{"id":16945,"date":"2025-08-13T23:55:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T05:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-football-primed-for-another-playoff-push\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:13","slug":"dove-creek-football-primed-for-another-playoff-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-football-primed-for-another-playoff-push\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek football primed for another playoff push"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Josh
Josh Kibel runs around the end for a first down for Dove Creek on the way to a Bulldogs win over Plateau Valley 32-12 Friday night. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOVE CREEK \u2013 In his first day on the job, there weren\u2019t many surprises for new Dove Creek High School football coach Brennan Banks.<\/p>\n

After all, he had seen plenty of the Bulldogs in action from their time as part of the middle school program where Banks had been coaching the previous three seasons.<\/p>\n

The \u2018Dogs are gearing up for what they hope will be the program\u2019s seventh straight postseason appearance, and Banks and his coaching staff recognize just how special of a backfield they inherited to begin the season. Now a group of seniors and juniors, the quarterback and running backs all gained valuable experience as part of DC\u2019s 7-3 season last fall \u2013 and it\u2019s a group that Banks will lean on for leadership when the Bulldogs take to the field on Saturday, Aug. 30, against Plateau Valley in the season opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of our upperclassmen have been awesome \u2013 they\u2019ve been coaching up the younger kids,\u201d assessed Banks.<\/p>\n

Senior Josh Kibel returns as the Dove Creek signal caller, joining classmate Nicholas Aragon and juniors Teagan Larimore and Cael Beanland as part of a Bulldog ground attack looking to keep opposing defenses on their heels. Dove Creek ran for over 240 yards per game last season, and their combination of track speed and wrestling quickness make them a tough group to bring down.<\/p>\n

On the other side of the ball, seniors Trevan Ivie and Chad Kline led a ferocious defensive front and linebacking core, but with graduation, Banks and his group will be looking to put together a reconstructed offensive and defensive line using some new pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job as a coaching staff is to put the best eight players out on the field,\u201d said Banks, \u201cand there are some younger kids that we are going to lean on to step up and fill those shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As has continued to be the case for a Dove Creek program that has steadily become an 8-man powerhouse, the offseason commitment from the student-athletes gives Banks confidence in their prospects this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spent a lot of time together over the summer \u2013 getting into the weight room and playing some 7-on-7 scrimmages with other teams in our area,\u201d said Banks.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have their sights set high again this year while recognizing the rigors of playing in one of the toughest leagues in the classification. \u201cOur goal is always to compete for the league championship,\u201d said Banks, \u201cand our seniors \u2013 who were part of the state title team during their freshman year \u2013 understand what it takes to get to the mountain top.\u201d<\/p>\n

After their road trip to Collbran to begin the season, Dove Creek will head to Rangely on Sept. 5, before hosting their first game of the season on Sept. 12 against Escalante (NM). The \u2018Dogs will play at home in the Border War against Monticello on Sept. 26 before taking on Mancos in their Mountain League opener on Oct. 2. Dove Creek will play three of their final four games away from the Soper Sports Complex, including a regular season finale at Sanford on Nov. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs welcome new head coach Brennan Banks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16946,"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-16945","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\/16945","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=16945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20478,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16945\/revisions\/20478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16945"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}