{"id":14051,"date":"2026-01-11T09:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/experienced-jays-leaning-on-old-school-foundation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:44","slug":"experienced-jays-leaning-on-old-school-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/experienced-jays-leaning-on-old-school-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Experienced Jays leaning on old-school foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Caylee Moore brings the ball up the floor against Ouray in a home contest for the Bluejays on Thursday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

MANCOS \u2013 Time is precious, and with two months left in head coach Julie Oliver\u2019s second season, that reality is clear.<\/p>\n

Oliver knows she won\u2019t get another season to develop her Class of 2026 standouts, so their time is now.<\/p>\n

Senior captains Caylee Moore and Destiny Kramer have approached their final season with urgency and new roles. They combined for 16 points as the post presence in Oliver\u2019s system during a 44-23 win over Ouray on Thursday to open San Juan Basin League play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love getting those post entries \u2013 it feels old-fashioned, but that\u2019s the way we want to play,\u201d Oliver said, \u201cand it makes teams have to defend us everywhere on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early-season competition left the Jays needing an offensive spark, but their success started on defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we do starts with our defense,\u201d Oliver said after the team\u2019s comprehensive victory. She credited a decisive 26-0 run from mid-second quarter to early fourth to strong footwork on defense.<\/p>\n

Kramer and Moore lead four seniors, but underclassmen carry much of the scoring load.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Destiny Kramer directs traffic in a game against Ouray in a home contest for the Bluejays on Thursday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sophomore Tinsley Aspromonte, last year\u2019s scoring leader, had 22 points in the win.<\/p>\n

The 22 points marked Mancos\u2019 highest output this season and showed their strength at the rim. Half of Moore\u2019s points came at the free-throw line, forcing Ouray into foul trouble. Moore has embraced the challenge of battling in the paint. She faces tough SJBL defenders by battling Kramer daily in practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played some post last year, but this year I\u2019ve been working on it every single day \u2013 being strong with the ball,\u201d Moore said, \u201cand Destiny is going to give me that tough contact in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCaylee\u2019s been so coachable and loves to work,\u201d Oliver said. \u201cShe\u2019s grown so much in the past year in the post \u2013 I wish I had more time to work with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seniors are mentoring the next wave of Jays \u2013 a responsibility Moore takes seriously.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different dynamic this year,\u201d Moore said as the team now has plenty of familiarity with their head coach in her second year. \u201cWe\u2019re learning that high energy wins games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jays (2-5, 1-1 SJBL) aim to climb from last year\u2019s fourth-place finish and return to the 2A postseason after a one-year break. A 49-24 loss to defending champion Nucla showed the level they\u2019re chasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one game at a time,\u201d Moore said. That path continues with rivalry games at Dove Creek on Tuesday and Dolores on Friday.<\/p>\n

Boys:<\/strong><\/em> Ouray 69, Mancos 35<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In boys play, Mancos (1-6, 0-2 SJBL) is building under first-year head coach Rudy Archuleta. The Jays brought energy but struggled against Ouray\u2019s press.<\/p>\n

Junior Michael Resner scored 15 points and James Potts added 11 as Mancos tried to contain SJBL player-of-the-year candidate Cavan Pasek.<\/p>\n

Pasek scored 23 to lead all scorers as Mancos dropped its opener.<\/p>\n

A 78-40 loss to Nucla on Saturday left the Jays focused on upcoming games against Dove Creek and Dolores to earn their first league win.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

attacking from all angles under second-year head coach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14051"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20698,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14051\/revisions\/20698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14051"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}