Coach Geyer resign after 566 career wins, 6 state titles
St. Mike’s Geyer steps away from court after 38 years, 6 state titles
If first impressions were the defining characteristic of Ron Geyer’s ability to teach the game of basketball, there wouldn’t be a spot set aside for him in the state’s hall of honor and there wouldn’t be any reason to roll out of bed Tuesday morning lamenting the goodbye of one of the best New Mexico has ever seen.
Geyer, 63, resigned as boys basketball coach at St. Michael’s Monday, ending a stellar 38-year coaching career that included 30 as a head coach at Ruidoso, Deming, Alamogordo, Los Lunas and St. Michael’s. He will remain the school’s assistant principal.
He heads into the next chapter in life as the architect of 566 career wins with six state championships, 11 trips to the state finals and 18 trips to the final four. He took 26 of his 30 teams to the state tournament, including all 12 years he was with St. Michael’s.
He won state three times at Alamogordo and three more with the Horsemen, ending his tenure in Santa Fe with a 253-113 record, six trips to the state finals, six 20-win seasons and four more with at least 18.
Like most coaches in his position, he said he had considered stepping down for a few years and waited for the right time to walk away. He also said he couldn’t have lasted this long without the players, coaches and family members who stood at his side for so long.
He was particularly grateful for his wife, Cindy, and four children, Wesley, Heidi, Erik and Aimee. Three of the four graduated from St. Michael’s, a place he came to after a successful 11-year run at Alamogordo followed by three years as the girls’ coach at Los Lunas.
“I wanted to do this the right way, to resign at the right time so that the school has the best opportunity of hiring the right coach so he could run the program the way it needs to be run,” Geyer said. “The other thing about the timing is I can resign in a year knowing the cupboard isn’t bare behind us. There are some really good juniors and sophomores in the program and there’s a good chance of success in the future.”
The search for Geyer’s successor begins this week. The school will post the vacancy Tuesday, less than a week after it did the same for its girls program when head coach Martin Romero announced he was resigning.
The two men were fixtures at St. Michael’s for more than a decade, leaving a void that may never fully be filled.
Considering Geyer’s humble beginnings, it’s remarkable he climbed so far to become the legendary coach he is now. His first year as a head coach was
in 1982 at Ruidoso at the age of 28.
His Warriors went 0-21 and followed that with a 4-19 season in 1983-84. He spent two years as the head coach at Deming and seven as an assistant to Frank Dooley at Alamogordo before taking over there in the 1990-91 season.
His first two Tigers teams won the state title, just like his first two teams did at St. Michael’s. Ironically, he won state again at both schools in his seventh season with each program.
His career has spanned the ages and allowed him to coach in talent-rich southern New Mexico against the likes of Ralph Tasker at Hobbs and Jim Hulsman at Albuquerque High. His brief run at Los Lunas had him go face to face with Gallup’s John Lomasney. His time at St. Michael’s has seen his Horsemen be the primary rival to Hope Christian.
He split 16 career meetings with Tasker. One of the losses came in Hobbs that, at the time, made Tasker the winningest prep coach in the entire country.
“CNN was there, ESPN, all those guys,” Geyer said. “It was a close game but we lost.”
Not long after that he took his family to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. Tucked into one of the exhibits was the game ball and some memorabilia celebrating Tasker’s achievement. Geyer told his kids before entering the Hall that their dad’s team would be part of the tour — but not their dad.
He noticed the the ball had Alamogordo spelled correctly but a short write-up had the city’s name misspelled.
When Geyer brought to the attention of the museum’s curator he was told it would be fixed right away.
When Geyer asked if they curator could, you know, throw the family a bone and help them out with tickets to the Hall the next day, the curator turned to him and said, “No, coach, sorry. You were the loser.”
“That’s a great story,” Geyer laughed. “But at least we were mentioned in the Hall of Fame.”
Anyone who watched Geyer’s teams over the years recognized their efficiency on offense, but it was the coach’s well-earned reputation as a defensive wizard that made him what he was. His defense often squeezed the life out of opponents with a neverending array of looks that kept scoring at a premium.
“You can’t do any of that without good players buying in and willing to do what the team needs,” Geyer said. “More than anything, I guess, that’s what I want people to know: I couldn’t have done any of it with out them. I had so much help and learned so much from the people I met and worked with.”