City honors Indian School
Boys, girls teams lauded for state runner-up trophies
Ethan Roanhorse was the trophy sitter, not that it was his choice.
The senior at Santa Fe Indian School held on to the Class 3A boys basketball runner-up trophy all throughout Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
When both the boys and girls teams, which had matching 3A runner-up trophies, walked into the council chambers.
When they stood for City Councilor Peter Ives’ reading of the proclamation honoring both teams for their achievements during the season.
Even when the teams prepared to board the activities bus to return to SFIS after the presentation. It wasn’t for a lack of effort. “I tried to give it to anybody else, but no one would take it,” Roanhorse said as he sat down to talk about his reflections on perhaps the greatest week of prep basketball in city history. SFIS could boast that it had two of the three Santa Fe teams that played for a state championship, with Santa Fe High boys joining that list.
Three weeks after the Braves and Lady Braves came close to hoisting a blue trophy, the excitement of the final week of the season is fading away for most of the players. The City Council meeting, though, gave them a chance to bask in the glory of two remarkable seasons. One of the few exceptions was freshman Cameron Connors, who hasn’t quite forgotten the 62-46 loss to Las Vegas Robertson in the 3A girls championship.
“I’m still kinda in that basketball mindset,” Connors said. “I’m still kinda mad.”
While the sting of the loss is still raw for a few players, first-year head coach Patricia Chavez said the City Council’s proclamation honoring both teams’ accomplishment put some perspective on the season.
“It’s about the growth that kids make and what it bring to the community that builds that culture,” Chavez said. “And not just the culture of [creating a] legacy, but from a team culture standpoint. And if these girls have that growth-culture mindset, then at the end of the day, we’re doing pretty well.”
Some of that could stem from that week in mid-March, as both teams spent the week pulling for each other as well as playing in an intense atmosphere. Abrianna Herrera, an eighth grader, said the time she spent with her teammates at the hotel struck with her because it allowed them to bond and create memories.
“We liked to hang out with each other,” Herrera said. “[The week] was a little bit busy, but not too bad. It was fun.”
It culminated in a SFIS extravaganza on March 15 as the Braves beat No. 1 St. Michael’s in the 3A semifinals, with the Lady Braves waiting on The Pit ramp to play the girls championship.
It was an experience none of them will forget, especially the younger players.
“We were all pumped,” Connors said. “Everybody was hyped.”
Freshman Jordan Torres, though, felt the energy boost the team got from the crowd might have hurt it in some ways.
“I think we were a little overexcited to play,” Torres said. “We were overexcited to where it kinda messed up our game, but not too much.”
As for the boys, Roanhorse said the Braves reveled in the excitement of making their first run to the championship game since winning it all in 1989. He added that the buzz that built throughout the semifinal game and led into the girls matchup was a moment he would cherish.
Roanhorse added that the state tournament experience was improved by the six seniors on the squad who played together since they were in the seventh grade.
“It felt really good and really amazing to do it,” Roanhorse said. “It really does show that hard work we put in. It was really rewarding to do it with these guys. The girls program has been a little bit successful in the past, so it felt really good for us to be right up there with them.”
Roanhorse added that the realization of what he and the Braves accomplished came when he turned in his jersey for the final time the week after the tournament.
It wasn’t just the finality of his career, but that his contribution will stand the test of time.
“You see the appreciation everyone is giving us, the congratulations,” Roanhorse said. “It was like, ‘Oh we really did do something great. We did do something good for ourselves and our program.’ It felt really good to represent our school and ourselves, too.”
Roanhorse doesn’t mind carrying that feeling around.
While the sting of the loss is still raw for a few players, first-year head coach Patricia Chavez said the City Council’s proclamation honoring both teams’ accomplishment put some perspective on the season.