For the fifth time in five years, Durango High School football will have a new head coach in 2026, with Hunter Holmes stepping away from the program to take a new coaching job.
Only eight months after being hired as the Durango High School football coach, Holmes leaves the position after one season due to frustrations with the athletic administration. This led him to pursue another opportunity at a school more committed to football, Holmes said.
Holmes has been a coach for Durango High School in three separate seasons, first under head coach Todd Casebier in 2022. He then returned to Durango in 2024 and was the special teams coordinator under interim head coach Ryan Woolverton. Holmes was the head coach this past season, leading the Demons to a 9-3 overall record and a trip to the 4A state quarterfinals.
“It's been awesome being here for two years as an assistant before that, and then got the head job,” Holmes said. “I've seen a lot of good football and been around a lot of great kids, great parents and great athletes. So that side of things was great, and I’ll definitely miss being around those guys.”
The football head coaching position has been a revolving door at Durango High School. Todd Casebier coached the Demons for one season before Matt Burton took his place in 2023. Burton left after one season due to affordability concerns raising a young family in Durango. Ryan Woolverton stepped up as the interim head coach in 2024, before stepping away from coaching, leading to Holmes’ hiring.
Despite all the coaching changes, success has been the one constant. The Demons had a 36-11 record over the past four seasons with trips to the state playoffs in each season.
“It's an uneasy feeling, not a good feeling, seeing us have to go through this process again, and more importantly, the kids having to adjust to a new head coach and adapt once again … Every time we go through this, it feels like a roller coaster,” Durango School District Athletic and Activities Director Ryan Knorr said. “Trust me, I don't want to be on the ride.”
On Nov. 23, the day after Durango lost to Heritage in the 4A state quarterfinals, Holmes and his staff sat down to reflect on the season. They realized they wanted to explore other coaching options so they could do what they wanted to do coaching-wise. Holmes said assistant coach Jacob Politte will be also heading to Holmes’ next destination.
One of the main issues Holmes had with the athletic administration was the lack of a year-round football weights program. When he was hired in May, he expected his football team to have their own weight room program.
However, Holmes said he was shocked when the athletic department announced a new plan for the weight room, with athletes lifting in designated lifting classes during the day, run by certified physical education teachers, not team-oriented lifting sessions run by coaches.
Knorr said the athletic administration had some really positive intentions with the weight room to try and get every athlete lifting during the day and take some responsibility off coaches. He felt that at the end of the season, he gave the football program enough autonomy to do what they wanted in the weight room, but Knorr said with anything in public schools, it’s a process to get to that point.
“We did our best to meet his demands,” Knorr said. “There are 22 other programs at Durango High School, and it's hard to give every coach exactly what they want. It's our goal to support every coach in our building and every student-athlete in our building.”
Getting coaches in the building was another main issue for Holmes. Going into the job, he thought the coaching staff he brought would get hired by the district to work in the building, but they weren’t.
Knorr heard Holmes and his assistant’s concerns and went to the administration to see some changes to the processes to ensure there’s the necessary support to get teachers in the building. He wants to see teachers hired in the future that are not only great teachers, but will help out outside the classroom. Knorr said they aren’t getting coaches who are applying for teaching jobs or have the credentials to teach.
“For 4A football in Colorado, you need a full staff of coaches who are in the building from middle school all the way up,” Holmes said. “The alignment within the district is just not there to support football, which is unfortunate, but it's also a testament to the dads around town doing everything they can to make sure their kids are successful.”
After Holmes was hired, he said he planned for the Durango position to be his last head coaching job. Looking back, Holmes said he meant it wholeheartedly, but he didn’t know the details of the job that he knows now, including Knorr telling him that winning and getting kids to college wasn’t high on the athletic administration’s priorities, which wasn’t something he wanted to be a part of.
“No, our mission statement is to get students involved, help them become better people on and off the field, and through that process, strive to excellence,” Knorr said. “Excellence would be winning a state championship and being the best possible human being they can be when they leave high school, whether that means a Division I scholarship or how to be a leader for a business.”
With Holmes leaving for a new opportunity, Knorr is focused on making sure this streak of a new coach every year ends after 2026. He’s prepared a document to be transparent to all the prospective coaches about how hard it is to be a head football coach in Durango, whether it’s traveling, cost of living and bringing assistant coaches in.
The Durango High School football head coach job posting was posted last month and it was closed on Sunday, according to Knorr. He interviewed three candidates on Thursday evening and hopes to have a hire by the end of the month.
However, after going through this process year after year, Knorr knows it’s one thing to interview a great candidate, and it’s another thing for them to come to Durango and relocate their family.
Knorr feels optimistic about the candidates, but if there isn’t the right fit after interviews, he’s willing to repost the position to finally get a coach who’ll stick around more than one year.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
