{"id":16941,"date":"2025-08-14T15:32:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T21:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-football-aims-to-continue-impressive-run\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:12","slug":"bluejays-football-aims-to-continue-impressive-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-football-aims-to-continue-impressive-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluejays football aims to continue impressive run"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Colten
Colten Vannest (80) of Mancos High School makes a block while playing Haxtun High School on Friday in the state finals in November at Thunderbowl Stadium in Pueblo. (Laura Domingue\/Special to the Durango Herald)<\/span>Laura Domingue<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

MANCOS \u2013 Ever since Josh Gardner took the helm of the Mancos football program in 2018, the Bluejays have constructed a program that has become the gold standard in Colorado\u2019s 8-man division.<\/p>\n

The results speak for themselves \u2013 Mancos owns the longest active streak for state semifinal appearances, having made the final four in the playoffs in each of the past four seasons. The Jays enter the campaign with an 11-game winning streak in league play, and hope to collect their third straight Mountain League crown and fifth league title overall under Gardner\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

Consistency has become a hallmark of the blue-and-white domination over recent years, with perhaps no greater example of that than the Mancos offensive line. Seniors Adam Martinez and Colten Vannest have been fixtures up front for Gardner, who prides his teams on physicality. The duo will lead a reshaped Mancos backfield, but the expectations remain the same for Mancos football \u2013 control the line of scrimmage and the rest will follow.<\/p>\n

Junior Michael Resner will shift from receiver to quarterback for the Jays this fall, and Gardner is excited to see his new signal caller in action.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael\u2019s really stepped up. He\u2019s been a positive influence, picking guys up,\u201d said Gardner, \u201cand he\u2019s having to learn a lot because our offense is going to look different this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior James Potts will join returning starting tailback Jonah Ritter in the ground attack behind Resner, but one of the biggest shifts may involve a more prominent passing game than Bluejays fans have become accustomed to seeing in recent years. Sophomore Traycer White and senior Miguel Derizotis will see opportunities to flash their athleticism on the edges, while the Bluejays will lean on junior Gavin Smith and sophomore Levi Gardner at the tight end spots.<\/p>\n

The Mancos skill positions aren\u2019t the only reshuffling that the Jays will face this season \u2013 Gardner welcomes assistant coaches Louis Horton \u2013 also the school\u2019s athletic director \u2013 as well as former middle school coach Eldon Vannest to his staff.<\/p>\n

On the defensive side of the ball, Ritter and Potts will sit in the middle of the formation at linebacker, while Vannest and Martinez will see an elevated role on the D-line this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam and Colten \u2013 they\u2019re out here coaching our young guys, as well as spending some time with the middle school team \u2013 helping them learn the right steps so they\u2019ll be ready when it\u2019s their turn,\u201d added Gardner.<\/p>\n

As Mancos looks to continue to push for another deep postseason run, Gardner knows that it\u2019ll take significant growth from Day One of practice until October and November for Mancos to maintain their spot atop the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really depending on our younger guys to step it up this year,\u201d said Gardner, recognizing how many of his Class of 2028 players will see their first varsity action later this month.<\/p>\n

The learning curve will be quick for the players getting their first starting roles this fall \u2013 Mancos will open the season against New Mexico\u2019s 2024 state champion Melrose on Aug. 29 in Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. After that test, the Jays will head to Fairplay on consecutive weekends to meet Sedgwick County and Merino before opening their league schedule in their home opener against Dolores on Sept. 26. A battle against rival Dove Creek awaits the following week, before Mancos faces another massive league encounter on Oct. 17 at home on Senior Night against Sanford.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

prepping to face New Mexico champs to open season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16942,"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-16941","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\/16941","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=16941"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20476,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16941\/revisions\/20476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16941"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}