It’s a new year. Most local teams are already midway through their seasons, but one local high school team will kick off its season this week.
The Durango High School alpine ski team will compete in its first race of the season on Friday at Keystone. The Demons will race six times in six weeks this year before their season concludes at state championships Feb. 16-17 at Copper Mountain.
The county’s wrestling teams, meanwhile, will all head to Bayfield on Friday for the La Plata County tri. The competition will not only include the Bayfield, Durango and Ignacio boys, but also girls teams from all three schools. The action is scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. at BHS.
The three boys teams will then head to Pagosa Springs on Saturday to compete in the Rocky Mountain Invitational while the girls teams all head to Alamosa for the Alamosa Invite.
In another county matchup, the Bayfield girls basketball team will square off with Durango’s junior varsity on Friday at DHS.
The Durango High School hockey team is the only other team from the county that will be home this week. DHS, CHSAANow.com’s No. 9 ranked team, will host league foe and No. 7 Summit for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday at Chapman Hill.
The Ignacio boys and girls basketball teams will also return to the court this week for nonleague games at Monte Vista. The girls are scheduled to play the Pirates at 3 p.m. on Saturday with the boys following at 4:30 p.m. The Ignacio girls (5-2 overall) begin the year as the No. 8 ranked team in Class 3A.
The rest of the county’s high school teams will resume their seasons next week.
After playing its first nine games on the road, the DHS boys basketball team will play its home opener on Jan. 10 against Bloomfield (New Mexico). The DHS girls, who have won eight straight since losing to Farmington in its opener, will play at Bloomfield the same night. The Demon girls enter the new year as the No. 5 ranked team in Class 5A.
Durango’s swim team will begin 2023 at Delta High School on Jan 13.
The Bayfield boys and girls basketball teams, meanwhile, will begin their 4A/3A Intermountain League schedule when they return to the court Jan. 13 at home against Montezuma-Cortez. Both Wolverine teams will also host Centauri the next day.
