{"id":23691,"date":"2025-02-06T17:11:39","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T00:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-kaiden-wyatt-commits-to-play-football-for-colorado-mesa-university\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:40:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:40:49","slug":"mancos-kaiden-wyatt-commits-to-play-football-for-colorado-mesa-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-kaiden-wyatt-commits-to-play-football-for-colorado-mesa-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos\u2019 Kaiden Wyatt commits to play football for Colorado Mesa University"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Kaiden Wyatt joins his parents, Colette and Jarrod Wyatt, at Mountain Range Fitness, where Kaiden signed his letter of intent Wednesday to play football for Colorado Mesa University. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In a place where he built plenty of sweat equity, Mancos High School senior Kaiden Wyatt sat in front of dozens of family, teammates, coaches and friends Wednesday to celebrate an achievement that befits years of dedication.<\/p>\n

Seated at a table adorned with Colorado Mesa University\u2019s maroon and gold colors at Mountain Range Fitness in Cortez, owned by his parents, Colette and Jarrod Wyatt, Kaiden signed a letter of intent to play football for the Mavericks this fall.<\/p>\n

It was an honor years in the making, an opportunity to play for his father\u2019s alma mater. Jarrod Wyatt, who is defensive coordinator for the Jays, spoke as a proud father about his son\u2019s decision to play at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference university, where he was a linebacker.<\/p>\n

Kaiden Wyatt credited those who helped has made his football dreams a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember going over to a practice before my freshman year, and I saw the way that coach (Alan) Mathews and coach (Josh) Gardner were running things, and I knew this place was home,\u201d Wyatt said.<\/p>\n

Wyatt helped the Bluejays to their first state title in 2023, and he qualified for the state semifinals four times. In those four years, Mancos posted a 41-7 record, and according to Mathews, Wyatt\u2019s flexibility made him indispensable.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played wherever we needed him, guard, defensive line, tight end, then fullback and linebacker his senior season \u2013 he was always a team-first guy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wyatt earned all-state honors three times, including a second-team nod in his junior and senior seasons. As a senior, he anchored the defense at middle linebacker, but at CMUi in Grand Junction, he likely will be given a key offensive role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CMU offensive coordinator (Trevor Wikre) sat me down and told me, \u201cWe want you to play fullback,\u201d said Wyatt, who had visions of playing defense. \u201cBut I like to hit people, so any way I can continue to play football, I\u2019m fine with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyatt became a punishing back in Mancos, amassing more than 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns and blocking for fellow all-state rushers Brandon Vannest and Jonah Ritter.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven playing small-school eight-man football, CMU saw me \u2013 and playing college ball is something that I\u2019ve wanted to do my whole life, and after my sophomore year, I knew I could do it,\u201d said Wyatt.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family \u2013 they\u2019ve been amazing \u2013 my grandparents went to pretty much every single game. They\u2019re the ones who\u2019ve helped me get where I am,\u201d Wyatt said.<\/p>\n

His tireless commitment to the weight room and community engagement, however, may be one of his biggest legacies, according to head coach Gardner.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a model citizen for us,\u201d Gardner said, \u201cand he\u2019s someone that the young kids can look up to, as a leader that made the underclassmen feel like they were a part of the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyatt joins a CMU squad that is coming off a 7-4 season in the RMAC and looks to reach the Division II postseason for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n

Wyatt leaves a powerful imprint on the Bluejays.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting to represent the community, getting to win a state title, and most importantly, getting to play with all my friends \u2013 it\u2019s just been an amazing journey,\u201d Wyatt said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bluejays standout closes out memorable high school career<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23692,"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-23691","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\/23691","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=23691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78219,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23691\/revisions\/78219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}