Blue-collar mentality helps Lobos hustle
QB: ‘We believe we can do it’
After back-to-back Class 2A state football championships, Escalante took a bit of a step back last season. The Lobos reached the semifinals, but Lordsburg laid to rest any thoughts of a threepeat.
But don’t expect Escalante to be using that as a rallying cry for a return to finals this season.
“I think every year we’ve worked hard on our mindset, whether we win or don’t win, that everybody looks at it as a new year coming up,” said coach Dusty Giles. “There’s a challenge either way whether we’re the champion or not the champion.”
Still, there was a renewed vigor with a large group of returning seniors, he said.
“We had a great off season from December on,” Giles said. “They’re real excited.
That’s where the motivation comes from, not necessarily how we did last year, but where this is a big group and it’s their last hurrah, and they want to go out the best way they can.”
The players certainly seem to have the right attitude.
“We just want to continue to build on the success that the guys before have had,” said new quarterback Esteban Archuleta. “I wouldn’t say there is pressure because we believe we can do it. If we believe we can do it and just buy into each other, we should do pretty well.”
The big key, he said, making sure the job gets done, rather that worry about who’s in the limelight.
“None of us wants to be a superstar,” said Archuleta (5 foot, 7 inches, 160 pounds). “We all want to do it together so we can have that success.”
For the Lobos, playing in the season’s final game is always the ultimate expectation.
“Our goals are kind of set every year,” Giles said. “The ultimate goal is to try to win that state championship. I think that’s realistic for us. We’re not the favorite and we understand that. But, at the same time, we should be in the mix, so that’s just kind of where our goal is.”
Middle linebacker Ryan Allison (5-5, 150), who was a major contributor to the title teams, said this year’s team compares well with those champions.
“I like the tempo that they had the past couple of years,” he said. “They were always hitting. Someone was always trying to find someone to hit and be physical. But personally, I like this team more, we’re more confident. That may be more of my bias because I’m a senior. But I like how everyone is doing their roles and backing up each other.”
The sizes of Allison and Archuleta are fairly typical for the squad, Giles said, but the Lobos are used to that.
“That’s kind of always the way it’s been at Escalante” he said. “We’ve got some quickness and we’ve got some speed. And we need it. We’re all about 5-5, 130. That’s kind of how we grow them. We have some real quickness and a lot of toughness, as well.”
The Lobos have a blue-collar mentality of doing what’s necessary to meet their goals.
“Our goal is to win,” Allison said. “We don’t really want to stack up our stats. We just do anything to win the game. I think we’re really confident and I think that’s kind of hard because we’re a small team, but we try to out-hustle everybody and try to beat our opponents, and I think that helps our confidence a lot.”