{"id":42029,"date":"2022-02-24T09:08:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T16:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/unified-we-stand-dove-creek-ignacio-wrestlers-share-limelight-at-colorado-meet\/"},"modified":"2022-02-24T16:08:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T16:08:10","slug":"unified-we-stand-dove-creek-ignacio-wrestlers-share-limelight-at-colorado-meet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/unified-we-stand-dove-creek-ignacio-wrestlers-share-limelight-at-colorado-meet\/","title":{"rendered":"Unified we stand: Dove Creek, Ignacio wrestlers share limelight at Colorado meet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Jaydon Bailey, right, prepares to restart atop Ignacio's Cayle McCoy during the San Juan Basin Leaguers' clash as part of the 2022 CHSAA State Championships' 'Unified' feature bouts following the Parade of Champions Feb. 19, inside Ball Arena in Denver. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2014 Whether he knew it or not on Saturday, Cayle McCoy was called to wrestle by one of the world\u2019s preeminent public-address announcers, Alan Roach. Roach is the voice of numerous things and events, including the NHL\u2019s Colorado Avalanche and Super Bowl LVI, held in Los Angeles less than a week before the 2022 CHSAA State Championships took over the Avalanche\u2019s home at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

But in addition to his own thoughts, Ignacio\u2019s sophomore 106-pounder heard only his coaches\u2019 instructions in his mind as he stepped onto the mat to close out the championships\u2019 six Unified exhibition tests, which took place between the tournament\u2019s parade of champions and the start of the first-place bouts:<\/p>\n

\u201cGet your head in the game, you\u2019ve got to get angry on the mat \u2014 stuff like that,\u201d recalled a grinning McCoy, who\u2019d posted an official 2021-22 varsity record of 6-25 after being unable to qualify conventionally for the supreme spectacle in Denver at the previous weekend\u2019s Class 2A-Region I meet in Buena Vista.<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Jaydon Bailey flashes an intense stare before facing Ignacio\u2019s Cayle McCoy during the 2022 CHSAA State Championships' series of Unified matches Feb. 19, on the season-ending tournament's third and final day. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Facing San Juan Basin League rival Jaydon Bailey of Dove Creek before fans roughly 15,000 in number, the two grapplers went back and forth for six solid minutes, each nearly pinning the other on a couple occasions while riling up the fans into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

It was no small accomplishment either, considering DCHS senior Bailey \u2013 nicknamed \u201cBug\u201d or \u201cBugsy\u201d \u2013 battles cerebral palsy and McCoy has a joint-contracture condition called arthrogryposis, limiting extension and flexion of joints affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year he\u2019d stuck with it, though it was a very short season, right?\u201d said IHS head coach Jordan Larsen. \u201cHe pushed through it, took a lot of losses but got one or two wins in there. \u2026 But Cayle\u2019s a funny one. At the beginning of the (season) \u2026 I don\u2019t think he was planning on coming out; he asked at the beginning of the year, \u2018Can I just be a part of it? Can I be a manager?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Jaydon Bailey works to pry Ignacio's Cayle McCoy from off his leg after securing it with a shot during the San Juan Basin Leaguers' clash as part of the 2022 CHSAA State Championships\u2019 Unified feature bouts after the Parade of Champions Feb. 19, inside Ball Arena in Denver. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI was like, \u2018Cayle if you want to be a manager that\u2019s great, but I think you should give \u2019er a shot!\u2019 And it wasn\u2019t just me; it was a lot of people saying that,\u201d Larsen continued. \u201cBut he came to practice the first day, went through it and had a smile on his face leaving \u2014 I never heard another word about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giving fans an idea of their tight 6-4 match, won by McCoy, at the SJBL Championships Feb. 3 in Norwood, the Bobcat and Bulldog again strove to the final whistle, with McCoy emerging a 7-3 victor before Larsen and assistant Ryan Boyce.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig crowd \u2026 that kind of scared me a little bit! Most definitely,\u201d said McCoy. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of scary, kind of exciting \u2014 both at the same time. You make one mistake and you could lose your match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raising McCoy\u2019s hand was longtime official Dino Aragon, the same referee who\u2019d raised Larsen\u2019s when Larsen copped Class 3A\u2019s 152-pound crown for Bayfield back in 2008.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio
Ignacio sophomore Cayle McCoy nearly pins Dove Creek\u2019s Jaydon Bailey during the 2022 CHSAA State Championships' series of 'Unified' matches Feb. 19, on the season-ending tournament's third and final day. McCoy would eventually win 7-3. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of funny how those things roll,\u201d said a smiling Larsen. \u201cEvery year coming back, the first time you walk in on all those mats \u2026 reminds you of why you\u2019re doing it, why you want kids to get there and get that exposure. It\u2019s a great feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was mat-side \u2026 and it was pretty emotional,\u201d said Ignacio junior Keaton McCoy, Cayle\u2019s state-qualifying 145-pound brother who actually volunteered to be a warm-up partner for Bailey. \u201cIt\u2019s so cool to get to be able to see both of them \u2013 and all of these kids \u2013 and that they can do this kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my brother that started me,\u201d Cayle said, of his roots in the sport. \u201cFamily sticks together always and forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome having both of them,\u201d Larsen said. \u201cFor them being able to come up here and do what they did, I\u2019m just very proud \u2026 and looking forward to (them) continuing to improve in future years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McCoy pair off in special match after Parade of Champions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1235,1205],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-wrestling"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42029","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=42029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42029"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}