Official winter practices to get under way Monday

Official winter practices to get under way Monday

Nov 10, 2001

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

Official practice will get under way Monday, Nov. 12, for the Colorado High School Activities Association’s winter season.

Boys and girls throughout the area high schools will compete in wrestling, girls swimming, and boys and girls basketball.

All those athletes who are did not play a fall sport need to take care of all the paper work. Aside from getting a physical from a physician, they need to completely fill out parent/guardian release, insurance waiver, physical form, and any traveling and/or training contract. Forms are available from the activities offices at school.

Montezuma-Cortez High School competes in girls swimming, wrestling, and boys and girls basketball during the winter months. Dolores and Mancos compete in wrestling and boys and girls basketball. Dolores County participates in boys and girls basketball only. MCHS is a Class 4A school for those sports while Dolores, Dove Creek, and Mancos are Class 2A.

There will be one new coaches are taking over programs at MCHS. Karl McGee, who is currently head football coach, will take over the reins from Mike Allison. Allison resigned last spring in order to concentrate on his duties as Athletic Director.

Dolores will have a new head boys basketball coach in Scott Story. He takes over for Todd Ware who resigned last spring in order to go back to college.

Dolores County will have two new (one sort of) coaches for boys and girls basketball. Scott Crawford resigned as head boys’ coach at end of last school year. Kim Young, who guided the girls last season, resigned suddenly. Ty Gray, who was a standout player during the mid-1990s for Mancos and an assistant last year at DCHS, will be the new head boys’ coach. Jim Buffington, who retired a year ago after six straight seasons as head coach, is being called out of retirement to mentor the girls for the 2001-02 season only.

Many coaches will be back for another season at those schools.

Wade Mortensen will start his 13th season as head man of the boys’ hoops program at MCHS. Stan Yake will start season number two with the girls. Mark Knox will once again head girls swimming.

Mancos is standing pat right now. Gary Hill will change hats from principal to head boys basketball coach for his 21st season with the boys. Kevin Dimmick will guide the girls’ fortunes as he begins season no. 6. Travis Bryant will be sitting in the chair coaching the wrestling team for his fifth season.

The Dolores girls basketball team will be headed up by Rob Mellott who begins his second year at the helm. Bill Kralicek will start his fourth year as head wrestling coach.

Shane Baughman will be back for his sixth season in guiding the wrestling team at Dove Creek.

MCHS boys basketball will certainly be fun to watch this coming season. The Panthers should have an outstanding team with the likes of point guard Marcus Mortensen, off-guard Mike Rivas, small forward Jeff Anderson, power forward Kyle Wilson, and center Layne Frazier all returning. The Panthers were a State qualifier a year ago but failed to win their quarterfinal game. This could be the year they qualify again and get over the hump.

The Panthers girls will be good with Casey Bauer and Stefanie Allison leading the way.

Mancos will be tough in boys basketball with point guard Clint Hill, forward Travis Clark, shooting guard Kent Russell, and forwards Ryan and Matt Shepherd all back. Mancos girls will be young but will have Lacey Morris and Rachel Russell back at it.

The Black Attack will be back for another season. The Dolores girls should have another outstanding year with the likes of Jennifer Trevillian, Amanda Cross, Jennifer Cross, Ashley Smith, and McKenzie Smith among those back. Dove Creek girls will be small but quick. Rachel Hightower and Shandra Johnson are returning.

MCHS wrestling will be going through a rebuilding season but state placer (third) Tyler Gray is back as is qualifier heavyweight Elias Lehi and qualifier (not last year, though) Travis Spruell. Mancos wrestling will be in good shape as the Blue Jays return such standouts as state runner-up Scott Koppenhafer, Josh Seymour, Rowdy Thompson, and Jakob Tallent to name a few. Dove Creek will have state champ Kyle Riddell and state runner-up Casey Spitzer among those returning. Dolores will have state heavyweight champ Derek Thompson returning.