After a two-year hiatus, Mancos principal Adam Priestley has returned to coaching to help lead the Blue Jays football team.
Priestley and Josh Gardner will serve as co-head coaches for the 2016 season, following the retirement of former co-head coach Bill Parsons.
Last year, Parsons and Gardner led the Jays to a 6-4 record and an appearance in the 8-man state playoffs.
Mancos lost five valuable seniors from last year’s squad to graduation, but they’ve got a handful of significant contributors returning.
Axel Bonde and Bowen Strazza-Whalen will hold down the backfield, Kaleb Hargraves, Richard Martinez and Chance Morgan-Garcia offer flexibility in the secondary and, perhaps most importantly, is the number of returning linemen.
“We have a big line this year with Liam Cooper, Brady Sanders and Casey Orange,” said Priestley. “So we’re pretty excited about seeing what those guys can do.”
The offensive line will look to create holes for running backs Bonde and Strazza-Whalen, and protect first-year quarterback Riley Burton.
Gardner noted that not only are the offensive and defensive lines big, but they’re deep, and players are fighting for positions.
Some of that depth is due to the incoming freshman class.
“What’s interesting is we’ve got a freshman class that is going to be pretty exciting to watch,” said Priestley. “They’re taking some lumps right now, but just the way they’re progressing, it’ll be really exciting to see mid-year to the end of the season.”
The Jays tout a promising line and talented freshman class, but Priestley said that the team’s biggest strength is its chemistry.
“We don’t have a lot of ‘I,’ he explained. “We’ve got a lot of kids that just want to play as a team. But we’ll find out on Friday night what’s going to be our bread and butter.”
The Blue Jays are set to kick off the 2016 season on Friday at home against Plateau Valley at 6 p.m.