{"id":56674,"date":"2013-10-16T21:29:52","date_gmt":"2013-10-17T03:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/valdez-brings-passion-to-bears\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:55:37","slug":"valdez-brings-passion-to-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/valdez-brings-passion-to-bears\/","title":{"rendered":"Valdez brings passion to Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Deano
Deano Valdez carries the ball earlier this season while playing against Center on Oct. 4.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Passion cannot be taught. It cannot be learned. And when an athlete has it, watch out, because that athlete will be special.<\/p>\n

Spend a few minutes with Dolores senior running back\/linebacker Deano Valdez and it becomes clear that the young man has passion. Passion for the game of football, passion for his teammates and passion for the Bears\u2019 insignia that he carries on his helmet each and every game.<\/p>\n

A fiery player who consistently gives his all, Valdez has spent this season spearheading the Bears\u2019 running game and delivering big plays on the defensive side of the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like running the ball a lot, and I\u2019ve been doing pretty good with that,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cI\u2019ve been getting a lot of tackles at linebacker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c(Valdez) is a big-hit guy,\u201d explained Bears\u2019 head coach Chris Trusler. \u201cHe gets really fired up, and he\u2019s real emotional about the game. Every play that he\u2019s in, he plays it like it is his last play that he\u2019ll ever play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of his passion, Valdez tends to draw the attention of his younger teammates, who look to him for leadership and guidance. In response, Valdez consistently stresses the importance of pride in a developing Bears\u2019 football program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOff the field, (Valdez) tries to help mentor the guys,\u201d Trusler said. \u201cHe really tries to instill pride in these younger guys. He wants them to have the same pride in the program as they get older as he does now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the contributions he has made to the Bears\u2019 football program, Valdez is a standout wrestler and baseball player at Dolores high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of rough,\u201d said Valdez of being a three-sport athlete. \u201cYou always want to train really hard on one (sport), but you also want to focus on your other two (sports) at the same time. It\u2019s good though because it makes you a really good athlete, and it just makes you a better person all around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the future, Valdez said he would like to receive a college scholarship to play one of his three sports.<\/p>\n

For the time being, however, the senior is focused on finishing the 2013 football season on a high note.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense has been shutting a lot of people down,\u201d said Valdez. \u201cOn offense, we started slow, but we\u2019ve been doing a lot better. I hope that we can finish strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the passion Valdez brings to the football field, there is no reason why a strong finish to the season is beyond the realm of possibilities.<\/p>\n

imaclaren@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

football star also standout wrestler, baseball player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13,427],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-prep-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56674","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=56674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62649,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56674\/revisions\/62649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56674"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}