The Pojoaque Valley High School football team is set to play their first game on Friday night against Los Alamos High School, but they are already suffering from a spate of injuries and absences.
They are without a back-up quarterback because senior Amos Pacheco, who was competing for the starting spot with Isaiah Rodriguez, had to leave the team for personal reasons. Then, they had three more injuries.
“Our free safety tore a ligament in his ankle, so he’s out for possibly the entire season,” head coach Jorge Oropeza said. “We had another player last week, on Wednesday, he got in a car accident so he suffered a concussion. So, he’s out for this week. On Saturday, when we scrimmaged, we had a lineman, a player that plays both ways, he popped out his shoulder.”
The player that will miss out on Friday’s opener is one of the Elks’ impact players, Colton Law, a 6-foot-5 senior tight end who has been getting recruiting looks from college programs like the University of New Mexico.
In fact, his concussion provided the even more unfortunate circumstance of missing the Lobos’ individual camp, where he could have showcased his size and ability in front of the coaches.
The injuries aside, Oropeza is having a smoother start to the year than last, and is hoping to see better results.
This will be his second year in the head coaching position at Pojoaque, after he came from Española Valley High School, where he was the defensive coordinator in 2015.
Being a first-year head coach, Oropeza had some difficulty finding assistant coaches.
Throughout the season, he was stretched thin, trying to coach all sides of the ball.
Assistant coaches came and went through the course of the season, but this year, Oropeza has found a dedicated staff that takes some of the weight off his shoulders.
“It’s awesome to be able to stand there on offense and just watch, and then throw them my two cents,” he said.
The 2016 Elks finished with a losing record of 4-6, although even that proved to be an improvement for the team.
“We went 4-6, which was a big turnaround,” Oropeza said. “They were on a 12-game losing streak.”
Pojoaque has anywhere from seven to eight returning players on both sides of the ball, so they are, for the most part, keeping the same core players.
The one key player that graduated from last year’s team was quarterback Daniel Rael, who was the crux of an Elks’ offense centered around throwing the ball.
Last season, Rael threw for approximately 1,500 yards and ran the ball for approximately 700 yards.
Rodriguez, a sophomore, will handle the starting quarterback duties for the season, as Oropeza scrambles to find a back-up.
“He’s a small guy, but he can fling it,” the head coach said of Rodriguez.
He was especially impressed with Rodriguez’s performance, Aug. 19, when the Elks scrimmaged against Clayton High School. He said Rodriguez made some great throws, combined with good decision making.
With a team that depended primarily on the passing game in 2016, Pojoaque is hoping to create a dual threat against defenses by creating a deadly running game. That will be the job of senior Ben Lujan, a 5-foot-7 power back that rose to his starting position midway through last season.
On offense, the Elks will rely on the endurance of players like Lujan and Rodriguez. Oropeza likes to run a scheme that focuses on quick play-calling to catch the defense off guard.
“We run, no huddle,” he said. “We run plays really quick, so that will give us a lot of base looks. We won’t see that much blitzing because it’s hard for coordinators to get calls in. For substitutes, it’s really hard.”
The strength and conditioning program that Oropeza has implemented is not the typical, quick-burst system that is popular in the world of football. The emphasis is placed on doing more reps at a lower weight, and also on endurance running.
He hopes that strategy will give Pojoaque an edge in their district laden with strong football teams.
Robertson High School and St. Michael’s High School topped the district last year.
Robertson went on to lose in the state championship game and St. Michael’s made it to the semi-finals.
The top four teams in the district got a playoff bid last season. Pojoaque finished fifth, coming in ahead of Bernalillo High School and Santa Fe Indian School.
The Elks are confident that they can finish the season with a playoff spot, especially given the regular practicing in which the players have been partaking since March.
“I think it’s just when the players buy into a coach’s scheme and stuff is when it all works,” Law said. “Him being here a second year gives us a little bit more stability and trust.”