{"id":60471,"date":"2018-08-20T13:19:49","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T19:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-football-team-set-to-kick-off-new-era\/"},"modified":"2018-08-20T19:19:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T19:19:49","slug":"dolores-football-team-set-to-kick-off-new-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-football-team-set-to-kick-off-new-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores football team set to kick off new era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Head
Head coach Ray Davis was hired as Chris Trulser\u2019s replacement and given the task of rebuilding the Dolores Bears program.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For the first few minutes of every practice, all appears normal for the Dolores High School football team. As players stretch and warm up, coaches talk amongst themselves and make last-minute adjustments to the practice schedule.<\/p>\n

Notably absent from this year\u2019s football activities, however, is former head coach Chris Trusler, whose disciplined style defined the program for five seasons. After Trusler\u2019s contract was not renewed after last season, former assistant and Dove Creek player Ray Davis was hired as his replacement and given the task of rebuilding the Bears program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m keeping a lot of coach Trusler\u2019s philosophies in place,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to make it more fun. We\u2019re going to have to rebuild the program. We have a lot of work to do, but I think we\u2019re going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman QB set to lead offense<\/div>\n

On the offensive side of the ball, the Bears will rely heavily on freshman quarterback Wyatt Koskie, who starred for his school\u2019s middle school team last season and appears more than ready to take over from last year\u2019s starter, Justin Purkat.<\/p>\n

For Koskie to be successful, however, Dolores\u2019 offensive line will have to give him the type of quality protection that has not been present for the Bears\u2019 team in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Koskie) is tall, and he has a good head on his shoulders,\u201d Davis said. \u201cAs long as we can keep him from getting beat up too bad, I think he\u2019s going to do really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to do as best as I can, and I don\u2019t want to let anybody down,\u201d said Koskie. \u201cI just have to work my butt off all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lining up behind Koskie in the backfield will be one of at least five running backs who are competing for playing time. Figuring to open holes for the Bears runners will be junior Levi Fuller, who will split time between fullback and the offensive line.<\/p>\n

Garnering most of the playing time at wide receiver will be junior Trey Seekins and senior Bryce Baumgarten, who has emerged as a key leader on this year\u2019s team. Freshman Landon Thompson, who has been turning heads during practices, also figures to have several passes thrown his way.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a leader is definitely a lot different than what I\u2019ve been doing,\u201d said Baumgartner. \u201cI just want to be out there helping the underclassmen get better. Honestly, we\u2019ve had some of the best practices that we\u2019ve had. Our coaches know our abilities, and they put us to our limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense set to bring the heat<\/div>\n

While offensive production will be critical for the Bears this season, the team\u2019s defense will likely be its strong suit, thanks to a talented defensive line led by Bryan Escarcega and a solid linebacking corps anchored by Zander Eichner.<\/p>\n

According to Davis, a goal for this year\u2019s team is to hold opponents to under 14 points per game, and after hearing their head coach\u2019s goal early in the season, defensive players have preached the importance of aggression.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to have a strong mentality,\u201d Escarcega said. \u201cWe don\u2019t quit when we\u2019re going to go out there and make plays. We\u2019re running low on players this year, so we\u2019re going to have to work even harder to win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notable games on this year\u2019s schedule include this week\u2019s home opener, which will be played in an 8-man format against Monticello High School. Dolores also will play an eight-man game against Monument Valley (Utah) and will open its conference schedule at home against Monte Vista on Sept. 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cA reasonable goal this year is going to be three or four wins,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe have a couple of eight-man games that we\u2019re playing this year. When we get into league, we just have to wait and see. It\u2019s going to be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to not disappoint the home crowd,\u201d added Escarcega. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to watch your home football team, and we want fans to come here and keep supporting us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Davis hoping for big things from young, talented squad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4845,38,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-60471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-american-football","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\/60471","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=60471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60471"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=60471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}