{"id":15169,"date":"2025-12-19T11:53:48","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T18:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-wrestling-leaning-on-youth-under-new-head-coach\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:16","slug":"dolores-wrestling-leaning-on-youth-under-new-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-wrestling-leaning-on-youth-under-new-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores wrestling leaning on youth under new head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Marshall Wickstrom takes down his Monticello opponent in a match against the Buckaroos at DHS on Wednesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOLORES \u2013 While construction of the new high school continues steadily at the corner of 14th Street and Central Avenue, the Bears wrestling program is building its own foundation this winter.<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of DHS graduate Ben Doss, a former Bears wrestler who later competed in college, Dolores opens the season with fresh faces and a work-first attitude.<\/p>\n

A few meets into the season, the Bears have shown they intend to be a force in the San Juan Basin League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the attitude of this team,\u201d said Doss. \u201cThey work really hard in the wrestling room \u2013 I\u2019m excited to get to work with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Adam Hicks takes the upper hand against his Monticello opponent in a match against the Buckaroos at DHS on Wednesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dolores returns its lone state qualifier, senior Nathan Hill, hoping to add more black and red to Ball Arena in February. Junior Kenji Edwards brings experience alongside Hill as the Bears look to upperclassmen for leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the kids have been wrestling since the summer \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of dedication,\u201d added Doss.<\/p>\n

Most of the roster consists of first-year high school wrestlers, filling many smaller weight classes. Doss takes over after serving as a volunteer assistant coach and working with the peewee program, building ties to the team\u2019s youth movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to come back to where I started my wrestling career,\u201d said Doss, a 1992 graduate. \u201cAfter I\u2019ve worked with them over the last four years as middle schoolers, stepping into the head coaching role wasn\u2019t a big change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores will test itself in tournaments after the holiday break: Pagosa Springs on Jan. 10, the Clash at the Coliseum in Farmington the next weekend, and the Butch Melton tournament in Ignacio. Those lead into the SJBL Duals on Feb. 5 and the Class 2A regionals Feb. 13-14.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Bodie Fischer applies pressure on his Monticello opponent in a match against the Buckaroos at DHS on Wednesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Tanner Trammel grapples with his Monticello opponent in a match against the Buckaroos at DHS on Wednesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

alumnus Ben Doss takes the reins with larger numbers and big goals<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15170,"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-15169","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\/15169","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=15169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19516,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15169\/revisions\/19516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15169"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}