Former Mora player, coach who was recently married, remembered for her hard work
Jul. 23—Delilah Medina was only 5-foot-7, but her basketball coaches at Mora High School remember an athlete who played bigger than that.
That was, in part, because she had to since she was one of the taller players on the late-1990s Rangerettes teams. Medina, a 1999 Mora graduate who was a part of the school's lone state girls basketball championship team in 1998 and later an assistant coach at her alma mater and Peñasco, died Saturday in a car accident outside of Mora at the age of 40.
Mark Cassidy, the head coach of that state championship team, said Medina was a hard worker on and off the basketball court who had a big heart for the kids in Northern New Mexico. She was an assistant at Mora for the 2009-10 season under head coach David Salcido, and the junior varsity head coach at Peñasco from 2012-14 under Clarence Vigil.
Recently, Medina created traveling basketball club teams for Mora children, and they went all across the country to compete in tournaments. She married Arnelle James over the Fourth of July weekend, which Cassidy said made her death all the more tragic.
"I think she found her niche with younger kids," Cassidy said. "She was doing the traveling team, taking kids to tournaments all over the place, even Indiana. They got their butts whipped, but she knows how it goes. The tougher the competition, the better you're going to get."
Vigil said he revered Medina's basketball acumen, and was not afraid to take her suggestions during practices and games.
One area in which she was invaluable was coaching post players, having plenty of experience with that.
Vigil said as word spread of Medina's death, several Peñasco players called him to express their sadness.
"She knew how to talk to them and how to get them to be better," Vigil said. "She talked about how there is no shortcut to success — just hard work."
Salcido said the roots of her philosophy stemmed from her time at Mora.
Medina transferred to the school from Las Vegas Robertson her sophomore year and was a key contributor on the 1998 team. While she wasn't a starter, Salcido said Medina was a consummate team player.
"You have to be a team, and that was what we were that year," Salcido said. "Delilah played her role the best she could and she was very good at that. We never had to argue with her and she always listened. She was just a great young lady."
Kayla Cde Baca, a 2013 Mora graduate, played for Medina her freshman year and described her as a gym rat. She was often the first one at the gym prior to practice and drove players home. She even rented a room from Cde Baca's grandfather that had an underground court, and would hold after practice sessions with players.
"She was always willing to help out anyone who wanted help," Cde Baca said.
When she battled Hodgkin's lymphoma twice in a three-year period, Cde Baca said Medina, who was at Peñasco at that time, helped coordinate a ceremony for Cde Baca when she was a senior in which she was presented with a basketball signed by the Lady Panthers team.
"They decorated the gym and it was a big thing when we went up there," said Cde Baca, who went by her maiden name Romero at the time
"They presented all this stuff to me, which was pretty awesome. She went out of her way to do that and to get the girls to sign it, and I don't even know if they knew who I was. I couldn't believe it at first," she said.
Medina is survived by her husband and 13-year-old daughter, Lailah; her mother, Dorcas Gloria Medina; father Richard Medina; brothers David, Juan and Joshua Medina; sisters Jory Medina and Celia Suazo; and 24 nieces and nephews.
