McCurdy Charter School’s Karla Santos built a reputation over her athletic career — being the best player that everyone from every school knew.
“She was hated at most schools because she was such a competitive player,” Lady Bobcats head softball coach Christian Lopez said. “Everyone knew her: coaches, players and officials. They all knew the Santos kid.”
Santos recalled that one school even had a chant they would always recite every time she visited their gym, which was all for a valid reason.
She was McCurdy’s leading scorer, rebounder and stealer for four consecutive seasons.
“Nobody’s ever done that, that I know of,” McCurdy girls basketball coach Ron Sanchez said. “She was a very good person and very respectful. Never talked back or gave any attitude and always a team leader, no matter what.”
Sanchez described Santos as being one of the “sharper kids” he’s coached. Her ability to run the offense based on how the defense was attacking is one of the attributes that set her apart.
Santos had her best season during her junior year where she averaged “about 20 points per game” according to Sanchez.
Before losing to Laguna-Acoma Junior/Senior High School in the first round of the state tournament in 2017, The Lady Bobcats did the unthinkable against Dulce High School.
After losing to the Lady Hawks three times during the regular season and getting blown out 68-39 on February 17, 2017 at Dulce, McCurdy returned to the very same gym a week later and won the District 2-3A championship.
Santos said the 64-60 victory was her favorite moment from high school sports. She scored 21 points and made 7-of-10 free throws in the fourth quarter.
“The gym was packed, more Dulce fans than any,” she recalled. “The game was very close the whole game and at the end, we just pulled through. It made us all so happy and I’m sure some of us even cried. That was a great accomplishment, especially because people thought we weren’t going to win. That made us fight even more.”
Sanchez credited Santos’ effort in the victory.
“Karla was a big reason (why we won that game,” he said. “She had two steals in the last two minutes that helped us win.”
Diamond days
Coach Lopez saw the same qualities from Santos that Sanchez observed on the basketball court.
“She was always a leader,” he said. “Took the role on and off the court and field. Took care of the younger players (also).”
Santos called her relationship with Lopez and softball assistant coach Joseph Valdez a “silly one.”
“My teammates Zoe Serrano and Samantha Armijo and I would always sit in front of the bus with them and just make silly jokes and laugh at each other,” she said. “The coaches that we have at McCurdy are not just coaches, they are more than that to many of us athletes. All the players grow a close bond to them.”
Santos competed toe-to-toe with Serrano for most of the statistical categories this past season for the Lady Bobcats softball team.
“She’s definitely a person you want to play with, not against” Serrano said. “Karla was a hard-working player who would put all her effort into anything she was doing, whether it was making a play or just cheering in the dugout.”
The Lady Bobcats won the 2018 Santa Rosa Lady Lions Softball Tournament in March and Santos had two huge performances.
She recorded three hits and scored four runs in a 17-1 victory over Pecos High School and added four more hits in the team’s 7-6 victory over Santa Rosa High School in the semifinals, all while batting 1.000 in the two combined contests.
Responsibility
From a young age, Santos was motivated by her parents to strive for greatness, but was also taught a hard-working mentality.
She recalled that her parents kept her and her siblings interested in school by offering whoever had the best grades $50. Being the youngest of the group, Santos said she always won because her classes were easier.
But her sense of knowing her place came from the more serious time.
“My parents raised me to have respect for my elders and that things that you want don’t come handed to you,” she said.
Santos has been paying off her own car that she bought when she was 16-years-old with the help from her job at McDonald’s, who will also help her pay for some costs of tuition at The University of New Mexico Los Alamos.
She plans to transfer to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to pursue a degree in biology.
“I want to become a pediatrician,” Santos said. “I love kids and I love taking care of them, so I thought it’d be a good career for me.”