Española, Los Alamos hire new coaches
Estrada takes over Lady Sundevils; Carter will lead Elkettes
Carter and Joe Estrada got the band back together — just in a different way.
They worked together for eight years — Carter as head coach, Estrada as assistant — at Capital and Pojoaque Valley, and won consecutive state titles in 2008 and 2009 with the Elkettes.
Over the weekend, they found themselves back in the Northern New Mexico coaching scene, although they will be District 2-4A foes. Carter nabbed the head coaching job at Los Alamos over the weekend and Estrada was hired as head coach at Española Valley on Monday.
Carter previously was the interim head coach at Santa Fe High, where he led the Demonettes to an 11-17 record and a spot in the Class 6A State Tournament after taking over the job two days before the first game of the 2016-17 season. He also spent the 2014-15 season at Santa Fe Indian School, leading the Lady Braves to a 16-13 record and a
spot in the 4A quarterfinals.
Estrada spent the last two years at Valencia, leading the Lady Jaguars to a 14-39 record. Prior to that, he enjoyed immense success at 3A school Tularosa. In four years, the Lady Wildcats produced a 102-14 record, a state championship in 2014 and a runner-up trophy in 2016.
The two coaches had nothing
but praise for each other.
“I think the world of that guy,” Carter said. “There is no one I would rather compete against or with. It’s going to be a little tough to compete against coach [Estrada] because we are such good friends and I respect him so much.”
“How crazy is that?” Estrada said of their new situation. “For a while, we didn’t know if we were going to be each other’s assistant or what. I like the way it worked out.”
Estrada alluded to the fact that they applied for the girls basketball coach openings at Santa Fe High and Española Valley. They were finalists for the Santa Fe High position, and Carter dropped out of the Española job in late April to pursue the opening at Los Alamos.
Estrada said he knows he is walking into an unstable situation, as the program saw its previous head coach, Johnny Abeyta, placed on leave amid a district investigation into undisclosed complaints against him. Bobby Romero, who was a finalist for the position, took over in the interim and guided Española to a District 2-5A title and the state quarterfinals. However, Estrada said the passion the community has for basketball was an important factor for him. He added that he believes he can weather the storms that sometimes comes with it. After all, Pojoaque Valley gets a fair amount of students from Española, thanks to its open enrollment policy.
“I believe in myself,” Estrada said. “I believe I do things prop-
erly, and I believe I respect people in the community and the players. And I believe I do things the right way.”
Carter saw both a coaching and teaching challenge at Los Alamos that he found attractive. A math teacher for the past 15 years, Carter said going to a school with a strong academic reputation will push him to become a better teacher. He pointed to a memory he had at Capital that stuck with him to this day.
“Back when I was coaching track at Capital, I can remember a track meet that we put on,” Carter said, “and I saw the Los Alamos kids tucked in the hallways or in the stands after their events, finding time to study.”
As for the coaching part of Carter’s job, he inherits a program that won just six games in each of the last two seasons after the Lady Hilltoppers reached the postseason for the previous 13 seasons. Los Alamos also will compete in a district (2-4A as the state returns to a five-classification system in basketball) that includes Pojoaque, Taos and Moriarty. Pojoaque reached the 4A semifinals, while Moriarty played for the 4A title. Taos also reached the 4A state tournament. And there is Española, which has won the 2-5A title for the last four years.