‘GOING UP TEMPO’
With a new system and style of play, a state championship is the ultimate goal
Even though the move was just 1.2 miles from West Las Vegas High School to Robertson, for girls basketball coach José “Majic” Medina, it was like a homecoming.
“I’m originally from Robertson,” said Medina, longtime girls coach at West Las Vegas before taking over the Cardinals this year. “I graduated here and played here in 1985. It’s nice coming back home to my alma mater.”
Now Medina looks to guide the Cardinals deep into the state tournament come March.
Robertson has never won a girls state championship and reached the finals only once, in 2001, losing to Portales that season.
A year ago, the Cardinals reached the quarterfinals before being upset by Pojoaque, a team they had beaten three times previously.
With only two seniors graduating, the thinking was that this was the year Robertson would make a deep run. But then coach Leroy Barela resigned, moved to Albuquerque and took his daughter, potent freshman point guard Maria Barela, to West Mesa.
But Medina said the Robertson team is still looking strong, despite a somewhat makeshift point guard position.
“Right now, we’ve been doing it by committee,” he said, adding that players like Tessa Ortiz, Alianza Darley, Jasmine Jaramillo and Gabriela Trujillo have been switching off at the position.
“We basically go with a threeguard offense,” Medina said. “Whoever has the ball fills the position and the other two fill in the wings.”
That leaves sisters Jazmyne Jenkins and Jayden Jenkins to play down low.
It all seems to be working as the Cardinals are off to a 4-0 start heading into tonight’s rematch with Portales. Robertson handily won the Capital City Tournament last weekend with barely a challenge, including beating the Rams 64-44 in the championship game.
“We had a good showing and the girls played well,” Medina said of the tournament. “We’re trying to keep it going and implementing a new system, a new style of play. It looks like they’re enjoying it and we hope to keep getting better.”
As befitting a northern New Mexico team, the new coach wanted to encourage fast play with high pressure.
“We’re going up tempo,” Medina said. “We’re rebounding and halfcourt trapping, fast breaking. We’re trying to use some of the athleticism of some of our girls.”
Senior Darley would be chief athlete and the player opponents look to shut down first. She averaged 18 points a game last season and has grown to 5 foot, 11 inches. Darley can handle the ball like a guard with dribbling and play-making abilities. And she’s deadly down low as both a rebounder and finisher.
And this season, Darley has been working on her outside shot, Medina said, which will really open up the floor, not only for her, but also for the rest of the Cardinals. And she’s currently drawing some interest from D-I schools like New Mexico State and Nevada.
“She has a lot of skills and ability with length and her athleticism,” Medina said. “She runs the ball well. She finishes, makes free throws, she rebounds. She’s been working on her perimeter shooting. Hopefully, that will show this season and that will improve her overall game.”
Shayla Hillis and Jasmine Barela also have been contributing off that bench as Medina made that a priority coming into the season.
After getting the team to buy into the new system, “my next objective and goal was to develop and build a bench,” Medina said. “We have to go a little deeper on the bench, especially in postseason, district and state tournament play. We’ve been doing that. We’ve been trying a lot of different combinations, rotations. Every girl on the varsity has played at least half the game in each game that we have played. We’re trying to mix it up.”
Because the ultimate goal is to be celebrating at the Pit in March.
“As coaches and players and teams, we want to work hard and improve every day, improve every game,” Medina said. “We’re striving for a district championship and a state championship. That’s the ultimate goal, to try and get a state championship.”