Prep hoops kick into high gear this week
Sad that football is over? Let’s turn that frown upsidedown, because basketball season truly takes center stage this week. And what better way to commemorate that honor with one of the premier regular-season tournaments in the state — the Bobby Rodriguez Capital City Tournament at Santa Fe High? On the boys side, you will find the four biggest city schools (the host Demons, Capital, St. Michael’s and Santa Fe Indian School) in the bracket. Meanwhile, the girls bracket will have a decidedly Rio Rancho flavor, as both Rio Rancho and Cleveland are in the bracket.
Looking for a good opening-day game to watch Thursday in Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium? Grab a breakfast burrito and head over at 9:30 a.m. for a boys matchup between Española Valley and St. Michael’s.
It’s a battle between two teams that held high hopes over the summer, but injuries have dented those expectations. The Horsemen lost its best big man in Lucas Coriz when he shredded his right knee in the third week of football season (against Santa Fe High, no less). The Sundevils lost guard Garrett May earlier this month, taking away a dependable presence in the backcourt from a team that reached the 4A semifinals in May.
It will be an early look at how these two teams will adapt to the roster changes.
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It was a sports smorgasbord for Greg Sandoval on Saturday.
By day, Sandoval was a part of the northeast officiating crew assigned to the Class 5A state football championship game between Artesia and Los Lunas — the first largeschool assignment for the 20-plus-year ref. Sandoval said he had officiated 2A and 8-man championship games, but never above that level.
He spent over three hours in Los Lunas, where the Tigers downed the Bulldogs 40-28 to win the program’s first state title.
Once he was done there, he changed out of his officials gear, put on his Demons polo shirt and made the 90-minute drive back to Santa Fe — just in time to take on his role as varsity assistant for the Demons’ boys basketball season-opener against Las Cruces Centennial.
It was an equally pleasing evening, as Santa Fe High rolled to a 78-58 win.
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Superstitions? Matthew Gonzales brushes them off like defensive linemen and swats them to the side like linebackers.
The Robertson quarterback who seemed to single-handedly lead the Cardinals to the Class 3A state football championship on Saturday in Las Vegas, N.M., said he was never worried that cutting off the miraculous mullet he’d grown would have any impact on his stellar play.
“Yeah, I did it a few weeks ago and nothing changed,” he said, taking off his helmet to show a clean-cut look straight out of central casting.
For the better part of two years, the Gonzales businessin-the-front/party-in-the-back hairdo was his calling card, his public persona, his identity to anyone who saw him on the athletic front. In October he decided to dump it. The rest, as they say, is history. He was the state’s best player on both sides of the ball throughout the playoffs and final two weeks of the regular season.
“Yeah, no regrets either,” he said with a laugh. “Some
people kind of wanted it to stay and some were, like, ‘Shave it off.’ I guess I just wanted a new look.”
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Speaking of Gonzales, his scout-team clone was Cory Serna. The former St. Michael’s quarterback who led the Horsemen to their most recent state title is now a Horsemen volunteer assistant coach.
All last week he ran the scout team offense pretending to be Gonzales. The two have roughly the same height and body dimensions, not to mention their innate ability to squirm out of the pocket and make things happen with their improvisational skills.
Serna took it a step further, grabbing a black helmet he’s been using to play semi-pro football the last few years. The black matte finish had an extra touch just to complete the Gonzales-look: A Cardinals helmet decal affixed to the front of the helmet.
Serna said he’d gotten it from a former Robertson player when the two made North-South a few years back. As has been custom in those all-star events, athletes usually swap school merch during their week-long events. Serna said he’d saved that Cardinals decal all these years.
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Española Valley will have to get used to the sight of Pojoaque Valley’s green and white for the next couple of weeks of the boys and girls basketball season. Saturday saw a boys/ girls doubleheader against Santa Fe Indian School take place at Pojoaque after an electrical fire destroyed the hanging scoreboard and speakers at Edward Medina Gymnasium earlier this month.
The fire also damaged the paint job of recently refinished hardwood that needed to be repainted after the incident. The teams should return home by mid-December.