Year’s best in preps
The Journal’s James Yodice details how the most compelling high school stories weren’t only in competition
As it’s time to reflect on another school year come and gone, what burns in my memory is not so much the games, but the compelling human interest stories that flowed through my fingertips over the last nine months.
Like the Highland boys soccer program, which featured players from 10 countries. My personal favorite story of the year.
The interview I conducted with two young men, Carlos Almuina of Del Norte and Jerome Barboa of Valley, who both were suffering enormous grief after their little sisters were killed in separate car accidents less than a mile apart last summer, was gut-wrenching.
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to a Cibola baseball player, Josh Montoya, who hit a home run just a couple of
hours after learning his father had died. Staggering, and inspiring, strength.
These are the types of stories that drive me and are what make this job, and this beat, so fulfilling.
Having said that, let’s hold a mirror up to 2018-19: LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS: All these months later, and I still haven’t
come across anything that could remotely approach the night in Farmington involving Myriah Calder and Andrea Regino.
Last October, they both scored in the same game. The same football game. Regino kicked a PAT for Highland, Calder had five PATs and two field goals for Piedra Vista.
This was the best pure news story of 2018-19, from my chair. KEEP GOING, GIRLS: Aztec High in January became the site of the state’s first-ever regular season girls-only wrestling tournament.
It was an important step in the push to sanction girls wrestling as an official sport in New Mexico, which earlier this week came closer to reality. It next will go to a vote of the New Mexico Activities Association’s board of directors. ON THE HARDWOOD: While Santa Fe’s fans filled the Pit on championship Saturday, Atrisco Heritage — for the second straight year — brought home the big-school state boys basketball crown. The Jaguars beat the Demons 61-58 in front of about 14,000 fans in the Class 5A final.
West Mesa’s girls overcame a 21-0 run — 21-0! — by Hobbs in the 5A title game to defeat the Eagles 63-51 for the Mustangs’ first state championship in that sport.
Two streaks of note ended, as Hope Christian’s boys were stopped in their pursuit of a seventh consecutive blue trophy, and the Elida girls saw their spectacular streak end at eight.
SOMEBODY HAS TO BE THE 1, RIGHT?: The intrepid reporting of Matthew Asher of the Carlsbad Current-Argus determined, with the help of a mathematics professor at New Mexico State, that the odds of one school recording a no-hitter and perfect game in baseball and softball — on the same day — was 1 out of 218 million days. That computes to almost 600,000 years.
But that’s what Ashley Hernandez (perfect game against Roswell) and T.J. Ruiz (no-hitter versus Clovis) accomplished on April 18, both at home. PERFECTION: La Cueva had two undefeated state champions: the football team, which went 13-0 and the volleyball team, which finished 22-0.
Running back D’Andre Williams had one of the most spectacular singlegame performances by any athlete in 2018-19, rushing for 357 yards in a surprisingly commanding 33-14 victory over Cleveland in the Class 6A football final.
Eunice and Animas also went undefeated last season on the gridiron.
TWICE MAY BE NICE, BUT NOT IN THIS CASE: Rio Grande’s football team in Week 3 of last season defeated Valencia 38-22 to end a 39-game losing streak. Except …
It was later determined that Rio Grande had used an academically ineligible player during that game; in fact, that news filtered down to the team the night after they lost to Farmington, which suddenly gave them a state-record 44-game losing streak.
But the Ravens did officially end the skid (at 45) when they beat Albuquerque High 28-8 in Week 9.
PLAYING FAVORITES: The championship that stands out to me is the one brought home by the Valley boys basketball team.
Purely from a basketball standpoint, this was some heady stuff. First, you have to go back to 1998, and Logan (with 14 losses) to find a boys state champion in the last quarter-century that had more defeats than the Vikings had (13). Not only that, but the Vikings upset Hope Christian in the quarterfinals, ending the Huskies’ historic pursuit of a seventh straight title. Then Valley beat Silver in the semis and No. 1 Los Lunas (37-34) in the final.
And what many people probably have forgotten is that in the first round, Highland had a look at a 4-foot shot at the buzzer in the fourth quarter that would have eliminated Valley before it ever got to the Pit. That Hornets’ shot rolled just off the rim, Valley won in overtime and seven days later had its fourth boys basketball crown.
