CRAIG – Truth be told, Dillon Hoselton probably couldn’t wait for Moffat County’s next football game even more so than the imminent Sept. 9 battle at the Bulldog Proving Grounds.
Because whereas MCHS’ newest athletic director has zero connection or loyalty to Rawlins, Wyoming, already a win improved over their 2022 effort and set to visit on the 15th, he definitely still has love for his Bayfield roots – requiring a balancing act he hadn’t expected to perform on a sunny Saturday quite so early in his emerging career as a CHSAA-grade administrator.
“Last year we went down and visited, so I knew with the two-year schedule it’d flip and they’d be here,” said the 2015 BHS graduate, who’d spent the past two years teaching P.E. at Craig Middle School. “I looked at the roster and didn’t recognize many names anymore, but I recognized (former head coach and current assistant) Gary Heide. Talked to him a bit – it was exciting to see my alma mater coming to play.”
“Don’t really have a line,” he said during warmups, when asked whether Moffat County or Bayfield would have the edge. “I honestly don’t know; we’ve got a lot of talented kids, a lot of big kids, so I’m just looking for a good game.”
As things played out, that’s exactly what he got as the ’Dogs held off BHS 42-33, following up on their 18-15 win inside Wolverine Country Stadium last fall – when one-year predecessor Jim Wright oversaw MCHS Athletics.
“I kind of got thrown into it,” said a grinning Hoselton. “Last year I was teaching at the middle school, so … it’s been a learning curve, that’s for sure. A lot to learn … but I knew this was what I wanted to do since I went to college. It just came earlier than what I’d thought.”
Hoselton expressed that his own participation in high school athletics as a Wolverine, and then as a basketball player at Marian University (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; NCAA Div. III) helped prepare him for the role, which extends and encompasses sports and activities all the way down to the elementary-school level.
“Because of how high-level things run in college, you just see … how stuff kind of works, and you can apply that directly to high school athletics. It’s a lot different (being an A.D.), but definitely easier to do once you get that experience.”
“I’ve got a lot on my plate right now,” Hoselton continued. “It’s basically K-through-12 … but I’m excited.”
