Long before state championships, Cheyenne Mountain and Colorado Springs, Native Americans were playing lacrosse in the 12th century. 

Known as the Creator’s Game, lacrosse was a contest played at events, in preparation for war and, at times, to settle disputes. 

Lacrosse was also known as the “Medicine Game” because it speaks to the spirit and soul of those who play it. 

Fast forward more than 900 years and the Medicine Game is still healing those who play. 

Just ask Cheyenne Mountain and midfielder Weber Rowell. 

Rowell and the Red-Tailed Hawks have faced more than their fair share of hard times. Rowell’s sister, Adelaide, passed away two years ago and in February, Cheyenne Mountain senior John Paul “JP” Dalsaso, died of cardiac arrest in his sleep. 

The Hawks had put JP’s and Adelaide’s initials on their helmets this season as they captured a fifth state championship. 

Rowell, who wore his older sister’s bracelet underneath his pads and her No. 2 jersey for every contest, led the team in goals (39), assists (26) and points (65) this season as the Hawks captured their fifth state championship. 

The first team all-state senior is The Gazette Preps boys lacrosse Peak Performer of the Year. 

After the unthinkable before his junior year in 2024, Rowell found solace in honing his game. 

“Going into that fall semester was just such a confusing time for me and I didn’t really know what to do,” Rowell said. “My junior year, I would get a bucket of balls and just go shoot during lunch by myself, just every single day.”

Those moments offered Rowell something he especially desired in that moment in his life, a feeling of control. He felt the same during workouts at the gym or hiking fourteeners, anything that allowed him the opportunity to push and challenge himself. 

“It does allow an escape for me. I can actually control that,” he said. “That’s a thing that I’ve definitely been struggling with, what I can control.”

As a team, the Hawks faced challenges beyond their control. For starters, this season marked the first in well over a decade without coach Mike Paige.

The transition took some getting used to.   

New coach Sequoia Bowan brought a new style of structure and coaching that some players were unfamiliar with, Rowell said.  

Bowan’s challenge was taking over a program with lofty expectations despite some disappointment in recent seasons. In 2023, Rowell’s first year of high school, the Hawks won a state title for a third-straight season. In the two seasons that followed, Cheyenne Mountain missed the final four both times, lost to rival Air Academy in the 2025 playoffs, and posted a losing season last year for the first time in Paige’s tenure and the first time since 2010. 

“We’re lucky to be a part of a program that has a great legacy and these kids they wanted to add their banner,” Bowan said. “We went to some opposing teams and facilities this year and they’d be hanging a final four banner or semifinal appearance and we don’t do that at Cheyenne Mountain. We hang state championships and that’s what we do.”

The Hawks were a .500 team through the first eight contests, but a home game against Ponderosa changed everything. Despite a 9-8 win, the players had a heart-to-heart conversation in the locker room after the game.

“It was a win, but then again, I think we stayed for maybe an hour to an hour and a half, the entire team and all of the coaching staff in the locker room,” Rowell said. “We had this huge talk. … At the beginning of the season, we all do a sheet of what our goals for the season are. I think 90% of the guys said win a state championship. So our goals weren’t matching up with what we were playing like.”

One of the biggest takeaways from that discussion was accountability, and that every player should be doing his best as part of a unit and as an individual to help guide Cheyenne Mountain back to the top of 4A lacrosse. 

In Rowell’s case, that meant a position change. Last season, he finished third on the team in goals with 25 as an attackman. This spring, he spent most of the season as an offensive midfielder but finished it as a two-way midfielder, Bowan said. 

“He was definitely the glue guy on the team,” Bowan said. “His body and his work in the weight room, he’s a tireless worker there. He had some goals to put on some more weight this year and he really looks like he’s college ready from an athletic standpoint. I think that helped with his durability.” 

That durability was crucial for the Hawks in the postseason. Rowell would play defensive midfielder, defending an opposing attacker and then when Cheyenne Mountain gained possession, he’d stay on the field for the long shift, trapping an already tired attacker who then wasn’t used to playing defense. 

That tenacity and perseverance embodied the spirit of this season’s Hawks’ team, which after losing to rival and top-seeded Air Academy in the regular season, beat the Kadets convincingly 17-6 in the state quarterfinals. 

Two games later, ninth-seeded Cheyenne Mountain took on second-seeded Evergreen in the championship. The Hawks enjoyed a four-goal lead at the half, but Evergreen made a comeback in the third and fourth quarters. 

The teams were tied and the game wasn’t decided until triple overtime. Sophomore Colt Kugler would be the golden-goal hero for Cheyenne Mountain, but before that moment, Rowell gave his all. 

“We asked a lot out of him,” Bowan said. “He was on the field all the time running offensive and defensive midfielder and especially in that state championship game he went down a couple times with a little bit of an injury and just sheer exhaustion and fatigue. … We really, really rode him hard and he’s a horse. He stuck in there. He’s a dog.”

The win at state was another way Rowell pushed himself to the limit and came out on top.

One of the best moments was sharing that victory with teammates, some of whom he’s played with since first grade. Rowell remembers when he, Rhett Kircher, Walt Cameron, Liam Morrison, Conor Kaveney and Jack Obernesser were little, could hardly catch a ball and wore pads that were too big.

He recalls winning a youth lacrosse title in fifth grade with the “fellas.” They won a state title in 2023 and again this spring, but beyond the titles, the fellas were there for Rowell when it mattered most. 

And that’s perhaps the Medicine Game’s most powerful salve, what the fellas supplied along the way. 

“They definitely show up big. They were all there for me, whether I wanted to talk or not,” Rowell said of his friends after his sister’s passing. “They got me out and just tried to be there for me and always tried to ask me to do stuff and just hang out. I really appreciated that.”

Rowell will take memories of his family, teammates and sport with him as he attends Westminster University to continue his career next season.