{"id":45265,"date":"2021-08-11T02:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T08:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/searles-takes-helm-of-dolores-boys-basketball\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:24:35","slug":"searles-takes-helm-of-dolores-boys-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/searles-takes-helm-of-dolores-boys-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Searles takes helm of Dolores boys basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brice
Brice Searles<\/span>Breakthrough Basketball<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOLORES \u2013 Familiar, yet new. A Four Corners mainstay will take over the Dolores boys basketball head coaching position for the 2021-22 season, as former Fort Lewis College standout Brice Searles accepted the role to guide the Bears this winter.<\/p>\n

A prolific hoops skills instructor who has called Durango home in recent years, Searles looks to put his stamp on a program that seeks its first winning season since 2016-17.<\/p>\n

A basketball clinician, who works for the company Breakthrough Basketball,<\/a> Searles has added to the legacy of his playing days by developing skills for players of various age ranges while traveling the country conducting clinics.<\/p>\n

Amidst all his travels, the Dolores coaching opportunity stopped him in his tracks, opening a door to exchange clinics and camps for the clipboard and a full-time coaching role. While it wasn\u2019t on his radar initially, Searles warmed up to the idea of dividing time between his clinic work and coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter discussion with the staff in Dolores, it appeared as though I would be able to balance my work between the school district and my other obligations,\u201d said Searles, \u201cand so while I wasn\u2019t seeking it out initially, I\u2019m thrilled to take on the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Searles played at Fort Lewis College for one year, where he led the then-named Raiders in scoring and earned All-American honors. During the 1984-1985 season, he posted 83 blocked shots, enough for No. 7 on the FLC record books<\/a>. Searles\u2019 previous three years came in Spokane, Washington for the Division I Gonzaga Bulldogs<\/a>. His subsequent clinic work has helped him cross paths with a who\u2019s who of hardwood greats, including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n

Along with taking over the helm of the Bears basketball team, Searles will also take on a role within the school district, joining the middle school in the special education department.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs excited as I am to join this program,\u201d added Searles, \u201cI\u2019m just as excited to get into this school district.\u201d<\/p>\n

That connection of athletics as an extension of the classroom is a point that Searles seeks to emphasize.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my primary goals,\u201d said Searles, \u201cis to develop better athletes, better students, and help support these young men in the same ways that so many of my coaches have done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores enters 2021-22 coming off of a 5-9 campaign and a fourth-place finish in the 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League.<\/p>\n

As for the upcoming season, Searles knows that depth is going to make his program better. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be strengthening our bench,\u201d said Searles, \u201cand I want to make sure that we spend as much time developing those players as we do our starting five.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of what lays ahead for the Bears, Searles made it clear what his expectations will be for the upcoming season. \u201cGood training leads to good basketball,\u201d he added, \u201cand I know that our teams are going to be built around playing hard defense and focusing on fundamentals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Division I, Fort Lewis College standout brings wealth of experience<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,38,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45265","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=45265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86424,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45265\/revisions\/86424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45265"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}