Conference season is effectively playoff season for GJ football team

AURORA — Conference play is effectively a new season in high school football. For Grand Junction High School, it may as well be the postseason.

The Tigers are in their second season in the I-25 Conference, the Class 4A developmental league for programs that struggled in the immediate years preceding their placement. It offers a more even playing field than making teams punch above their weight, but the catch is that only the conference winner can qualify for the playoffs. The Tigers rose to the occasion last year and ended a five-year playoff drought by winning the conference.

Grand Junction’s unofficial postseason began with a 52-7 trouncing of conference foe Gateway on Thursday night in Aurora. Despite the swath of new faces, coach Landon McKee said the team is well aware that I-25 Con