Multi-talented Vierra leads Santa Teresa
There is only one man in this country who is coaching an undefeated varsity high school football team and who also was responsible for naming a Triple-A baseball franchise.
At least, I think there’s only one. That would be the multi-talented Shae Vierra of Santa Teresa.
“It was an internet contest,” Vierra said. “When they announced the team, they told you to write a little thing (online) on why this should be the name.”
The team in question was the new Pacific Coast League team in El Paso.
That they are called the Chihuahuas is because of Vierra.
“We had a Chihuahua, so I thought that would be an interesting mascot,” Vierra said. “And we’re right next to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico, so it had a regional ring to it, too.”
The prize was multiple home seats for the club’s first season in West Texas, which was 2014. That fall, the football team he coaches, just a few miles north of El Paso, finished 3-7.
Vierra no longer gets free seats to Chihuahua games, but the coaching is reaching an apex this fall. Santa Teresa’s 6-0 Desert Warriors (idle this week), a program with no real past to speak of, have been a revelation with the best start in school history.
“I just think it’s one of those groups where there is a wave of talent coming through,” Vierra said. “This group … they are really tight and they love to play football. And they’ve won at everything they’ve done since the seventh grade.” Santa Teresa, ranked No. 5 in Class 5A by the coaches, is the last remaining undefeated — and, notably, untied — team in Class 5A. Why that notation?
Because the only other team in 5A that hasn’t lost a game, No. 2-ranked Goddard (5-0-1), is next on Santa Teresa’s schedule. The Rockets visit Santa Teresa on Friday night.
“I just hope that the moment is not too big for us,” Vierra said. “The storied programs in the state, like Goddard and Artesia, whenever we played them, they have always beat up on us. I just hope our kids rise to the occasion and give them a good, competitive game.”
Santa Teresa, led by quarterback Izaiah Velasquez, tailback Adrian Saenz and 6-foot-4 wide receiver Braden Gluth (also a hard-throwing pitcher), has never won more than seven games in any football season since the school started playing the sport in 1993. That seven-win season was 2007, when Vierra was an assistant coach.
The Desert Warriors, he added, have not only never won a playoff game — they have never even hosted a playoff game. Five of the Desert Warriors’ six wins have come against teams that are below .500. The exception is Valencia (5-2).
Goddard is a whole different animal from the rest of the Santa Teresa opponents.
“There’s never been a bigger (regularseason) game,” Vierra said.
JOINING THE PARTY?: Two 6A teams I had some reservations about in midAugust — Manzano and (especially) Mayfield — are certainly authoring playoffcaliber football of late.
A pair of tough losses on their résumé to Volcano Vista and La Cueva puts a huge onus on the 2-4 Monarchs to take care of business in the final month, particularly against Clovis and Sandia. And if Manzano performs at the level I saw Thursday against La Cueva, it surely will give Eldorado serious headaches, too.
“If we finish 5-5 or 6-4, we have a great chance of getting into the playoffs,” interim Manzano head coach Phillip Martinez said. I’ll go him one further: if the defending state champion Monarchs — who are vastly improved since the start of the season — beat Clovis and Sandia, and if they don’t slip in their season finale against Albuquerque High, a 5-5 record (if they fall to Eldorado) would make Manzano a virtual lock for a playoff bid.
Regarding Mayfield, I had some pause when the Trojans labored to beat West Mesa at the Field of Dreams a month ago. But then the Trojans went on the road recently and gutted out a 12-7 win at Carlsbad that included a late goal-line stand. And that altered my thinking.
Mayfield (4-2) should finish with at least five wins, although Centennial, Hobbs and Las Cruces loom on the schedule.
The Trojans have ridden a sturdy defense and a versatile — and deep — ground attack, and those two attributes should offer them a chance to win any game down the stretch.
THIS AND THAT: The playoff brackets in Classes 3A-6A will be announced in 27 days — on Saturday, Nov. 3. … No New Mexico prep team will have logged more miles this year than New Mexico School For the Deaf in Santa Fe. NMSD already has played games in Wisconsin and Iowa, and still has a road trip to Washington state next week. The Roadruners also played Arkansas and Missouri Schools For the Deaf at home.