First-year Durango High School football head coach Hunter Holmes isn’t conservative with his goals for the Demons. He wants the team to be a “December program” playing for state titles.
Since Durango’s state title in 2020, the Demons have a 77% win percentage, but have only reached the state semifinals once and haven’t played in December.
Holmes plans to change that despite being the fourth Durango football head coach in four years. He’ll be leading the team’s third different starting quarterback in the last three years. The Demons started practicing with pads on Aug. 6 and are ready to face Montrose at home on Friday at 7 p.m. to open their season.
“All the way from team camp to now, getting around these kids, they get better every day,” Holmes said. “So it's awesome. I’m really excited about the program, season and all that. The kids work their butts off. I couldn't ask for a better group of kids to go play Montrose and just attack the season with.”
The Demons finished last season 7-4 overall, 4-1 in their first season in the 4A Soco 2 League and lost to Heritage, 42-20, in the second round of the 4A state playoffs. The biggest loss from that team was senior quarterback Cully Feeney, who finished with a 56% completion percentage, 1,753 yards passing, 20 passing touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also led the team with 668 rushing yards and nine rushing touchdowns.
It’s been a three-way battle for the starting quarterback job with junior Grady Feeney, sophomore Tyler Hoerl and freshman Cole Perkins. Holmes said it’s been a great competition between the three quarterbacks and the wide receivers haven’t missed a beat with any of them. As of Tuesday night, Holmes was undecided on a starter for the Montrose game.
The wide receivers on the Demons look to be a strength of the offense. Durango returns its top receiver in senior Seb Tripp, a strong pass catcher a 6-foot-1-inches, who finished with 581 yards and eight touchdowns. Senior Will Zahradnik returns after posting 362 yards and three touchdowns. Junior Mason Miller, a dynamic athletic threat, is also back after finishing last year with 359 yards and six touchdowns.
“When it comes to our play action, I think we do really well,” Miller said. “When it comes to our blocking, we’ve got some stuff to work on, but that's obviously every team. I believe we have the best receiving core in the league.”
Miller has already picked up a Division I offer and worked a lot on his game in the summer. He’s such a hard worker that Holmes sometimes has to tell Miller to back off a little bit. Holmes is very proud of Miller’s progress. He thinks Miller’s maturation will be key with him leveling up; Miller said he’s been working on his football IQ to prepare for the season.
A receiver who didn’t see any time at the position last year, but could be a factor is senior Ollie Peterson. The backup quarterback last year, Peterson came to the coaches and wanted to change positions because he wanted to get on the field so bad, according to Holmes. He’s been one of the biggest surprises in practice, according to Holmes and the head coach said Peterson is a workhorse who’s a Wes Welker-type possession receiver.
Durango line coach Mike Sutter has a reputation of churning out quality talent, including high-level Division I offensive linemen Joshua Bates and Carver Willis. Sutter looks like he’s coached up some more talented offensive linemen this year, with seniors Warren Uptain and Owen Cheatham having college offers and getting Division I looks, according to Holmes.
Both players are around 270 pounds; Holmes said Cheatham has gained 30 pounds since he was hired in May. Cheatham has been working on strengthening his hips so he can block well and other small things from the waist down to protect his quarterback.
Holmes is also excited returning offensive linemen like seniors JJ Vickers, Ernesto Galvan and Ryder Stahlin who are especially critical this year as they need to give a new quarterback lots of time to make the right reads and grow in the pocket.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Demons will have a lot of their offensive linemen playing on the defensive side of the ball.
At linebacker, senior Olivier Clark returns after he broke his leg last October against Rampart. He’ll work at linebacker with sophomore Hayes Fancher.
The Demons lost some stellar defensive backs to graduation in Cole Pontine, Malakai Baier and Cully Feeney. Senior Dawson McInnes is ready to step up at safety; Holmes called him a missile as well as the best safety and kickoff return man in the state.
One huge addition to the defense is legendary defensive coordinator Rocky Long. He was a defensive coach at some top Division I schools in the 1980s and 1990s, including Texas Christian University, UCLA, Wyoming and Oregon State.
Long was the head coach of San Diego State from 2011-2019. He had four 10-win seasons and San Diego State went to nine consecutive bowl games. Long then moved on to be the defensive coordinator at New Mexico from 2020-2022 and in 2023, he was at Syracuse University, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, as the defensive coordinator.
Throughout his coaching career, Long and his wife, Debby, spent time in Durango and retired in Durango after the Syracuse job in 2023. Long helped out as an analyst at Fort Lewis College last season.
“He’s the greatest defensive coordinator I’ve ever met by far,” Cheatham said about Long. “What a blessing is that he's able to come help coach us up. Player-wise, we have some really flying around, go get the ball type of guys on the defense.”
Cheatham has learned from Long about the importance of doing work on his own time so he doesn’t make mistakes on Fridays.
It isn’t lost on Holmes how blessed he is with all the experience on his coaching staff. In addition to Long, Sutter has been with Durango for over a decade. Coach Henry Walter was a kicker at Nebraska Wesleyan University and coach Jacob Politte played on the University of Colorado Boulder for coach Deion Sanders.
Durango is also in a great position at kicker and punter, with senior Dylan Burns having Division I offers and is ranked highly in the country after some strong performances at some summer kicking camps.
“It gives us a big safety net knowing that if we can’t get a first down we have him,” Miller said about Burns.
Burns played soccer and football last year, but is focusing on football this year as he knows that’s his future in college. He’s worked on his distance and consistency with his kicks in the summer. Burns also worked on his spin on his punts and placing them away from the returners.
The Demons have a challenging schedule this year, starting with Montrose, a team Durango hasn’t defeated since 2015. The Red Hawks were ranked second in 4A in the Colorado High School Activities Association preseason coaches’ polls for football.
Durango then plays Farmington, Piedra Vista, Palisade and Grand Junction in the nonleague before moving into league play.
In the 4A Soco 2 League, Palmer Ridge was ranked fourth in the 4A preseason coaches poll. Vista Ridge was 10th while Air Academy, Durango and Rampart received votes.
“It’s a tough league,” Holmes said. “We'll see where the dice fall. I'm excited to see it. Palmer Ridge is an unbelievable program. With Vista Ridge, Rampart and Liberty, they put us in a tough league over some mountain passes. It's a great opportunity for us to get together as a team. Who’s got it better than us?”
To read more about Holmes’ journey to becoming Durango’s head coach, click here.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
