{"id":41869,"date":"2022-03-03T23:49:40","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T06:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bulldogs-basketball-team-writes-new-chapter-for-dove-creek\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:03:55","slug":"bulldogs-basketball-team-writes-new-chapter-for-dove-creek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bulldogs-basketball-team-writes-new-chapter-for-dove-creek\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs basketball team writes new chapter for Dove Creek"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Ryan Jarmon at a practice, as his team prepares for their first regional appearance since 2002.<\/span>Ben Bradley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In their final regular season home game against Nucla, before a group of Dove Creek seniors played their final contest in the Dove Creek gym, the Bulldogs continued what has become an annual tradition.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek public address announcer Jerry Baxter emerged from his post behind the scorer\u2019s table, taking a moment before he boomed the national anthem and called upon local veterans, first responders and educators to line up on the floor to be honored.<\/p>\n

After the final bars of \u201cThe Star-Spangled-Banner\u201d fell silent, replaced by the cheers from blue-and-yellow-clad Bulldogs fans, the couple dozen individuals lined up on the sideline began to make their way back to their seats to get ready for the opening tip-off.<\/p>\n

A gentle tap on a veteran\u2019s shoulder slowed the egress.<\/p>\n

There stood a young man, suited up as No. 25, his hand extended to give a firm handshake. Dove Creek senior Ryan Jarmon, along with classmate Blane Johnson, had raced across the court to personally thank each local hero.<\/p>\n

On a night that was established to celebrate him and his senior teammates, Jarmon recognized the value of something much larger than himself.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been emblematic of the Dove Creek season \u2013 a campaign that has seen the current Bulldogs squad reach new heights.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur chemistry has really been clicking this year,\u201d said Jarmon. \u201cWe\u2019ve built up the relationships within the team, both on and off the court, and it\u2019s paying off for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the whole community\u2019s involved.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs bus to Grand Junction on Saturday will be filled to the brim, as the girls and boys programs prepare to take the next step toward the 1A state tournament \u2013 a platform that has until now never included a Dove Creek boys team. A convoy of Bulldogs faithful is sure to pack the Grand Junction High School gym on Saturday afternoon for the regional championship games \u2013 girls at 1 p.m., and the boys to follow at 2:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Jarmon\u2019s positive energy has been infectious, helping to build from learning opportunities, even in inevitable miscues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time we\u2019re on the court, either in practice or in a game, when we make a mistake, we take the time to focus on fixing it,\u201d said Jarmon. \u201cWe know that we need to learn from it, so we take the time to build each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defenses have focused on junior Kade Hankins, who takes on a leadership role in the locker room and provides the \u2018Dogs with 40% of their scoring. The emergence, however, of Jarmon and fellow senior Chorbin Cressler as viable secondary scorers, have given first-year head coach Aaron Hankins a variety of weapons on offense.<\/p>\n

Jarmon has added rebounding and rim-protecting to his repertoire, and the Bulldogs transition game has been boosted as a result. Instead of settling for three-pointers, the Bulldogs have taken Jarmon\u2019s guidance to lean heavily on attacking opponents and finding the open shooter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learned to use our strong midrange game, and that\u2019s really become one of the identities of this team,\u201d added Jarmon.<\/p>\n

With a group of talented sophomores and juniors, the Bulldogs find themselves in a place they haven\u2019t been since 2002 \u2013 in the regional finals. The \u2018Dogs have already assured themselves a second consecutive winning season, but now are looking for more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been our goal for the past two years,\u201d said Jarmon, \u201cwe\u2019ve all seen the banner (hanging in the gym), and we know that we\u2019re trying to keep making history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confidence has been building throughout the season, beginning with a strong showing at the Sangre de Cristo tournament in the early part of the season. Since then, the \u2018Dogs have included hallmark victories, including their first win over border rival Monticello to highlight a Bulldog Classic title during the holidays.<\/p>\n

Next up, Dove Creek (12-10, 5-4 2A\/1A SJBL) faces the defending 1A state champions, Belleview Christian (16-5, 5-1 1A 5280 League), hoping to continue their storybook season.<\/p>\n

Jarmon, who plans to attend the Colorado School of Mines to pursue a degree in chemical engineering, has emerged as a leader in the classroom along with the hardwood. A member of student council, FFA, and Students Taking on Unhealthy Decisions, Jarmon sees his role as one that makes Dove Creek High School an even stronger community. He\u2019ll also suit up for the Bulldogs baseball team this spring.<\/p>\n

Just like seeing the community heroes lined up on the gymnasium floor, Jarmon recognizes that the strength of a community leans on paying success forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that our success brings in the younger students,\u201d said Jarmon, \u201cand that they see what we\u2019re doing, and want to keep the tradition going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jarmon helps bring perspective to outstanding season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41869","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=41869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85126,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41869\/revisions\/85126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41869"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}