Seniors Luis Alvarado and Nisa Duran were honored May 20 as Española Valley High School’s career athletes of the year.
To be eligible for the award, athletes had to participate in at least two sports for four years at Española.
Alvarado ran cross country and played basketball. He was best known for his prowess on the basketball court, where he was selected for the Class AAAA All-State team and as a member of the Class AAAA-AAAAA North All-Star team. Alvarado scored 24 points in Española’s 59-47 victory over Albuquerque Academy in the Class AAAA semifinals to lead the team to its first state finals appearance in school history. He has signed a letter of intent to play for Northern New Mexico College.
He was no slouch at cross country, earning All-District 2AAAA honors this past season. Alvarado was the second-best runner on Española boys team which came within four points of earning a third-place trophy at the 2009 Class AAAA state cross country meet.
Duran played soccer, basketball and participated in track and field during her high school career. She earned All-District 2AAAA first-team honors in soccer, scoring all of Española’s five goals during the season. She was the District 2AAAA champion in the triple jump and ran on the Sundevils’ state-qualifying 1600-meter medley relay in track and field.
Basketball was where she shone the brightest. Duran scored over 1,000 points during her career and led the Sundevils to two straight District 2AAAA championships, the first in school history. She was also voted to the Class AAAA All-State team.
The awards to Duran and Alvarado concluded Española’s spring sports banquet, which also honored athletes who participated in cheerleading, tennis, golf, baseball, softball and track and field. In addition to varsity letters and certificates, athletes who had achieved a 3.5 grade point average or higher were presented academic athlete certificates by athletic director Theresa Flores.
“Out of 160 athletes, we had 59 who maintained a 3.5 grade-point average,” she said.
One of the biggest cheers of the evening from the crowd came when Flores announced that next season, cheerleading would be recognized as a sport rather than an activity by the new Mexico Activities Association. The Española team finished in third place this year at the state meet.
Special plaque awards also went to seniors Marisol Peña (volleyball, basketball) and Jacob Serrano (basketball, golf), who received the Coach’s Award as outstanding athletes. Sean Salazar and Monica Naranjo were awarded plaques as outstanding student-athletes. Salazar participated in football and baseball while maintaining a 4.21 grade-point average and ranking fifth academically in the senior class. Naranjo participated in volleyball, basketball and track and field while maintaining a 4.09 grade-point average and ranking ninth in the senior class.