Last year, Durango High School won the 4A state championship. Coming into the 2024-25 season, its top three scorers and head coach are gone. The Demons are leaning on two juniors and an interim head coach as they look to defend their state title.
Those two juniors are Wynn Daniels (son of Will Daniels, the Demons’ interim head coach) and Leyton Holbrook (the son of assistant coach Kevin Holbrook). Wynn was the fourth-leading scorer on last year’s state championship team, scoring eight goals in 19 games played. Leyton also played 19 games, scoring four goals. This season, Wynn scored a team-high 15 goals in 19 games played, while Leyton was limited to nine games but still scored nine goals.
“It's definitely been a big shift for (Wynn),” Coach Daniels said. “He's only a junior, so he had to fill the role of the assistant captain position that was given to him by the players and coaches. There's two juniors trying to work that out, him and Leyton. We relied on each other and the kids to make those calls. But they filled those roles as leaders.”
Losing Lucas Betz, Brady Holbrook and Henry Howe (the three leading scorers from last year’s state championship squad) has led to a different team makeup and a time of growth for DHS hockey. Figuring out team chemistry and the relationship between the different lines has been key for the Demons.
“It's been hard at times, just balancing a lot of different personalities and stuff,” said Coach Daniels. “But as the season progresses and we all get to know each other a little better, I feel like it's just the growth of the season and what we're looking for just trying to get the chemistry right to head into playoffs.”
Another key piece of team chemistry has been Coach Daniels stepping into his new role as head coach. As an assistant coach with a flexible schedule, he was best-positioned to take on the role of interim head coach. Daniels has received support from assistants and players and has engaged well with the role.
“I've been enjoying it a lot,” Coach Daniels said. “It's extremely rewarding and also extremely taxing at times. But I care a lot for these kids, so it's important that they have somebody helping them grow and turn into young adults.”
A signature part of Coach Daniels’ game plan as head coach has been what he calls the grind line, which is his third line. While they may not get the most playing time, the grind line is often the line that sets the tone and energy for the game.
“We give them this role,” Coach Daniels said. “When they embrace the role of just working as hard as they can to get the puck out of the zone and then get the puck deep into the zone and chase it, sometimes it produces goals. When we get a goal from the third line, it lights up the team unlike anything else. It's just a beautiful thing.”
With hard work, composure and a little bit of luck, the Demons believe there’s no reason they can’t return to the state championship. They got an eight seed and have a first-round home game. DHS is set to play nine-seed Kent Denver at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
“Nobody thinks that we have it in us, but the whole team believes that there's not a team we can't beat if we play our right game,” said Coach Daniels. “There's certainly teams ranked above us. We've gotten a win out of several of them. So there's nobody that we're threatened by and we'd like to just come out the gate with whoever's ready.”
