{"id":23438,"date":"2025-02-21T20:05:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T03:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/striking-the-right-chord-announcer-jerry-baxter-brings-his-game-to-dove-creek-athletics\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:36:28","slug":"striking-the-right-chord-announcer-jerry-baxter-brings-his-game-to-dove-creek-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/striking-the-right-chord-announcer-jerry-baxter-brings-his-game-to-dove-creek-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"Striking the right chord: Announcer Jerry Baxter brings his game to Dove Creek athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek\u2019s Jerry Baxter, a former Bar D Wrangler, has become an iconic mainstay as the public address announcer for Bulldogs football, basketball, and volleyball. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOVE CREEK \u2013 Scan the crowd in the visitors cheering section during Jerry Baxter\u2019s rendition of the \u201cStar Spangled Banner\u201d \u2013 the awe-struck faces say it all.<\/p>\n

Opposing players and coaches are often left looking at each other and mouthing a simple \u201cWow\u201d after the final notes honor the \u201chome of the brave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even for the Dove Creek faithful, many of whom have heard Baxter\u2019s unmistakable bass voice reverberate around The Dawg House and Soper Sports Complex dozens of times over the past 14 years, the appreciation for the moment isn\u2019t lost.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to be a double bass,\u201d laughs Baxter, reflecting on his three-decade career with both the Bar D Wranglers in Durango and Bar J Wranglers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Renowned for numbers like \u201cColorado\u201d and \u201cStreets of Laredo,\u201d Baxter\u2019s voice filled in the tapestry of the Chuckwagon performances that drew crowds by the hundreds for their shows.<\/p>\n

After leaving Bar J, however, a series of surgeries cut his performing career short, and Baxter was left with a tremendous talent without a stage \u2013 until the Dove Creek school district came calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarting to announce for the school helped me to adjust with the abrupt change in my career,\u201d added Baxter, \u201cand now this has become my calling \u2013 and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek\u2019s Jerry Baxter, a former Bar D Wrangler, sings the national anthem prior to a Bulldogs basketball game. Baxter has become an iconic mainstay as the public address announcer for Bulldogs football, basketball, and volleyball. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Long after the final horn settled the action on Dove Creek\u2019s basketball home finale, Baxter sits in retrospection outside The Dawg House entrance. He just concluded announcing another Parents Night \u2013 Dove Creek\u2019s equivalent of Senior Night \u2013 while watching another group of student-athletes bid farewell to their playing careers on their home floor.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a generation\u2019s-worth of student-athletes whose name he\u2019s called, including many of his nieces and nephews, whether its announcing starting lineups or celebrating big baskets, touchdowns, or kills.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves the kids, loves to be a part of all of it,\u201d said Dove Creek Principal Shane Baughman.<\/p>\n

The feeling is certainly mutual \u2013 several years ago, the Dove Creek student body named Baxter as grand marshal of Homecoming and chipped in to make a leather vest with \u201cVoice of the Bulldogs\u201d emblazoned on the back. It\u2019s a badge of honor that Baxter wears with pride at each Dove Creek sporting event.<\/p>\n

Baughman coached one of Baxter\u2019s 12 grandchildren on the gridiron \u2013 and it was at the Soper Sports Complex where Baxter made his PA debut, helping fill in at the last minute for a Bulldog playoff game.<\/p>\n

said Baxter, \u201cand then the next year they called me and asked if I wanted to do every football game.\u201d Thirteen years later, he\u2019s scarcely missed a contest, while expanding into volleyball and basketball announcing, as well.<\/p>\n

Baxter takes his role as ambassador for Dove Creek seriously, and prides himself on being as impartial as possible while letting the student-athletes\u2019 performances speak for themselves. Added to the mix, Dove Creek has had more than their share of home contests because of on-field success over the past decade, giving Baxter an even wider audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had teams coming in from all over the state for playoff games \u2013 and one thing that\u2019s important to me is to be neutral, even when it\u2019s hard,\u201d said Baxter, \u201cthe visiting team\u2019s kids are as important as ours are, and I want to make sure that they get recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dove Creek earned a special place in Baxter\u2019s heart \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t always that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI graduated from Ignacio, so my entire junior high and high school years, Dove Creek was our San Juan Basin rival,\u201d said Baxter.<\/p>\n

After marrying his wife of nearly four decades LaVerna, a Dove Creek native, Jerry knew that his ties to community were here to stay. In that time, he\u2019s embedded himself in the community, not only through his work at the scorer\u2019s table, but also through volunteer work as the dispatcher for the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always tried to help people, even on their worst days \u2013 hearing people share what\u2019s going on in their darkest moments, then trying to get them help,\u201d said Baxter, thinking about his time as both a dispatcher as well as his previous career as a firefighter and EMT, \u201cand this town has rewarded that by adopting me \u2013 they\u2019ve made me feel at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his place in Dove Creek wasn\u2019t always permanent, his love for music was. \u201cI was singing with my brothers since I was 4, singing in church, a part of barbershops in my teens,\u201d said Baxter, leading up to his audition with Bar D when he was 17 before he landed his spot in the quartet in the summer of 1975.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one-of-a-kind,\u201d added Baughman, sharing the sentiment of the many people who have crossed paths with Baxter over the years.<\/p>\n

As he nears 70 years of age, Baxter is already looking forward to another year behind the microphone this upcoming fall. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have had a better life,\u201d reflects Baxter, \u201cthat I\u2019ve been able to spend it putting smiles on people\u2019s faces.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D Wrangler still at home behind the microphone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23439,"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-23438","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\/23438","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=23438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78119,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23438\/revisions\/78119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23438"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}