It’s a quiet time for local high school and college sports with everyone home for the holidays, so it’s a good time to look back at the best fall athlete from Durango High School.
The all-state teams were complete when the football all-state teams came out last week. Now, everyone can see who the best athletes were according to the coaches, but what do you think?
After watching these athletes compete for over two months, there are plenty of worthy choices for the best fall athlete from Durango High School in 2025. Durango had all-state athletes; some athletes were at the top of the state in their certain skill; others had great seasons, but struggled in their final competition.
Readers can vote for the best Durango High School fall athlete out of five nominees. Regardless of who wins, this article is another way to commend all these athletes for all the work and sacrifices they put in. It’s not easy playing sports at the high school level for Durango, and it’s even harder to do it at a high level with how isolated Durango is from the other schools in the state that are the same size.
Here are the nominees for best fall athlete for Durango High School in 2025:
This nomination may be surprising to some, since Cheatham was an offensive and defensive lineman for the Demons. However, the senior stood out amongst his peers and was one of two Durango fall athletes to earn first team all-state (Dylan Burns).
Cheatham was a beast all season long on the offensive and defensive line for Durango. After putting on over 50 pounds of muscle in the offseason, Cheatham had the size, athleticism and technique to make huge holes for Durango’s talented running game.
On defense, he used his strength and knowledge to tackle runners and put pressure on the quarterback. Cheatham finished the season sixth on the team with 27 total tackles, and Cheatham was third on the team with eight tackles for loss.
Cheatham was also recognized at a national level this season, picking up multiple Division I offers throughout the season before he committed to Florida Atlantic University on Dec. 3. He’s also rated a three-star high school football prospect by 247Sports
There were other options for this poll for football, with senior kicker Dylan Burns and junior quarterback Grady Feeney. Burns is an excellent kicker who has deep range, but Durango didn’t need him to kick a ton of important field goals because the offense usually got to the end zone, and the field goals he did kick were in multi-score games since all of Durango’s games were decided by more than one possession.
Feeney was great for the Demons, but if you talked to him after the games, he knew and expressed that the amount of success he had wouldn’t have been possible without a great offensive line, led by Cheatham.
A junior this school year, Ruggiero had success immediately as a freshman in 2023 and continued that in 2024 and 2025.
She had a peer to push her this season in freshman Zia Fadil, but Ruggiero finished ahead of her in nearly every race, racking up top-five and top-10 finishes, including a fourth-place finish at the league meet and a third-place finish at regionals.
The one race that didn’t go Ruggiero’s way was the state championships race. She was sick all week and didn’t even go to school, according to Durango cross country head coach Michael Fadil. Ruggiero finished 138th with her illness, and Fadil thought if she was healthy, she would’ve finished in the top 30.
One sickness-filled race should define an entire season for Ruggiero. She was Durango’s top runner all year and will be a woman on a mission in her senior season.
Jepson had a very similar season to Ruggiero in a different sport. Like Ruggiero, Jepson has been one of the top athletes on his team since he was a freshman.
As a junior this fall, he was the top golfer for the Durango High School boys golf team. He won multiple tournaments throughout the season with impressive rounds. Jepson led the team to the state tournament and was ranked ninth in 4A before the state tournament.
Like Ruggiero, Jepson had an off day at state and finished tied-46th. It doesn’t take away from Jepson’s incredible season, especially since he wasn’t the only Demon to have a bad two days at state.
Jepson hasn’t been shy about his goal of winning the individual state title, and he’ll have one final year to do it in 2026.
Clair was fantastic for the Demons this fall during her junior season. She was one of the main reasons the Durango High School softball team had its best season in over a decade.
At over 6 feet tall and the coach’s daughter, Clair showed all the work she’d put in with her incredible power, finishing the season tied-fourth in 4A with nine home runs. It’s more impressive when considering she played the least amount of games and had the fewest at-bats of any player in the top five of the home run rankings.
Clair also led the Demons with a 0.529 batting average and 37 hits. She made honorable mention all-state for her play.
There were a lot of good players for Durango, but Clair stood out as she constantly led an offense that needed to perform with struggles in the pitching circles and outfields at times this season.
Durango girls volleyball had an off season for the program’s standards, but Neiman, a senior outside hitter, still had a great year to finish her fantastic career.
Neiman made her way up to varsity during her freshman year and was a contributor from that point on. As a senior, Neiman led Durango with 248 kills and was one of the top hitters on the team with a 0.190 hitting percentage.
Durango had a tough start to the year at 1-8, and the Demons missed the playoffs. If Durango had made the playoffs, Neiman would’ve likely made an all-state team.
Neiman was recognized for her talent; she’ll be continuing her volleyball career at Division II Oklahoma Baptist University.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