Personally, this story had deeper resonance. Jim Coleman, the younger brother of Valley head coach Joe Coleman and a constant at his brother’s games, died unexpectedly at age 47 on the eve of the season.
MILESTONES: Hope Christian boys basketball coach Jim Murphy last season won his 800th career game. Albuquerque High girls hoops coach Doug Dorame reached the 400-win plateau, as did La Cueva girls soccer coach Amber Ashcraft.
RANDOM THIS AND THAT, PART I: The Albuquerque metro area swept the six state soccer divisions, led by first-time champion Cleveland’s boys. … Division I boys basketball signees were David Patterson of Rio Rancho (Air Force) and Jorell Saterfield of Mayfield (Southern Mississippi). … The NMAA instituted video review for the second week of state basketball; it was used only once, without incident. … A week after a miraculous finish to beat Artesia in the state semifinals, Roswell defeated Los Lunas to capture the Class 5A footall championship. … Eliza Mariner of Albuquerque Academy scored 61 goals in the Chargers’ state championship girls soccer season. … Academy’s boys tennis team stretched its jaw-dropping run to 17 in a row, meaning it is just about as old as the Chargers’ current group of seniors. … Oak Grove Classical Academy of Albuquerque became the state’s
newest varsity-playing soccer team. … Sandia sophomore Sophia Zamarripa authored one of the great upsets of the entire school year, taking down threetime defending champion Jacque Galloway at the Class 5A state golf tournament. … Silver’s run of eight straight softball championships ended as the Colts moved up into a larger class.
NO FANS FOR YOU! The New Mexico Activities Association talked the talk, and then walked the walk.
Twice during the recently completed year, two schools — Española Valley and Estancia — paid a price for unruly fan behavior, something the NMAA had repeatedly warned member schools could (and would) happen.
The Sundevils had fans banned from a home football game against St. Pius; the Bears had fans banned for a firstround state basketball tournament road game against Magdalena.
BUT THERE’S MORE …: And then there was the state spirit competition, which apparently included “fan” behavior so reprehensible — including a verified death threat made to two people helping the NMAA run the event — that the state’s governing body for high school athletics was as of this writing pondering, among several options, whether this should be a sanctioned sport anymore.
IN THE INTERIM: Interim head coaches were front and center several times. Sandia’s Jay Sheraden (girls soccer) and Los Lunas’ Tanya Sanchez (volleyball — as a 9 seed) led their teams to blue trophies. Manzano football coach Phillip Martinez, with a similar interim title, took the Monarchs to the Class 6A quarterfinals.
They all had the interim tags removed not long after their seasons.
RANDOM THIS AND THAT, PART II: No girl dominated the cross country landscape like Eldorado’s Jasmine Turtle-Morales, who won virtually all the major meets last fall, including the Class 5A state meet. Her male equivalent was Kirtland Central’s Kashon Harrison, who was perhaps even more dominant in relation to his competition than Turtle-Morales was to hers. … New Mexico produced a pair of Division I football signees in Cleveland linebacker Dion Hunter (New Mexico) and Carlsbad offensive lineman Taylor Miterko (Oklahoma State). … Del Norte running back Isaiah Ortiz gained 430 yards (top-5 all time for a single 11-man game in New Mexico) and scored eight touchdowns in November against Los Alamos, an effort that garnered him a mention in Sports Illustrated. … Academy and Santa Fe Prep’s girls, and La Cueva and Santa Fe Prep’s boys (for La Cueva, the first in 23 years), won swimming championships. … Rio Rancho’s wrestlers defended their state title. … Among the state records at the Class 4A-5A state track and field meet was a new big-school girls mark in the 100-meter dash, by Sandia’s sensational sophomore, Adriana Tatum. The old record had stood for 31 years. … Volcano Vista baseball and Robertson girls basketball were among the first-time team state champs.
FINALLY: To the graduating seniors, I wish you the best of luck as you begin a new chapter in your lives and make your imprint on this world.
In the meantime, to everyone as a whole, have a terrific summer.