An arctic blast swept into New Mexico Jan. 7, dropping the temperatures drastically. It reminded me of the cold spell that struck about the same time in 1971, when the temperatures plummeted and Northern New Mexico shivered with temperatures of minus 30 degrees. It hit minus 38 degrees in Española that January and that was the actual air temperature, not the wind chill. That was a brutally cold winter.
The weather may be cold, but the basketball season is starting to heat up. Española Valley looks like the hottest team locally, laying lickings on bigger Class AAAAA schools from Albuquerque. When the Sundevils are this hot, they’re the ones that get the most attention. It’s kind of been that way for the last three seasons.
The Sundevils start their District 2AAAA play early this year, hosting Taos Wednesday (1/13) and playing at Capital Jan. 20 in Santa Fe.
Española has a big road trip Jan. 22-23 that will take them to Clovis and Hobbs. No, I won’t be following Española to these games. Checking on how those two teams are doing, Hobbs looks very solid, but most of their games have been against schools from Texas. The Eagles are 12-1 and their only loss came to an team from Phoenix, AZ.
Hobbs faces Roswell, the defending Class AAAA champion, Jan. 19 before they face Española. Roswell is currently 9-1 and ranked first in Class AAAA ahead of the second-place Sundevils. Their only loss came to a Texas team and they demolished Los Alamos 68-41 Dec. 30 in Roswell. The Hobbs/Roswell matchup will be an interesting game to use as a measuring stick between Española and Roswell. The way things are going, the only time the Sundevils and the Coyotes could play each other will be in the Class AAAA state championship game.
Clovis is 7-4 and doesn’t look as strong as Hobbs, although again its hard to tell because with the exception of a 2-0 forfeit to Portales, all of their losses have come to Texas teams.
With the Sundevils out of town, it will give me a chance to catch up with the other teams and give them a little more attention, in particular Pojoaque. The small schools don’t really get their district seasons cranked up until February, so Pojoaque will be the team upon which to concentrate.
Looking ahead, the game that really intrigues me is the matchup Jan. 23 between the Pojoaque boys and Santa Fe Indian School at Pojoaque. The Elks have a tough District 2AAA opener Jan. 20 at Robertson. The Cardinals are rolling along and are 12-1 so far this season. It’s tough to win on the road in District 2AAA and all the more important to defend your home turf, so the game against the Braves is a key game for the Elks.
When Pojoaque won the 2008 Class AAA state championship, the Elks went into the state tournament as just the seventh seed. Going into the state tournament, Española was 28-1 and seeded first. The Sundevils were the team grabbing the headlines. The Elks were just 20-7 and were being overlooked. Pojoaque coach Joey Trujillo likes to point this out to the teams that have followed as an example of how it doesn’t matter how you start, but how you finish.
The only thing that gave me a glimmer of hope for Pojoaque in 2008 was a close 62-60 loss to St. Pius X earlier that season. I felt St. Pius was the team to beat in Class AAAA (even against the Sundevils) and the Sartans ended up winning the championship. I was not optimistic about the Elks chances until they beat Hope Christian in the quarterfinals. Pojoaque put together three well-played games at the right time.