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Demons win 6th-grade YAFL Super Bowl

3 championships; 3 years until these Durango Demons are prep Demons

The last Durango High School team to play for a state championship has a lot to do with the next team they believe has the potential to get back to a title game.

After all, they’ve already been to four. And they’ve won three.

The sixth-grade Durango Demons’ Four Corners Young American Football League team wrapped up its third championship in four years to finish an impressive 40-1 YAFL run. The Demons beat Pagosa Springs 26-14 in the sixth-grade YAFL Super Bowl at Navajo Preparatory School on Saturday in Farmington to finish their final YAFL season a perfect 11-0.

“We are so proud of this group of kids. To win three titles in four years and only have one loss, it shows an incredible commitment on their part and their families,” Durango offensive coordinator Ryan Woolverton said. “It was bittersweet after the game. Usually, there is relief when a season is over, but this was an incredible group of kids that we were honored and privileged to coach. We can’t wait to get them back when they are freshmen in high school.”

The Demons trailed 14-12 at halftime and 7-0 early in the game. Quarterback Jordan Woolverton rushed for three touchdowns, all quarterback sneaks that earlier this week he called his favorite play, and Gage Mestas scored on an option play from 5 yards out to give Durango its 26-14 lead with just 3 minutes, 30 seconds to play.

Niko Mestas had a big interception at the end of the first half to keep the Demons in the game, and a Cal Walsh fumble recovery deep in Pagosa Springs’ territory helped kick start the comeback.

“The guys were pretty calm at halftime. At first, we were a bit frazzled by some things Pagosa was doing, but the guys kept their cool and dominated the second half,” coach Woolverton said.

It didn’t take long for the Demons’ coaching staff to realize they had a special group of players, starting in third grade. The very first play of their tackle-football careers was all head coach Brian Mestas needed to see.

“The first play of the game in third grade when (Jordan) Woolverton threw a pass to Gage (Mestas) for like a 40-yard touchdown. The other third-graders we played against and opposing coaches just looked over like, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’” coach Mestas said. “We knew right away we had something special, and we’ve been building off that ever since.”

Woolverton to Gage Mestas has become as sure of a connection as Peyton Manning to Demaryius Thomas. Running the ball, Woolverton finished this season with 13 rushing touchdowns and 11 passing touchdowns in 11 games. Gage Mestas rushed for eight touchdowns and caught two more. Solomon Gable led the Demons this year with four touchdown receptions.

The only game the Demons have lost since third grade was the fourth-grade championship game. Woolverton didn’t play that game, as he suffered an injury the day before Super Bowl Saturday.

“I was playing soccer at recess, and I got tripped from behind and fell on my thumb and broke it,” said the 12-year-old Woolverton, son of Kathleen and Ryan Woolverton. “I was pretty bummed, felt like I let my team down, you know?”

The players, who had celebrated a third-grade title a year before, didn’t take their lone loss lightly. They wanted to make sure they wouldn’t get caught off-guard again, even if one of their teammates were injured.

“It made me really motivated. It showed we needed to work harder; we needed to be mentally tough,” said 12-year-old Gage Mestas, son of Gary and Malaika Mestas. “In that game, we weren’t, so, with that in our head, that makes us work harder and work ’til the whistle.”

The camaraderie between the coaching staff and players is what has made the team so special over the last four years. Three of the coaches, Brian Mestas, Joey Mestas and Ryan Woolverton, played high school football together for Durango High School and played on the 1988 team that lost 23-13 to Grand Junction in the state championship game. DHS hasn’t been back to a title game since and never has won a state championship in football. Brian Mestas said they all learned the game coming up under local coaches such as Bill Bowker, Brian Hester and Steve Thyfault.

The YAFL coaches believe this could be the class of players to change that.

