Jake Heintzelman had a special season for the Douglas County boys lacrosse team.

The Huskies finished seventh in the eight-team Douglas County League but Heintzelman held his own against the league’s other top players, such as Tanner Giles of Chaparral, Caden Meis of Legend, Cam Hancock of Mountain Vista, James Steinke of Castle View and TK Hammond of Highlands Ranch.

He was third in goals with 40 and third in the league statistics in points with 64.

Heintzelman, a senior, has been named the 2018 Colorado Community Media South Metro Boys Lacrosse Player of the Year.

“With Jake there is a lot you can talk about,” said Douglas County coach TJ Braun. “He’s a great kid and a great athlete and that’s kind of the start. Being your best player and hardest worker kind of speaks for itself.

“When you play in a tough conference like we did and he was still able to play like he did, that’s pretty special. Jake leads by example. He’s not a vocal guy but he can go out and do it. He’s a kid in our program that gets the timely goal or assist. He had great success oftentimes drawing the other team’s best defender.”

Heintzelman scored at least one goal in every game but one this season, but he had three assists in the lone game in which he didn’t have a goal.

“Jake was able to do something special every game, especially considering the talent we were playing against,” added Braun.

Heintzelman tallied six goals in two games, once against Mountain Vista and the other time against Chaparral.

“For a kid to have big time games against big-time opponents, I could make the argument that no player, possibly in the state, had as much impact on his team than Jake Heintzelman,” said Braun. “He elevated our team’s performance all year and when he was asked to play multiple positions he did it without hesitation.”

Heintzelman will be attending Western State but doesn’t plan to play lacrosse. He wants to pursue being a firefighter and declined offers to play in college.