LAS VEGAS ROBERTSON CARDINALS
Last year: 11-2 overall, 5-1 in District 2-4A (lost to Ruidoso in the Class 4A state championship game) Head coach: Leroy Gonzalez (ninth season) Key players: Antonio Padilla, junior, 5-foot-8, 160 pounds, RB/ CB; Brandon Lucero, senior, 5-6, 145, QB/DB; Emiliano Berged, senior, 6-0, 165, WR/FS; Santiago Gonzales, senior, 5-10, 165, RB/ LB; Michael Yara, junior, 5-6, 130, WR/CB; Andres Grano, soph., 5-6, 130, RB/CB; Mackenzie Ebell junior, 5-10, 170, RB/LB; Jacob Gamel,
be hard on us, but they got some guys off the sidelines and into the game, and that’s the thing that makes you better,” Gonzalez said. “Some of those guys got valuable experience and some of them are back with us this year. Sometimes changes can be a good thing.”
Long story short, go ahead and let the pain from the last three years linger. Go ahead and let the memories keep getting refreshed.
The Cardinals are one of the few teams that can handle it.
TEAM NOTES
Sales pitch: Junior Dante Jenkins senior, 6-1, 168, TE/LB; Dante Jenkins, junior, 6-3, 170, TE/DE. Outlook: The Cardinals say goodbye to Class 4A after making three straight trips to the state championship game and winning 43 games over the last four years, most of any team in that class. A revamped 3A alignment awaits, but the expectations are as high as ever. Despite losing All-State quarterback Arjay Ortiz, the Cards still have plenty of punch in the offense. With senior Brandon Lucero taking over at QB and running backs Antonio Padilla and Santiago Gonzales in the backfield, the Redbirds will get back to oldschool Robertson football — more
was recruited to football when Gonzalez approached him in the weight room and offered a simple suggestion.
“He’s a basketball player, I mean look at him — he’s 6-foot-3,” the coach said. “I told him there was a way to make sure he never gets pushed around in the paint again. Football. That’s all it took.”
A rising star in the Cards’ boys hoops program, Jenkins will start at tight end and line up as an edge pass rusher on the defensive line. He’s raw, but his athletic skills and sheer determination make him a player to watch.
New look, literally: Gonzalez has dropped 62 pounds in the last year as he prepares for a kidney running, less improvisation. Defensively, don’t anticipate a huge drop-off as Padilla anchors a solid group that returns six starters.
2018 SCHEDULE
Aug. 24 — Santa Fe High, 7 p.m. Aug. 31 — at Cobre, 6 p.m. Sept. 7 — at Santa Rosa, 7 p.m. Sept. 14 — Ruidoso, 7 p.m. Sept. 21 — Socorro, 7 p.m. Sept. 28 — at Tucumcari, 7 p.m. Oct. 5 — Santa Fe Indian-x, 7 p.m. Oct. 12 — Raton-x, 7 p.m. Oct. 27 — at St. Michael’s-x, 1:30 p.m. Nov. 2 — at West Las Vegas-x, 6 p.m. x-denotes District 2-3A opponent
and pancreas transplant. The 47-year-old is at the top of the region’s medical emergency list for both organs and he said he and his wife are under orders to be in Albuquerque within four hours of a phone call telling him a donor has been found. He said he has had a recurring nightmare that the call will come in the middle of the state championship game in December.
“But they told me they have Learjets to fly me from anywhere we go,” he jokes. “Maybe if it’s in the second half and the call comes, I can finish the game.”
The team’s longest road trip this fall is to Bayard for a game against Cobre, an 800-mile, 12-hour round trip from Las Vegas.