For the first time in nearly 20 years, there will be a new head coach for the Durango High School boys basketball program, and his name is Orlando Griego.
Alan Batiste retired after serving as the Demons’ head coach since 2010. Griego, 41, is a familiar face to fill Batiste’s shoes. He was the Fort Lewis College women’s basketball coach from 2019-2021, and he was Batiste’s assistant this past season.
“I’m super excited to be in this position,” Griego said. “It’s a great opportunity to be a head coach at Durango High School. There hasn’t been a lot of turnover, and credit to all the guys who came before me of doing a great job with Durango basketball. I’m excited and eager to carry on what they’ve built for us this year and for years to come.”
After Batiste announced his retirement, Durango School District Athletic and Activities Director Ryan Knorr ran a process to search for a replacement, but Griego was at the top of the list. Knorr has known Griego since Knorr got to Durango. Knorr saw him working with kids as the Title VI Coordinator for Native American education.
He could see how Griego had the best interests of kids in mind, trying not only to take down barriers but to see what’s possible after high school.
Griego worked with the junior varsity boys basketball team last year, and Knorr saw how Griego is a teacher at hear and did a great job of breaking down concepts in a clear way for the kids. Once Batiste retired and Griego showed interest, Knorr went through the process and hired Griego in the spring.
“How he fostered that chemistry on the team, just in one year of coaching JV, was pretty darn impressive,” Knorr said. “Then what I've already seen in terms of energy he's brought to the gym and organization of practices, the overall bar of expectation has already, in a few weeks, just jumped leaps and bounds in terms of he's laid out for the kids and the program itself. So it's really exciting to start seeing it all come together.”
Griego has plenty of history inside the Durango High School gymnasium. He graduated from Durango in 2003 after a stellar four-year career playing under Tim Fitzpatrick. He played at Cochise College before finishing his career at Division I Southern Utah University.
He knew he wanted to jump into coaching, so he started coaching youth basketball before rising up the ranks to high school as Fitzpatrick’s assistant at Durango High School. Griego then became an assistant at FLC before taking over the head coaching position. He finished his two years 21-21 overall and 17-20 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Griego’s tenure as the Skyhawks’ head coach ended on a bad note as he was fired after an internal review, following his players’ formal complaint against him. In 2019-2020, FLC started 15-5 before losing its final seven games.
“The morale of the team was nonexistent by the end of the 2020 season,” former FLC player Jordan Carter said in a previous Herald article. “His behavior would change in a split second. Playing for him felt like walking on thin ice. (Griego) ruined a team that should have been contending for an RMAC title.”
Griego said he’s grown a lot since his time at FLC. He’s matured, and he sees the game differently. Griego isn’t coaching for his livelihood anymore like he was in college. There was a lot more stress with a year-to-year contract when the team wasn’t winning at FLC. He knows that he needs to give these young men and himself grace as he teaches them.
“I really just try to … teach them there's more than just basketball,” Griego said. “That's really what it's taught me, is how do we be good people. It's not always about wins and losses. Your work ethic and hard work will give you an opportunity. How you see that opportunity and how you seize it is really going to show.”
Knorr wasn’t overly concerned with Griego’s past at FLC when he made the hire. He said he vetted Griego when he hired him as an assistant coach. Knorr reached out to a lot of people in the Durango basketball community, and he got extremely positive feedback on Griego. Knorr liked what he saw when working with Griego over the past year, and is judging Griego based on who he is now, not back then.
Griego said he’ll have a new staff next year. He described himself as an intentional coach, ready to put his players in the right positions. He knows there will be times when he’ll have to be a disciplinarian and other times he’ll show grace. Griego is committed to pushing the ball in transition when the Demons can with their strong group of guards. He wants his team to play hard-nosed defense and play inside out.
“The nice thing about the group that we have is they're eager to learn, they're hungry to win, and they want to get after it … Alan did a great job getting those guys ready and prepared,” Griego said. “Just pushing them to be better, that's what I'm excited for. They're excited; I'm excited. There's just a lot of good buzz going around for Durango basketball right now.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
