TOP 10 IN SPORTS
Columnist James Yodice shares his 10 most important stories in the area in 2016
Happy New Year, everyone. Here are my choices for the top 10 sports stories of 2016 from the Rio West area:
10. Newcomers
Among the many individual and team state champions that came from Rio West over the last 12 months — and there were so many — a couple of them, I thought, merited special mention.
The Bosque School boys tennis team won state for the first time in the school’s history. The St. Pius boys golf team won state for the first time in 35 years.
9. Straight A(manda)
It didn’t matter the meet, the location, the type of course, the caliber of the competition — Cleveland’s Amanda Mayoral ran better and stronger than any boy or girl in New Mexico this year.
The junior completed her second consecutive undefeated cross-country season, capping it with a victory at the state meet in November.
8. Twice as nice
Cibola’s girls soccer team was perhaps a surprising state champion in 2015. That was not the case in 2016, as the Cougars repeated in Class 6A.
There was only one goal in the state final against No. 1 La Cueva, but that goal by Jasmine Marwan allowed Cibola to go back-to-back.
7. Mat wars
Cleveland’s wrestlers edged Rio Rancho at the Class 6A state meet in February at the Santa Ana Star Center.
That proved to be the last meet for Storm coach Corey Anderson, who resigned not long after the season ended to take a job with a top program in Arizona.
6. Homecoming
New Valley football coach Judge Chavez still lives close to the campus where he once was a quarterback for the Vikings in the 1970s.
After stints at Highland and Cibola, Chavez came back and accepted the head coaching job at his alma mater, leading the state’s smallest Class 6A school to a 4-6 record last season, including a four-game winning streak to end the year.
5. Even-numbered genius
Volcano Vista’s girls basketball program had won state championships in 2012 and 2014, but the Hawks faced a stern challenge if they wanted to continue to that every-otheryear trend: rival Cibola.
The top-seeded Cougars had handled Volcano Vista for the most part in the regular season, but the Hawks won the only game that mattered: a 33-31 win at the Pit in the Class 6A final.
4. Concussion change
Due in part — but not completely — to the publicity surrounding a Cleveland High running back who was injured in the 2015 playoffs, the State Legislature last winter enacted a law that impacts concussed high school athletes in New Mexico.
The new law would force athletes to sit out at least 10 days — up from seven — after being diagnosed. This is important as it will force an athlete to miss at least one game in most sports.
3. Stuck at 29
Artesia was going after its 30th state football championship when the Bulldogs visited Nusenda Community Stadium on Dec. 3 to face St. Pius.
But the Sartans, led as always by fantastic senior quarterback Drew Ortiz, who accounted for five touchdowns, won the game 34-24 and gave St. Pius its first football title in 17 years.
After the game, longtime coach San Juan Mendoza retired.
2. Rolling 13
For the second time in three seasons, the Rio Rancho football team went 13-0 and won a Class 6A state title.
This year’s run to perfection ended with a 39-17 win over Las Cruces in the 6A final. The Rams were not tested very often during the 3½-month season, and rode the state’s stingiest defense, along with star tailback Josh Foley, to the summit of prep football.
1. Pure parity
Boys basketball coaches in New Mexico usually can be heard before a state tournament talking about how almost any team could win the thing.
For a change, they were right this time.
Rio Rancho, an 11 seed, won the Class 6A boys event, beating four higher-seeded teams over an eight-day period — culminating with a championship game victory over Carlsbad — to secure the Rams’ first blue trophy in this sport since 2007.