Are Northern Colorado Hailstorm Better Without Amann, Rogers, and Cornwall? They think so.

WINDSOR – This past offseason, Northern Colorado Hailstorm lost Trevor Amann, Arthur Rogers, and Rob Cornwall. The Player of the Year and Golden Boot winner, the Defender of the Year, and their veteran captain, respectively. During and after a 7-0 preseason friendly win, players and staff were bullish. Are Northern Colorado Hailstorm better this year despite those losses? Internally, they think so.

“I feel a bit more relaxed compared to year one to year two to now. We have 12 returning players. The guys know what we’re looking for from a coaching stand point. From a facilities stand point, we know what we’re working with. We’re all working to go win a USL League One championship,” Technical Director and Head Coach Éamon Zayed told Burgundy Wave after a recent friendly.

Hailstorm have shaken off the NoCo Wanderers vibe they had in their expansion year, having three different home stadiums. The Future Legends Complex is built out from a practice facility standpoint. They even have a full size turf pitch inside the multipurpose dome. The 6,500 seater TicketSocket Park will hopefully be ready in May or June. This has helped stabilize the club’s operations.

A balanced offence rather than relying on one striker:

With the infrastructure is nearly in place, the next question is on replacing the outgoing talent. Amann and Rogers were the two best players in the league last year. Cornwall was not healthy last year, forcing the backline to cope without him. Still his leadership was instrumental.

“How do you replace 28 goals? There’s a couple of players that we’ve brought in. I don’t know if we’re going to have that one player that scores 20 goals. But I do believe that we have a front four that could easily score 10 goals each. We’re going to have to spread it around a bit more this year, that’s for sure,” Zayed said, alluding to Brahima Ouattara and Real Gill.

The club did just sign 6’3″ forward Ethan Hoard, who had a hattrick in that 7-0 friendly and even tried a bicycle kick.

“He’s been with us from the start (of preseason). He did well at USL League Two and in college. He’s come in and done well. He took his goals well tonight. It was good for our owner to fly in and get eyes on him.”

Broomfield native McCain Clarke is ready to take on more minutes this year and believes the veterans around him are also ready to fill in the gaps:

“If anything we’ll be better than last year. The guys we added, Johnny (Fenwick), quality. Patrick(Langlois), Jake (Keegan), have just been amazing. We’re in it to win it.”

Replacing the best back and set piece taker in League One:

So offensively, Amann’s being replaced in the aggregate. The succession planning for Rogers is a bit more straight forward.

“We’ve brought in some strong players in David García and Johnny Fenwick. Arthur’s been fantastic in League One. With Arthur (Rogers) as a right back, I knew we had a replacement with Bruno (Rendon). I could move on from that a little bit easier than Trevor (Amann),” Zayed said.

Irvin Parra is back back with captaincy up for grabs:

Irvin Parra was the veteran start No. 10 for NoCo in 2022, recording 12 goals and four assists. He missed April through June last year doe to testicular cancer but continued to train with the team through chemotherapy. He got back on the bench in August and even scored in the final regular season game.

“I’m feeling back back now. Last year when I was coming into games, I wasn’t even at 40%. Respiratory system was still damaged from the chemo sessions. It was just a love of the game. Now it’s just working on my fitness,” Parra told Burgundy Wave.

He’s participated fully in the 2024 preseason and is expected to be a starter with cancer behind him.

“We really missed him last season. Having such a great player back added to the core can take us over the hump and finally get us where we want to be,” said Clarke.

“He has to be patient. Physically, he’s getting there. I have no doubt mentally, the Irvin who has those moments of magic, he’ll get back,” added Zayed.

Parra was vice captain for Cornwall in the first years of the club’s history. The 30-year-old was a big loss to the offense last year. With some good support players around him and some new signings, he should be the focal point of the attack. But will Zayed name him captain?

“He wants it. He’s a leader anyways. We have leaders around. We’ll wait till closer to the start of the season (to announce who will be captain),” Zayed responded.

“He trust me a lot. I cannot let him down. I respect him. We had a chat about the captaincy. He mentioned to me that I have to prove my leadership this preseason. He doesn’t doubt that I’m the right man for it. I’ve proven to him in the past that I’ve matured. It would be a no brainer now that Rob is not here,” said Parra.

If Parra earns the armband and produces like he did in 2022, Hailstorm certainly could make a run at the League One Championship.

Photo Credit: Mark Shaiken

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