Moya picked to head ATC boys basketball

Anthony Moya learned plenty in his basketball tutelage over the past decade to prepare him to take over a program of his own. All he was missing was the interview skills. Moya learned plenty about that this spring, and the result was his first head coach opportunity. The twist is that the former assistant girls basketball coach at Santa Fe Indian School, Española Valley and Santa Fe High inherited the boys basketball program at Academy for Technology and the Classics.

Moya was hired earlier this month, replacing Adam Garcia after two seasons. The Phoenix went 13-37 under Garcia, but were 10-17 overall in the 2017-18 season and 4-5 in District 3-3A.

Moya said he focused on getting a head coaching job after Santa Fe High head coach Cindy Roybal, for whom he was varsity assistant, resigned in February. He applied for the head girls basketball coach openings at Santa Fe High and Española Valley and earned interviews for both posts, but did not pursue a boys position until talking with ATC athletic director Tim Host, who also is the school’s head track and field coach, during the track season.

“I was kinda telling Host, “I’m stressed out,’ ” said Moya, who is the throwing coach for SFIS’ track program. “‘I thought I would have gotten a girls coaching job by now.’ Then he was like, ‘Why not apply for the boys job [at ATC]?’ I hadn’t thought about a boys job at all.”

Moya said the experience he gained from his interviews helped him learn what search committees were interested in, and often it had nothing to do with the product on the court.

“A lot of times, I don’t think I was asked a direct question on X’s and O’s,” Moya said. “It was more on parental relationships, athlete-coach relationships, your relationship with the athletic director, how you handle the chain of command.”

Those are questions Moya will find out if he has the answers to at ATC. Moya brings a lot of coaching experience from different levels. He’s coached for the baseball, football, track and field, and both boys and girls basketball programs at SFIS, while also working his way up the ladder in basketball, from coaching elementary school teams to middle school and even serving a stint in the club scene under former Española Valley head boys basketball coach Richard Martinez.

But it was Moya’s time under the Roybal at SFIS, Española and Santa Fe High that he felt helped prepare him to take over a highschool program.

“She gave me a lot of responsibility and that was good, because I learned a lot about setting up contracts, creating schedules, handling purchase orders,” Moya said. “It’s kinda crazy for you don’t realize those are also things that go into coaching and running a program.”

Moya praised the leadership of Host and principal Susan Lumley for making him feel welcome at the school, as well as showing a willingness to help him with any questions or problems he might have. He also found ATC’s strong academic environment an attractive feature of the school.

“A lot of the boys go out of the country, or at least the state for programs of internships,” Moya said. “I just asked them for a month of dedication, just so I can get a feel for what I have.”

Moya already met with interested players for the high-school and middle-school programs, and plans on conducting his first workout with the team on May 29. He said he liked the overall size of the players he met, and feels the program can compete in its new district, which features Desert Academy, Tierra Encantada, Monte del Sol and McCurdy. Facing the Bobcats will have a special meaning for Moya, since he is a McCurdy graduate.

“That will be interesting,” Moya said.