Two first-year football coaches are already making their mark with what they hope is a new tradition.
The Durango High School and Bayfield High School football programs are holding a scrimmage on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Durango High School.
Hunter Holmes is entering his first year leading the Demons program and Jason Wenzlau is entering his first year leading the Wolverines program.
Wenzlau was struggling to find a team to scrimmage his Bayfield squad after he made a few unsuccessful calls. He then was asked if he wanted to scrimmage the Durango JV team. He declined and said he wanted to scrimmage the Durango varsity team.
Regardless of the classification difference, Wenzlau wants to see competition for his guys against another varsity squad. He and Holmes finalized the scrimmage about 1.5 weeks ago.
“It’s important to have a scrimmage to go against another team other than yourself … so you can see you're made of,” Wenzlau said. “You know what your own team is made of against each other, but you really don't know what that's going to translate to against someone else that does different schemes than you do. So it's important to scrimmage somebody else, not only for from a coaching aspect … but also for the boys, they like to get out there, be physical and hit each other.”
Holmes was in favor of the idea because like Wenzlau, he wants his kids to see some action against a different team. Holmes thinks it’ll be a great community event and it’s an opportunity to celebrate the athletes in the community.
Wenzlau said the plan is for everyone to get equal opportunities on both sides of the ball. It won’t be a scrimmage with quarters. Instead, each team will get a certain number of plays on both sides of the ball before special teams.
Then, teams will compete in a red zone competition before a special teams performance. Holmes suggested the idea and Wenzlau thought it’d be fun since both teams have very talented kickers. Dylan Burns for Durango and Ayden Casillas for Bayfield both have hopes of kicking at the next level.
“We have here in Durango .... a top-20 kicker in America,” Holmes said about Burns. “Anytime we get to showcase them, or let him showcase his talent to the town, it's a no-brainer ... I don't want Dylan staying on the sidelines. We want him out there ... It's not very often you have a specialist like like him in Durango. Then, I saw some Bayfield film and I thought their kicker was really good, too. I thought it would be an awesome opportunity for him to kick against a kid of Dylan’s caliber.”
Wenzlau expects the scrimmage to last about two hours.
Bayfield opens its season at home against Aztec on Sept. 5; Durango opens its season at home versus Montrose on Aug. 22. Check for a season preview on both teams in the week leading up to their openers.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
