NNMC again eyes shot at national championship

playing time for other guards — especially Capital graduate Jeremy Anaya and 2017 Desert Academy grad Tomas Rodriguez. Cordova has recently leaned on the pair to handle more of the point guard responsibilities, and has done so successfully, as Northern New Mexico has just 14 turnovers in the past two games.

“Jeremy has given me some good minutes, and he’s started two of the last three games,” Cordova said. “And Tomas, he was a redshirt freshman as well, so it’s nice to see some redshirt freshmen stepping up.”

That Anaya and Rodriguez are homegrown players making important contributions is just as important for the program off the court. In his other job as the school’s athletic director, Cordova has spent time in Santa Fe lobbying for the athletic department during the legislative session in the hopes of getting a funding boost.

Last year, the department received $352,100 from the state that was the bulk of Northern New Mexico’s $616,000 budget, but also got $100,000 from student fees at the school. Cordova said fundraising brings in about another $60,000, and the games the Eagles play against Division I schools like the University of New Mexico and D-II schools Fort Lewis College, New Mexico Highlands and Western New Mexico generate about $20,000 to $30,000.

However, when Northern New Mexico had to cut budgets across the board as it struggled with its finances over the past few years, Cordova had to slash about $150,000 from athletics.

“That’s a quarter of our budget,” Cordova said. “We have to be careful about what we spend on and how we spend it to make sure we stay within our budget. That’s just being responsible.”

Cordova hopes that fiscal restraint and the fact that 80 percent of the school’s studentathletes are from New Mexico (nine of the 15 players on the men’s basketball roster are in-state products) will help his cause. He points to the amount of work players like Anaya and Rodriguez, both of whom work full-time jobs during the season while also playing and studying, put in just for the chance to represent the school and the state.

“Look at Tomas; he manages a Chickfil-A [in Santa Fe], runs cross-country and is a basketball player as well as a full-time student,” Cordova said. “To help them financially, being New Mexico kids, would make a world of difference. And they do well in the classroom, with all that going on.”

Cordova hopes all of these positive marks will help sway some hearts and minds. In the meantime, he and the Eagles will simply try to bolster his case by doing their job on the court.