Española coach heads to barnstorming event
The All-American Red Heads are a gift that keeps on giving for Cindy Roybal.
Roybal, the Española Valley head girls basketball coach, will travel to Dallas this weekend as a part of a book signing about barnstorming women’s basketball teams in the 20th century. She is a part of a group of former players from a variety of barnstorming women’s teams during during that era who will be on hand as author John A. Molina will sign his book, Barnstorming America: Stories from the Pioneers of Women’s Basketball.
It is no coincidence that the event will happen during the NCAA Women’s Final Four — an event that now attracts national attention. The book chronicles how these players overcame gender stereotypes to show that women could play the sport with flair and attract crowds, just as men’s teams could. Those traveling teams helped pave the way for the growth of women’s basketball, which now has its own professional league in the WNBA.
Roybal was among those pioneers, having toured with the All-American Red Heads in 1972 after graduating from Pecos High School that year. When the entity earned induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2012, Roybal went to the induction ceremony in Springfield, Mass., and was a part of a group of roughly 70 former players who represented the Red Heads.
In an April 2012 New Mexican story, Roybal talked about how transformative that one year was for her.
“That one year changed my life,” Roybal said. “I came home knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I graduated from [the College of Santa Fe] in three years and was in coaching right after that. I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Roybal has coached 39 years at the high school and college level, winning a pair of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference titles while at New Mexico Highlands University and consecutive Class 3A titles at Santa Fe Indian School. Her last stint came at Española Valley, where she guided the Lady Sundevils to a 71-16 mark during her three years at the school and a Class 5A semifinal appearance each season.