Friends and foes
Los Alamos’ Carter, Española Valley’s Estrada spent years working together at Capital, Pojoaque Valley — now they separately head District 2-4A rivals
Perhaps the best bit of coaching advice Joe Estrada and Lanse Carter ever got came more than 15 years ago when the two were in charge of the Capital girls basketball program. A colleague was merely trying to get them to see the game differently, to slow it down and find a new way of thinking.
“When you close your eyes, imagine good basketball.” It has stuck with them ever since. It came from Capital boys coach Ben Gomez, a respected leader who has established one of the state’s most consistent winners during his time on Santa Fe’s south side. In short, it was designed as a mental blueprint for making the game flow more freely while not getting bogged down in X’s and O’s.
“We’ve always commented back and forth on it and I think [Estrada] does a good job imagining what good basketball is,” Carter said. “I think that was really an area where he helped me improve as a coach, as well. Our relationship was one that, you know, he could call me on things from time to time. He could challenge me on things and it was great. I loved it.”
Carter and Estrada worked tirelessly together at Capital, then spent five years together at Pojoaque Valley; Carter the head coach and Estrada his assistant. They turned the Elkettes into a two-time state champion. Their undefeated 2009 team is the last girls’ club to go unbeaten at any level.
The pair is back together again, in a way, this season. Carter is in his first year with the Los Alamos girls’ program while Estrada is the latest head coach at Española Valley. The two are district rivals in the revamped 2-4A along with Pojoaque, Taos and Moriarty.
“I feel so at home now, so happy to be back,” Estrada said.
For Carter, it’s but the latest stop in a career that has taken him to several schools in and around the Santa Fe area. For Estrada, it’s a homecoming long overdue. A lifelong assistant who grew up in Las Vegas, N.M., and broke into the coaching ranks while working outside the education
system, he was turned down for the Pojoaque job when Carter left in 2010.
He returned to college in his 40s and got his teaching license, but the only place that offered him a head coaching job was Tularosa.
“I didn’t even know where Tularosa was,” Estrada said. “I had to go look it up on a map. I just left here to pursue my career. I don’t know how else to say it.”
He spent five years there, turning the Lady Wildcats into a perennial power. He took them to the state semifinals three times and won it all in 2014. His team two years later was undefeated going into the Class 3A championship game before losing to Texico.
Coach is like my brother. We just don’t talk basketball. We talk life and politics. He’s amazing.” Lady Hilltoppers coach Lanse Carter, on Lady Sundevils coach Joe Estrada
From there came two years in Los Lunas at Valencia, and now Española Valley. Whereas Carter’s work is cut out for him — the Lady Hilltoppers have won just 12 games the last two years combined — the Lady Sundevils’ job is a pressure cooker of expectations. The program has averaged more than 24 wins the last eight seasons and regardless of who’s in charge, the bar is high.
“A lot of people tried to steer me away from here but you know what? I’m so happy I came back,” Estrada said. “That’s what I want, man. Why would I want to be somewhere where it’s not like that? If you’re going to coach basketball don’t you want to be at the best basketball place?”
One of the things he likes about Española is the school district has given him a certain degree of autonomy over girls basketball, from the high school program all the way down through the elementary teams. Eventually he would like to have input on coaching hires
at the lower levels.
It’s all part of the master plan Carter saw in his assistant years ago. Most head coaches surround themselves with yesmen; assistants who keep quiet in the huddle and stand back at practice.
Carter wants more and, in Estrada, he got more.
He recalls one instance, in particular, where Estrada’s confidence in speaking his mind paid huge dividends. It was during their second year at Pojoaque Valley and they were playing Capital in a game at Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium. Fresh off a tournament win in Grants, Carter wanted
to run a full court press against then-Capital coach Lisa Villareal’s team.
Estrada convinced him to alter the defense, a move that forced the Lady Jaguars into numerous ugly shots, numerous bad passes and more than a handful of 10-second violations. The Elkettes won in a rout.
“In a sense what coach did was he shortened the court, he made the court smaller,” Carter said. “That’s just an example of how he kind of challenged me before a game on a certain coaching strategy, and it worked.”
That two-way communication led to a lasting friendship that takes on an interesting new twist now that they’re district rivals at two schools with a long history of acrimony in girls hoops.
“Of course both teams want a good, healthy rivalry,” Carter said. “That’s what’s so cool about this district, it kind of reminds me of one of those old classic Northern New Mexico districts. I like it.”
For now, Estrada appears to have the upper hand. The Lady Sundevils had a strong summer program that should produce yet another solid season this winter whereas Carter’s rebuilding project on the hill got off to a decent start with a win over St. Michael’s on opening night.
As things unfold, the two men will always have one another to lean on as the season moves along.
“Coach is like my brother,” Carter said. “We just don’t talk basketball. We talk life and politics. He’s amazing.”