{"id":38702,"date":"2022-08-26T23:59:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T05:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fresh-start-inspires-dolores-football-team\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:46:10","slug":"fresh-start-inspires-dolores-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fresh-start-inspires-dolores-football-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh start inspires Dolores football team"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Braden
Braden Boyd and William Taylor chase #6 Kendall Gardner as he takes the ball down the field during a game last season. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The evolution for Dolores football began long before the ball is teed up for the opening kickoff this season.<\/p>\n

For a program looking to revive a proud tradition, first-year head coach Joseph Gonzales looks to build a team whose identity reflects the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cDolores is a hard-working community, and we want our players to embody that attitude every time they step out onto the field,\u201d said Gonzales.<\/p>\n

The Bears have officially shifted into the eight-man ranks after a transition year in which DHS played a number of hybrid contests involving 11-man and eight-man sequences. They\u2019ll join the Mountain League, where local rivals Mancos and Dove Creek have held court over recent years.<\/p>\n

With a squad that\u2019s bought into the offseason workout regimen, the Bears\u2019 new coach hopes to create another football power in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

Gonzales served as offensive and defensive line coach for the Bears in 2021, a season in which Dolores picked up their first win in three years, before shifting to his new role during the offseason.<\/p>\n

He inherits a hungry, albeit youthful group for his maiden season at the helm, looking to turn heads this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to build a foundation from day one,\u201d said Gonzales, \u201cand we saw an increase in turnout in our offseason workouts, which shows that these guys are motivated and ready to start something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seniors Ethen Robson and Braden Boyd, and junior Ty Gaddis earned captaincy roles for the Bears this season, voted on by their peers as players that aligned with the team-first vision of the program.<\/p>\n

After graduating four-year starter Wyatt Koskie at quarterback, the Bears turn to sophomore Trayton Traweek to take snaps in the Bears offense.<\/p>\n

In the early season scrimmages, the Bears cut their teeth against some of the other local eight-man programs, with lots to show for their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited with how much this group has developed in terms of maturity,\u201d added Gonzales. \u201dThey\u2019ve been willing to take on extra responsibility including some of our incoming freshmen.\u201c<\/p>\n

The Bears kick off the season on Friday, Sept. 9, on the road against Soroco. Their home opener follows on Sept. 16th against Rangely, with a slated 7 p.m. start against the Panthers. That contest can be heard on local radio station KRTZ 98.7 FM, along with krtzradio.com.<\/p>\n

League play gets underway on Friday, Sept. 30, against Norwood, before the Bears face Mancos (Senior Day) and Dove Creek (road) in back-to-back weeks in mid-October. The regular season winds down with a trip to Sanford on Oct. 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the community to see that the tide is shifting,\u201d said Gonzales, \u201cand these players are capable of taking us where we want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

gets a new head coach and a move to eight-man football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44,926,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38702","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=38702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84103,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38702\/revisions\/84103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38702"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}