Three-sport Ignacio grad is CNCC-bound
Disappointed over not seeing as much field time during the 2024 Bronson Family McDonald’s/AABC Connie Mack World Series as he’d have liked, Devante Montoya nonetheless realized he wasn’t the only standout on a team filled with stars – a lesson from which he expects to benefit in his fast-arriving future.
“I think I could … have played more but when there’s that much talent you’ve just got to go with what the coach says; you can’t argue with it,” he explained during a phone interview Monday evening, Aug. 5. “But it was a great experience. There was a lot of talent on the team … and there’s stuff I’ve got to work on, so I have a starting spot next year.”
Though that could mean on a team seeking inclusion in the ’25 Series, the recent Ignacio High graduate was more likely referring to becoming a first-stringer at Colorado Northwestern Community College, to which he has committed.
“There’s not a lot of people around here that go to college for baseball, whether it’s because they don’t want to or just don’t get the chance,” he said. “So, I definitely think it’s a great opportunity, coming from a small town.”
“Since senior year I’d thought about it,” Montoya continued, “and instead of playing football in college I decided I wanted to play baseball. So, we started putting everything on FieldView, sending my film out to coaches … and then this (CNCC) coach called and wanted me … out there for, like, a workout to see, like, what I’m made of. He really liked what he’d seen, and it’s a great opportunity – that’s why I made sure to take him up on it.”
And Colorado Northwestern will need all the help its coaching staff can ink to snap out of a serious slide; longtime boss Lou McCollum’s Spartans went a torturous 4-47 overall in 2024. Ironically, CNCC both started and ended the grind victorious, having won the first half of a Jan. 27 doubleheader at Scottsdale (Ariz.) CC, and the second half of an April 26 twinbill in Rangely against visiting College of Southern Idaho – improving CNCC’s Scenic West Athletic Conference record to 1-31.
In 2023, the Spartans finished 11-39 overall, 7-25 SWAC (the last six of CNCC’s eight slated dates against Community Christian College were canceled, after Colorado Northwestern won the first two out in Redlands, Calif.), and in ’22 CNCC – with 3A Pagosa Springs grad Taylor Cotts on the squad – went 17-39 overall in regular-season action and 12-28 in conference, including a 7-1 mark against CCC. In the NJCAA Div. I, Region 18 Tournament, CNCC then went 2-2 and finished the season 19-41.
On Colorado Northwestern’s 2024 roster, 16 players hailed from Utah with just five from Colorado – including three sophomores initially plucked from Windsor’s 2022 crew which went a first-place 15-3 in the 4A/5A North Central and 17-7 overall after an upset loss courtesy of Falcon in the 4A-Region I semifinals.
Moved from the outfield to shortstop this spring while also working more innings as a pitcher, plus remaining locked in atop Ignacio’s batting order the past two seasons, Montoya helped the Bobcats (18-7 overall, 5-1 2A/1A San Juan Basin in 2024) bag three consecutive league titles (2022-24) and earn as many postseason appearances during his days in uniform.
But though such credentials have given him a strong foundation – and now a next-level look – in the sport, Montoya knows he’ll have to regularly rebuild and reinforce that base to help him re-emerge as a leader at CNCC.
“Being there’s going to be like being on the (Farmington, N.M.) Frackers,” he said, referring to his ’24 CMWS squad. “There’s going to be a lot of competition, a lot of people that you’ve got to fight for a position, but it’s also a good place to get better. And definitely get a lot more experience for making it to a higher level after this, or for maybe staying another year.”
“I think I’m going to start out studying Business Science,” he noted, “but I think I might switch it … to the medical field.”
DID YOU KNOW
The Scenic West was represented at this year’s JUCO World Series in Grand Junction (roughly an hour’s drive south of Rangely), with College of Southern Nevada going 2-2 and ending the season standing 53-12 overall and 26-3 in conference (the last three games of a March 1-2 quadruple-header at CSI were canceled; the teams’ April 5-6 quad in Henderson, Nev., however, was completed as scheduled).
MEMORABLE MOMENT
Snapping off the most clutch breaking ball of his career Saturday morning, May 18, Montoya not only short-circuited the Rye Thunderbolts’ comeback bid in the 2024 CHSAA Class 2A State Tournament’s opening Round-of-32 but gave the Bobcats’ expected Sweet 16 opponent a preview of what they’d be facing that afternoon.
“I’ve been in that situation before – relieving with the game on the line, one score to tie it – so it felt good to do it again,” he said, after getting RHS senior Brandon Benz – who’d homered off IHS starter Phillip Quintana earlier in the contest – to swing at a 1-2 hook with Axton Ehrlich at third and Branson Burbidge at second, and Ignacio hanging on to a 5-4 lead.
“I was throwing with all I had; my arm was feeling amazing,” continued Montoya, who’d almost ended the game one batter earlier by getting Burbidge to bounce into a near-5-2-3 double play – Will Hamler was, fortunately, retired at home plate for the second out – with the bases loaded. “So, when I knew that last pitch was going to be a curve, I put everything into that and … it was gross. That pitch went from an inside to an outside ball.”
Benz whiffed, and Rye’s season ended abruptly at regional-hosting Limon’s Bob Smith Memorial Baseball Park.
“For teams like Ignacio who we don’t play throughout the year, we always try to get a scouting report,” explained LHS skipper Rocky Rockwell, whose top-seeded Badgers would eliminate No. 16 IHS (Rye was the 17-seed) after a late-inning breakout. “But they came to our regional last year too … and we knew Montoya’s just an athletic kid. I was impressed.”