values the basic fundamentals and thinks that they should be practiced daily to have a successful season.

“Fundamentals are practiced day in and day out. It’s more perfecting the fundamentals at the camps and starting to find a rhythm and a dynamic to the team itself that’s the big part about summers, I mean that cohesiveness among a group of young men. To continue on the path that we have been set towards and to continue to grow and to build upon our successes from last year,” Benson said.