Pojoaque’s Martinez takes over as AD at Rio Rancho Cleveland
Matt Martinez is about to experience a wardrobe makeover — from green to blue. Green identified Martinez for the better part of the past 40-plus years: First as a Mora graduate, then the Kelly green-andwhite of Pojoaque Valley as he coached girls basketball and was the athletic director until he retired in 2017. Martinez returned to the prep sports scene earlier this month after taking over the athletic director post at Rio Rancho Cleveland, but it means adding light blue to his color scheme.
It’s a sacrifice he is more than willing to make.
“I was happy and retired,” Martinez said. “I never thought I’d be an athletic director again, then this job came open. I didn’t know if I had a chance at it, but I ended up getting it.”
Not that he was living in oblivion. Martinez drove activity buses and was still the District 2-4A chairman last year. His name was thrown out as a candidate for the Santa Fe High girls basketball job and the Española Valley AD position before the Cleveland spot opened.
Martinez isn’t officially a Storm — he just had his first day of training with Rio Rancho Public Schools on Tuesday and there is still paperwork he has not yet completed — but he is eager to pick up where he left off at Pojoaque, a place he called home for 33 years before retiring.
“It will be different,” Martinez said. “It is hard to get used to a new place when you’ve been somewhere for so very long. But once I start to get rolling, the day usually goes by fast and you keep busy. And there is a lot to do.”
Just not as much as when he was at Pojoaque. Martinez won’t have the duties of overseeing the middle school program like he did it at his previous stop, so he can focus solely on ensuring one of the state’s largest schools continues to make a mark on the prep sports scene.
Martinez has a track record that suggests he can do that. Pojoaque won 22 state titles, finished runner-up 19 times and won 45 district titles from the time he stepped on the campus in 1984. That includes coaching the Elkettes to a Class 3A girls basketball title in 1998. Cleveland already has a sprinkling of Pojoaque green in its history — volleyball coach Brian Ainsworth oversaw the beginning of the Elkettes’ dynasty from 2005-13, winning four of the program’s six titles in that span.
Even though he will spend more time in the Albuquerque/Rio Rancho metro area, Martinez admitted that his Northern roots will never really leave. They might fade a little, but they will never be far from the surface.
“I’m a Northern guy, and Northern blood is in me,” Martinez said. “You can never take that away from me.”
Hopefully, Martinez is open to a media request: take good care of Storm head softball coach Angel Castillo. He came to the rescue of an oblivious New Mexican reporter during the state softball tournament who didn’t know that soft sand and a 3,000-pound compact car do not mix.
I owe him one.
James Barron writes an opinion column about sports in New Mexico. Contact him at 505-986-3045 or jbarron@ sfnewmexican.com.