Photo by Tamie Meck Hotchkiss head coach Glen Suppes watches as 113-pound wrestler Garrett Toothaker wrestles Basalt’s Uriel Gonzalez. The Bulldogs don’t have many home matches but are close by with tournaments like this week’s Delta Invitational.Saturday's 52nd Annual Hotchkiss Invitational wrestling tournament was a little light on wrestlers. Rifle's football team was playing at the state championship game. Nucla, the smallest of the six competing teams, had eight open weights, and Buena Vista was open in six.

Even the host Bulldogs wrestled only eight. All eight placed in the top three. Bulldog wrestlers who are also football players are still required more practices before they can wrestle, and one football player is still recovering from a foot injury.

The Bulldogs are still lacking most of their higher weights, and finished well in the low and middle weights on Saturday. Jake Hubbell (106) and Garrett Toothaker (113) both won their weight class; Travis Leger (126), Tanner Bizer (132), Jacob Edwards (145), Sam Strickland (152) and Tony Ibarra (160) placed second. Brendon Beck, who returns after missing a season, placed third at 145.
"I still have 11 wresters who haven't seen the mat yet," said Suppes.

Del Norte claimed the team win Saturday, and 3A Basalt, which is fielding its first team in 10 years, placed second.

Head coach Glen Suppes said his team's performance was encouraging. "Every one of these kids, every time they got back on the mat they did a little better and a little better."

Suppes said he expects 12 wrestlers to be on the mat for this Saturday's Delta tournament. Hotchkiss plans to be open at 182 and 195 all season. State qualifying heavyweight Zack Taylor will be out until after the new year. State qualifiers Joe Boyle and Dustin Head, both football players, will also return this season.

Conner Beard, who placed third at state his junior year at 220, is out for the season with a shoulder injury.

"We've got a good schedule this year," said Suppes. Hotchkiss has one home dual, and will host Olathe on Jan. 25. "But we get great opportunities to wrestle at Centauri and Salida and Delta."

The Bulldogs will wrap up the calendar year at the Warrior Classic on Dec. 14-15. That gives the team time to prepare for the long road to state "We're going to work on getting in shape and on skills and try to get better every time we crawl on the mat," said Suppes.

This marks the eighth season for Suppes as head coach of the Bulldogs. Matt Hall and Norm Vincent return as assistant coaches.

Devon Brown, a state champion wrestler for Paonia, steps in as the new assistant coach, and Hotchkiss state qualifier Jake Richards, who graduated in 2010, returns to his alma mater as an assistant coach.

Photo by Tamie Meck Josh Hardin is heavily defended during a recent Hotchkiss practice. The Bulldogs will compete in Class 2A this season. They opened Friday (Nov. 30) with a convincing win over the 3A Olathe Pirates in Olathe.If its opening game is any indication of how the year will go, Hotchkiss will have a successful season. The Bulldogs defeated Olathe Friday, 55-44.

Hotchkiss moved to 2A this season, and is competing in the 12-team 1A/2A Western Slope League. These early-season losses are crucial, said head coach Kyle Crowder. Each of the eight district champions will host a regional tournament, with subsequent teams determined by true seeding, with consideration to geography. Defeating a 3A team like Olathe and Gunnison will help the team seeding come playoffs, said Crowder. The Bulldogs host Gunnison this Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Returning from last season's varsity team are Cody Bartlett, Mason Oxford, Taylor Schreiner, Ty Bayles, Wes Hardin and River Panish. Josh Hardin, a 6-foot-2 senior, returns to the team after missing his junior year. Nicolas Rojas, Chris Allen and Andrew Tiedemann step up from the junior varsity team. Daniel Camacho, Kaan Uygut, Jacobe Galley, Jacob Schreiner, Eddie Cambria, Tyrell Clock and freshman Clayton Oxford are also on the roster.

With players from the football team starting practice last week, "We're still in the process of figuring out who will play where," said Crowder. With a combination of size, shooting and ball-handling abilities, youth and experience, Crowder sees at least 10 players who can step on the court at any time and be competitive. "That's going to be huge," said Crowder. The team has more depth than in the recent past, "and that's going to be our strength."

Hotchkiss had one scrimmage, against 4A Delta. Despite missing the football players and still trying to determine the best fit for everyone, that went well, said Crowder.

Starting this Friday when they face Vail Christian at Vail, the Bulldogs will be on the road the remainder of the calendar year. They face Ridgway on Dec. 11, then compete in the Delta County Bank of the West tournament Dec. 21-22. They will open the new year with a non-conference game at Paonia.

Bulldog assistant coaches are Zac Lemon, who returns for his second year as C team coach, and Jesse Hotchkiss, a 2010 Hotchkiss High School graduate, will coach the junior varsity team. Hotchkiss was a varsity player for the Bulldogs, and was a starting post player for Hotchkiss in 2010, the last year the Bulldogs made the playoffs.

Photo by Tamie Meck Bulldogs Conner Beard (15), Tye Bayles and Joe Boyle (51) tackle Limon running back Schafer Thompson for a loss in the fourth quarter of the state 1A quarterfinal football game Saturday at Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss overcame a 19-point deficit in the second half to score 40 unanswered points and defeat the Badgers, 47-26.That Hotchkiss was seeded 10th in this year's state 2A football playoffs seems to be working in its favor. The seeding was lower than expected, said head coach Zac Lemon.

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Photo courtesy Mike Beard

Head coach Zac Lemon has an attentive audience following the Bulldogs’ 48-7 win over Wiggins.