Durango High School junior Dylan Burns has a lot of power because of his right foot. Burns has the power and accuracy most football and soccer coaches dream of.
Burns is a forward on the Demons’ soccer team and has the size and speed to get around defenders. After that, he uncorks a powerful shot that when it’s on target is hard to stop.
On the football field, Burns can act like a safety valve. If the offense stalls in its own half, Burns can use his powerful leg to boot a punt high and deep into the opponent’s territory and pin the opposing offense. If the Demons put together a decent drive but get stopped before the end zone, Burns can trot out and kick a 50+ yard field goal and make it with ease like kickers who kick on Saturdays and Sundays.
With his talent, Burns’ power in his leg also dictates practice schedules for the football and soccer teams so he can contribute to both squads.
“Dylan’s a kid who’s obviously an amazing soccer player but we told him that his demeanor, his ability to strike the ball, just his kickoffs alone are college-level … he’s just a blessing,” Durango football interim head coach Ryan Woolverton said.
Before Burns was making 50+ yard field goals and scoring multiple goals a game regularly, Burns was a youngster who was introduced to soccer by his father, who also played. He started playing around four or five years old and played a lot in the midfield when he was younger. It was only this year where Demons boys soccer head coach Sean Ackerman moved Burns up to forward, a position he said he’s really enjoying.
Football came later, in eighth grade. Burns played running back and safety at Miller Middle School. Then, when Burns was getting ready for high school, he had a tough decision to make on his future in high school athletics.
“It was really hard because I enjoyed football so much in eighth grade and through the summer going into freshman year I actually did the Pueblo camp throughout the summer and did position work with all them,” Burns said. “Then I was also doing soccer and I got really close with those upperclassmen and teammates. The soccer team was really legit that year. So then that's when I decided I wanted to do a little bit of both, at least. So I dropped the skill position in football and then did just kicking to make sure I could still do soccer.”
Playing time was a steady upward trajectory in high school in both sports. He made varsity as a freshman in football and soccer in 2022. He was a reserve on the soccer team and finished the season with four points. In football, he started with only kickoffs and then got to kick PATs after the starting kicker broke his wrist.
Burns started last season in soccer and he started kicking field goals and punts in football.
He’s credited Durango special teams coach Hunter Holmes with helping him progress this year. The work started in the summer when Burns, Holmes and former Durango football player and current college long snapper Zach Haber would work out three times a week.
Like with most multisport athletes, skills from one sport transfer over to the others.
“With football, playing soccer for years, had for sure helped,” Burns said. “There's no other sport that really does it, coming close to kicking like in soccer. That helped more of being able to do it and then getting the technique down. Football helps soccer because we do weights every morning before school. Little things like that for sure help on the soccer field, just the training and stuff.”
Burns does well in balancing two practice and game schedules. He tries to get his homework done in class so that he doesn’t have much to do after two practices each day. Burns credits his parents with allowing him to get to both sports’ away games in different locations on one weekend. He’s had a Friday game in Montrose and after that, his parents have drove him up to the other game in Colorado Springs the next day.
He has support from both coaching staffs to play each sport and each staff is understanding and accommodating for Burns.
One thing that has changed for this year is Burns has prioritized football over soccer despite leading the soccer team with 10 goals so far this year. If both teams play on the same night, he’s choosing football because that’s where he knows his future is.
It was a hard decision but Burns knew his junior year would be a critical one for his future playing sports. He loves watching college football on Saturdays and said it’s what he wants to do at the next level.
Burns has been working with Coach Holmes and has been using his X (formerly known as Twitter) account to show his kicking skills from games to college coaches. Burns is hoping to go on some informal visits this fall to see some games.
“Right now, we're looking at Division I, a lot of just FCS schools,” Burns said. “I’m open for any scholarship. I'm not trying to narrow myself down a lot with what school and where and that kind of thing. A scholarship is a scholarship. It's really what I want and that's what I'm shooting for, kicking for a scholarship.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
