Seckler to make Eldorado encore
Home is where Quint Seckler’s heart was. And that home is Albuquerque.
Seckler, who coached La Cueva and Eldorado to a combined 12 state swimming championships before leaving the New Mexico high school ranks to coach at Adams State in Colorado several years ago, is back with Eldorado.
Seckler, who turned 55 on Saturday, will coach the Eagles for the upcoming 2021 season after spending three seasons coaching in Alamosa.
“You know, Albuquerque is just kind of home,” he said. “I went up (to Alamosa) three years ago and had never done the college coaching tour, and I really enjoyed it, had a great time and they treated me really well, but Albuquerque is home to me.”
Seckler’s state champion in New Mexico came with Eldorado’s girls in 2015.
“I knew eventually I would come back here,” Seckler said. “It felt right to come back.”
Seckler said coaching at the college level was instructive, albeit demanding.
“Very different,” he said with a laugh. “It has its different sets of positives, and different sets of negatives, but overall … I learned a whole lot.
“I guess if there was a bottom line, I feel like I had more of an impact on the younger athletes when I’m here in Albuquerque. I think that was a bit of a draw to come back.”
Seckler coached at La Cueva for 17 years, then nine more at Eldorado.
MCMATH RETURNS: Ron McMath has done plenty of coaching in Albuquerque Public Schools, and now he has a new title: Athletic director.
McMath, 58, recently was hired as AD at Volcano Vista, replacing Ben Brown.
McMath has been a head football and golf coach at West Mesa, and a head wrestling and golf coach at Cibola. He coached West Mesa football for six seasons, the last in 2017. Last school year, he was an assistant football coach at Cheyenne High in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“It’s an amazing athletic program there (at Volcano Vista),” McMath said. “I’m just hoping to keep the tradition going.”
FROM THE NMHSCA: The New Mexico High School Coaches Association’s Hall of Honor inductees for 2020 are longtime Las Cruces High volleyball coach Keith Leupold, longtime Mayfield girls basketball coach George Maya and retired track and field coach Joe Giglia, who coached Cimarron’s boys and girls for nearly 30 years before retiring five years ago.
Roswell High football coach Jeff Lynn was chosen as the 2020 Ralph Bowyer Coaching for Character recipient.
All of them will be honored, but not until 2021.
Also, the NMHSCA announced its coaches of the year for 2019-20: William Benjamin of Las Cruces (boys basketball), Chris Carroll of Zuni (boys cross country), Lucien Starzynski of Albuquerque High (boys soccer), Greg Ruybalid of Piedra Vista (boys wrestling), Bob Allcorn of Bloomfield (football), Rainy Crisp of Navajo Prep (girls basketball), Misty Long of Carlsbad (girls soccer), Nate Sellers of Miyamura (girls wrestling), Carl Cady of Los Alamos (swimming/diving) and Alice Velasquez of Mescalearo Apache (volleyball).
Eunice’s Robbie Robinson is the athletic director of the year.
THIS AND THAT: Jasmine TurtleMorales, a state champion in cross country and track and field for Eldorado, has signed with New Mexico Highlands. Turtle-Morales was the 2018 Class 5A state cross country champion and the 2019 state champ in the 3,200-meter run. … The Las Cruces Public Schools board voted last week to change the name of Oñate High, the Las Cruces Sun-News reports. The school is named for Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar, who gave orders that led to a massacre of the Acoma Pueblo in 1599, and he was eventually banished from New Mexico for his crimes, the Sun-News reported. A new school name will be discussed later.