Sports! It has been too long since the kids roaming the hallways of Manitou Springs High School have donned the green and gold and taken to their respective battlegrounds. But that wait is over.
As we head into another year of high school athletics, it’s important to keep an eye on where these kids are going and also how the experiences of last year helped shape them.
I think of this year’s Mustangs and the start of the season and can’t help but feel that this year is going to be starkly different than previous ones. A part of that may very well be the departure of Brian Vecchio – now the new athletic director at Sierra High School.
Although his coaching duties were confined to basketball, his presence in athletic administration was welcome as he spent nearly two decades coaching and supporting the athletes of Manitou Springs.
It could also just be my imagination.
A goal of mine for this year is to try and emphasize the role that the kids play when it comes to the success of their programs. I’ve long argued that success can be defined in many ways at the high school level. Wins and losses are part of it, sure. But growth, development and even reputation all come into play.
For nine months a year, the kids at the local high school wear our town’s name across their chest and they compete on our behalf. I’ve spent so much time with coaches that I have little doubt about their internal motivation to get the student-athletes to thrive. And again, that definition can vary between wins and losses along with behavior on and off their fields or courts.
This fall has given me a bit of renewed excitement. Last spring ended with Addie Dorsey rebounding from a disastrous first day at the Class 3A girls golf state tournament and battling to a Top 10 finish, the first in program history for a Manitou player.
It’s fitting that the fall starts with her twin brother Hayden looking to improve on his own solid freshman campaign from a year ago. Hayden qualified for state, but struggled at RainDance National, a course that had no business hosting a high school state tournament. Walking Stick will be more up Hayden’s alley and it should make for a fun fall.
Looking around the other teams for Manitou, there is plenty of reason for excitement. Volleyball coach Gabby Santos heads into her second year at the helm and feels like it’s now her program, not a program placed in her hands.
On the soccer field, coach Ben Mack lost a lot of senior leadership, but gets back last year’s leading scorer, Alexander Steger. Mack helped the girls’ team reach the playoffs in the spring and that was a squad that saw the majority of the roster turnover from the year prior. Same problem, different season.
The cross-country program has been on the rise for the last several years and although the loss of the Codys (Cody Kelley and Cody Wyman) will hurt, the boys have traditionally been reloading instead of rebuilding. But what’s most exciting is the expectation that the girls in the program are expected to take a giant leap forward. In a brief text exchange with coach Andy Sherwood last week, he had no problem tempering expectations about that group of runners.
“They’re going to be good,” he said.
And speaking of expectations, for the first time since he took over as head coach of the football team, Stu Jeck will be sending a high percentage of upperclassmen onto the field. Freshman and sophomore ponies might find their way out there at times, but his program build is going to bear some fruit this year and the Mustangs should enjoy success because of it.
It’s a year that feels different. It’s a year that feels optimistic. Saddle up, Mustangs. It’s time to ride.
Fall 2024 Preview: Dorsey maturing into a leader for boys golf team
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f there was one thing that Hayden Dorsey knew when he walked off his 36th hole at last year’s Class 3A boys golf state tournament, it was that his game had a lot of room for growth.
As he took to the driving range on the first official day of practice for the Manitou Springs Mustangs on Monday, he carried a bit of encouragement and confidence that the growth he needed was fostering itself nicely.
It wasn’t necessarily from a physical standpoint. Much like last year as a freshman, the ball tends to fly off the face of his driver like it was launched from an aircraft carrier. It flies high and it flies far. Occasionally it can be a little wayward, but no golf swing on the planet has a consistency rate of 100%.
Dorsey’s growth has been more on the mental side of the game. Sometimes from a golf perspective, that can be more challenging than any swing fix or putting tip known to man.
“I was pretty explosive [mentally] throughout my golf career,” Dorsey said. “Pretty recently, I’ve found a way to keep myself calm on the golf course. That’s the biggest thing that’s changed.”
Mental maturity is a must for a player in his position.
Dorsey returns as the only Mustang to make it through regionals and compete at the state tournament. Coming back this year, Landon Foster appears to have a solid enough swing, and certainly enough power, to move into that conversation at regionals. But Dorsey will be the pace setter for Manitou this year.
He claimed the Tri-Peaks individual championship as a freshman. While he makes a name for himself this year, the other players in the league will be hunting Dorsey and trying to knock him off the top of the podium. A stronger mental game might be enough to create a little more distance from the rest of the pack by the end of the year, but he still has to play his way around each course this season. He competed on the Summit Junior Tour this summer and the results of competing regularly for a couple months have certainly showed.
“He’s a year older and he has a lot more experience under his belt,” coach Ken Vecchio said. “The thing about golf is you have to play it one shot at a time.”
For Dorsey, that means forgetting the 15-over-par 87 and 89 that he shot in the two-day state tournament last year. He gets to start fresh, and should he make it to state again, he’ll be on more comfortable ground at Walking Stick in Pueblo.
“RainDance taught me a lot,” Dorsey said. “Not just about my golf game, but about my mental capacity. The biggest thing I’ve learned is not to put pressure on myself. Going into state, I’ll just need to remember it’s just another day on the golf course.”
Manitou Springs boys golf
Head coach: Ken Vecchio
Key returners: Hayden Dorsey, Landon Foster
First competition: Aug. 12 at Swink Invite
Regionals: Sept. 30 at Conquistador (Montezuma-Cortez)
State: Oct. 7 & 8 at Walking Stick (Pueblo)
