Former Colorado Rapids Homegrown signing Davy Armstrong now a homegrown hero as firefighter

Davy Armstrong has gone from a former Homegrown Player to a homegrown hero.

The most recent example came Monday, when the now-30-year-old firefighter helped rescue a dog that fell into a partially frozen pond in Centennial.

Armstrong was with the Colorado Rapids from 2010-14 as a defensive midfielder as the club’s first-ever Homegrown Player signing. He later spent three seasons with the Switchbacks before hanging up his cleats in 2017, swapping a soccer uniform for a firefighter’s helmet in August 2020. He was inspired to go into the service to help others, while also following in the footsteps of his uncle, who retired as a battalion chief in Washington state.

On Monday morning, South Metro Fire Rescue received a call after a dog fell through an ice-covered pond at Big Dry Creek Trail. According to the dog’s owner, it fell after chasing a flock of geese.

The Engine 15 crew was coming off of a hectic 12-hour overnight shift — two medical calls and a structure fire — when the call came in. In under two minutes, Armstrong was out the bay doors wearing a dry suit meant for surface ice rescues. Armstrong and the team reached the site shortly after. And, with a rope in hand, he started walking toward the pond where the dog, a golden retriever named Watson, was stuck.

“What we say here is ‘smooth is fast,’” Armstrong said. “You try to be smooth with all your movements, you’re not jittery or are making any mistakes, and that’s what we have to be with all of our calls.”

When Armstrong got in the water, Watson swam over to him, a bit too excitedly at first. After calming him down, Armstrong moved behind the dog and got the rope around it. He gave a signal to his crew to pull and lifted the dog up from its hind legs and onto the ice. Armstrong got shimmied out of the water and held on to the rope to get pulled back to a spot where he could stand, while Watson trotted back to shore, happy to see his owner and rescuers.

“It was a small thing that we do,” Armstrong said. “There are so many calls that aren’t like that. … Whether it’s a stroke, a cardiac alert, or in this case an ice rescue, they’re calling because it’s one of their worst days. But no matter the type of call it is, it gets your blood going in the first place and they all seem like pretty big calls in the moment.”

According to South Metro spokesman Eric Hurst, it was 11th call the department has received for an ice-related incident since the start of January, an abnormally high volume to open the year.

“The majority of the calls have been adolescents or kids playing on the ice, adults see that and they call 911 and we know how quickly it can become an emergency,” Hurst said. “…We like to say here in Colorado, no ice is safe ice, especially on the Front Range.”

Armstrong grew up in Aurora and was named The Denver Post All-Colorado Player of the Year in 2008 for Rangeview High School.

“Soccer prepared me so much better for this job and life than I ever thought it would,” Armstrong said. “The resilience that professional soccer builds in to you, and having that mentality of being professional to show up every day prepared, learn your job and learn to do it well.

“What’s so cool about the fire service is, now, the better I now get at my job, the more people I can serve, help and possibly even save.”

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