“It’s been an absolute blast the last four years with these guys in terms of just trying to develop Durango football as a whole,” said coach Woolverton, who also coaches wide receivers for the DHS varsity program. “I think, if they stay with it, it can be a great group for Durango High School. We really preach to these guys about playing under the Friday night lights someday and potentially bringing Durango a state championship. We try to give them that goal.”

The reason the YAFL coaches are so confident their players will succeed in middle school and high school football: They are disciplined.

“They are going to be a big bunch of kids, but the discipline and focus they have is special,” coach Mestas said. “We expect great things out of them, and I don’t think they’ll let anybody around here down. They have toughness and heart. We can’t wait to see ’em on Fridays and see what they do. I think Durango is in for something special.”

The team’s attention to detail has been evident in all three phases of the game. The defense is well-rounded with Alex Pavon and Jordan Woolverton each collecting 34 tackles going into Saturday’s title game, and Ty Martinez and Kyler Reimers each had another 30 tackles. Gage Mestas had 28 tackles, Demetrius Trujillo had 27, and Derek Carman and Martinez have led the way in the turnover department by combining for five interceptions.

Durango scored an average of just more than 40 points per game and gave up an average of only 3.82.

The defensive and offensive lines haven’t backed down to any team, as Thomas Barnes, Matthew Cuthbert, Matthew Eckert, Sam Johnson, Ethan Ryan and Trujillo have gone to work in the trenches.

Ten different Demons scored touchdowns, and 19 different players carried the football on offense this season.

All the while, the Demons are running 80 different offensive formations while also learning some of the same terminology and plays the high school and middle school teams use.

“We run a little more pro-style offense, but we’ve implemented quite a bit of the high school terminology, and we have an 18-play no-huddle offense that uses all the same signals and terminology the high school runs,” coach Woolverton said. “And these guys run it very, very well.”

The head coach took it one step further when talking about the efficiency of the Demons’ no-huddle attack.

“Our offensive playbook is pretty amazing for a sixth-grade class. They can run pretty much anything, and, with the no-huddle, I think Peyton Manning would be impressed if he saw these kids run the no-huddle.”

Through all the hours spent on the practice field – the outfield grass of Kevin Walden Memorial Field at DHS – and all the wins, it never got old for the Demons. They can’t wait until their parents get them to the field each night they practice.

“It never gets boring, because I love this game, and I like playing out here with my friends on this field. I love this sport,” Jordan Woolverton said. “(The coaches) have helped us out a lot. They made us disciplined, and they’ve taught us a lot – life lessons and football.”

Out of all the memories made and all the victory celebrations, Gage Mestas said Saturday’s would be the most special. The team won’t be together in its entirety next season, as some players will go to Escalante Middle School and others to Miller. But they know they have made memories for a lifetime, and they hope to make many more when they reunite as freshmen at DHS in the fall of 2017.

“It’s going to be pretty special,” Gage Mestas said ahead of Saturday’s title game. “We’re going to middle school teams, and we will lose a few of our buds, so this game will be pretty special.

“My favorite memory was probably winning the championships, getting rings and playing with my best buds,” Gage Mestas said.

jlivingston@ durangoherald.com

Durango Demons

Youth American Football League

Sixth Grade

Thomas Barnes

Shane Baruch

Derek Carman

Cameron Cole

Matthew Cuthbert

Andre DiGiacomo

Tanner Dukart

Matthew Eckert

Solomon Gable

Killian Gwinn

Sam Johnson

Cole Little

Niko Martinez

Ty Martinez

Chris McElroy

Gage Mestas

Haezen Mestas

Niko Mestas

Alex Pavon

Kyle Reimers

Ethan Ryan

Estevan Sanchez

Demetrius Trujillo

Cal Walsh

Jordan Woolverton

Head Coach: Brian Mestas

Defensive Coordinator: Billy Gwinn

Offensive Coordinator: Ryan Woolverton

Assistant Coaches: Greg Carman, Joey Mestas, Mike Sutter, Tom Walsh, Chris Woolverton

Durango Herald



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