College basketball returns to New Mexico this week
Oct. 25—Don't look now, but the college basketball season starts this week.
Northern New Mexico College, an NAIA program in Española, opens a 24-game regular season schedule at home Thursday night against University of the Southwest. The Eagles are taking the court for the first time since the end of the 2019-20 season, having had last season canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Eagles went 10-14 the last time out, ending with a six-game winning streak that included a 7-4 mark at home. They have only eight games scheduled at home this season, with road games in seven different states.
It certainly won't be easy. Among the games are trips to NCAA Division I schools New Mexico State, UTEP and Northern Colorado, as well as DII dates with New Mexico Highlands, Eastern New Mexico, UC-Colorado Springs and Fort Lewis.
Half of NNMC's roster are New Mexico high school graduates like Chano Herrera (Santa Fe High), Omar Dominguez (Pecos) and Carlos Cordova (Pecos).
As for UNM, it will hold its Basketball is Back Weekend on Saturday and Sunday in The Pit. The men will conduct a free intrasquad scrimmage at 2 p.m. Saturday, and the women will host Western Colorado in an exhibition at 2 p.m. Sunday.
At halftime of Saturday's men's scrimmage, Mike Bradbury and the Lobo women's team will be introduced. Richard Pitino and the Lobo men's team will be introduced during halftime of Sunday's women's exhibition.
The Saturday scrimmage marks the first time the Lobo men's basketball team will have an event in The Pit since Feb. 29, 2020, having played all of last season on the road because of the pandemic.
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Fans attending Friday's Robertson-St. Michael's football game in Las Vegas, Nev., probably noticed the pristine field conditions at Cardinals Stadium. It begged the question: What gives?
The natural grass facility is historically much worse for the wear this time of year. The space between the hashmarks is usually a landing strip of exposed dirt, soil that's hard as an industrial sanding belt in some areas and as muddy as a pan of cookie dough in others. The surviving grass generally feels like a squishy blanket of waterlogged dog hair, often the product of Northern New Mexico's cool nights and the (wink wink) forgetful nature of the groundskeeper to turn off the sprinklers.
"Joey told me before the game he thought we watered the grass nonstop starting every Wednesday," said Robertson head coach Leroy Gonzalez, referring to a pregame conversation he had with St. Michael's counterpart Joey Fernandez.
Friday's game was played on a grass field devoid of muddy bare spots, of sidelines that still had a thick carpet of green grass and of a playing surface that didn't leave the painted lines and hashmarks to the imagination.
It's a product of Robertson moving its soccer teams to nearby Memorial Middle School (aka Red Dawn Field) and opening its old soccer area north of the football field to practices for the football team. Until this year, the Cardinals played and practiced on their own field, grinding away at the grass and making Cardinals Stadium one of the least desirable places to play for visiting teams.
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It was the perfect way for Rennae Ross to call it a career — again. Santa Fe Prep's co-head coach came out of a 13-year retirement to help the program when it did not have a coach for 2021, and Prep ended the season in strong fashion with a 10-0 win over Santa Fe Indian School.
Ross coached the program from 1990-2008 and guided it to three state titles. Since then, she has been the school's health coordinator and even coached Prep's dance team during the late 2000s and early 2010s.
After a 4-0 loss to St. Michael's on Wednesday, Ross said she has no plans on returning for a second year and a new hire is waiting in the wings.
One thing Ross said she was most proud of was growing the program's roster to 26 players — the most it has had in more than five years.
She hopes those players stay and Prep is able to field a junior varsity team.
Ross won't be completely away from the sport: She is the president-elect of New Mexico Youth Soccer and her primary goal is to increase participation, especially among the 10-14 year-old age group.
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Monte del Sol's volleyball team had one of its better performances Thursday when it battled Estancia to five games before succumbing in a District 2-2A match. The Lady Dragons' reward came after the match from an unexpected source.
Chela Butler, the Lady Dragons head coach, said a bus driver who was traveling through Moriarty on his way to Amarillo, Texas, bought the team's dinner at Blake's Lotaburger.
Butler said it was a great way to end what she called a good night for the Lady Dragons.
"A fantastic, fantastic night," Butler said.
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The Santa Fe High football team's 41-38 win over Albuquerque High was momentous for more than just securing the program's third winning season in 35 years at 6-4 and its first since 1998.
The 41 points the Demons scored proved to be the most against a big-school opponent since a 51-34 win in 2013 over the Bulldogs. Also, their 2-4 district record was their best competing in the state's highest classification (be it 5A or 6A) since a 2-3 mark in 2003.
Santa Fe High also made it through the big-school district season without getting shut out for the first time since 2008. It should be noted that the program did not compete in 5A or 6A from 2010-14 and 2017-19.
The 144 points the Demons scored during District 2/5-6A play were the most they recorded since the 1998 squad scored 175 during a 4-1 district season, on its way to an 8-3 record.