{"id":34787,"date":"2023-04-07T11:01:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T17:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-wrestler-ayden-mathews-is-headed-to-west-point\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:20:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:20:31","slug":"mancos-wrestler-ayden-mathews-is-headed-to-west-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-wrestler-ayden-mathews-is-headed-to-west-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos wrestler Ayden Mathews is headed to West Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Ayden Mathews and his parents, Alan and Anna, celebrate his post-secondary pursuits as Mathews joins the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, this fall. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The steadying influence of Mancos senior Ayden Mathews permeated the huddle on the gridiron and the mats in the wrestling practice room.<\/p>\n

As the high-pressure moments escalated, his even-keeled countenance kept his teammates prepared to thrive \u2013 with plenty of team and individual success to show for his efforts.<\/p>\n

Now, with graduation on the horizon, Mathews gets set to take on a new stage of his life this fall by signing on with the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does everything you could ask from him,\u201d said Mancos football coach Josh Gardner when talking about his quarterback.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom practice to the classroom, he takes care of it all with the attitude of a leader,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

A three-year starter at quarterback for the Bluejays football team, Mathews passed for more than 2,500 yards and rushed for more than 1,000 yards in a career that saw the Mancos football team play in its first state title game in 2021 to go along with the program\u2019s first state semifinal appearances in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

The team posted a 31-8 record in his four years with the team, placing Mathews\u2019 career among the all-time best in Bluejays history. Mathews earned a pair of all-state individual selections while playing under the guidance of Gardner as well as Ayden\u2019s father, Alan, and the vaunted Mancos unit.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the wrestling mat, Mathews capped a grappling career with a sixth-place finish at the 2A state championships in his final season, wrapping up his third state appearance and second all-state recognition. The team took its best finish with a third-place performance behind Mathews\u2019 leadership.<\/p>\n

The journey to West Point began with a full evaluation of the service academies before opting for the Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, I began looking at the Air Force, but then I started looking at the other service academies, too,\u201d said Mathews, \u201cand I started to feel a sense of belonging to West Point.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opportunity to be around a new generation of young, driven individuals is something that excites Mathews in his life\u2019s next chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like the structure and the atmosphere \u2013 I know that it\u2019s going to push me,\u201d said Mathews of the U.S. Military Academy, \u201cand I know that I\u2019ll be able to achieve a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-sport star pursues military service with Army<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,83,37,29,1205],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-wrestling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787","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=34787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82741,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34787\/revisions\/82741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34787"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}