Tylon Wilder has an infectious presence.
His enthusiasm is apparent within minutes of speaking with him, as his eyes light up when talking about high school football and working with teenage athletes. And it is visible in his interactions with students, sharing his excitement about football and inspiring players.
Española Valley Athletic Director Matt Abeyta said that Wilder first stood out by insisting on making a 5-hour drive for an in-person interview after the school had requested a virtual interview.
“He has a lot of energy,” Abeyta said. “Even though football’s in the fall, it’s a year-round position. It’s a high-energy job. That really resonated with everybody that was in the committee.”
Wilder will look to bring that thrill to the Española Valley High School football team, and hopes to rejuvenate the team after an unequivocally rough stretch. He expects a change of pace, with a high-tempo spread offense — Abeyta said that Wilder’s experience as a football coach in different environments, including both the east coast (Northern Virginia) and the west coast (Southern California) will help him adapt to Northern New Mexico’s culture and football style.
“We’re not a Hey Diddle Diddle Up The Middle,” Wilder said. ““We’re going to come in here, we’re going to spread it out. These kids are fast, they’re athletic. So let’s let them be fast and athletic.”
Española Valley High School hired Wilder, an assistant at Silver High School, as the new football head coach. Wilder replaces Santiago Archuleta, who was let go after two seasons. Wilder brings a military background but looks to add a renewed excitement to the football program while capitalizing on the athletic talent in the area.
“Española has a 23 percent win percentage since 2004, since MaxPreps has been around,” Wilder pointed out. “Always running the same sort of stuff. And it doesn’t work … Is it going to be different than what people are used to seeing around here? Yeah, 100 percent. But that’s why you hired me.”
Wilder has now visited Española a handful of times through January, and plans to move from Silver City to Española along with his family, including three high-school children, two boys who will join the football program. He was the lead judge for a Jan. 29 powerlifting competition, during which he also talked to members of the football team, asking about their positions, jersey numbers and strengths while getting them excited for the upcoming season, and has met with Sundevil players on his other trips.
Wilder grew up in Hobbs and attended Western New Mexico University. Most recently, he worked in Silver City as a strength and conditioning coach, and a defensive coordinator for the Colts, who allowed an average of 12.9 points last season.
In between, he spent 20 years in the Marine Corps before wanting to spend more time with his family.
“I’ve moved 17 times in the last 16 years,” he said. “We’re used to moving.”
He wanted to get into coaching, and said he has a passion for football (but said he would coach anything.) His biggest excitement comes from seeing athletes succeed and watching their excitement.
Wilder said he was immediately captivated by what he saw in Española, with a polite and motivated student body, a community dedicated to supporting sports teams, as well as the impressive new field and weight room.
“Even in losing seasons, fans are still out there, still cheering on their people,” he said. “It’s hard to go 0-10, not win any games, and try to keep kids in the program. These kids, they still want to be here.”
Archuleta, in two seasons as head coach, finished with a 1-12 record — the single win came against Navajo Prep in a forfeit of a game that originally finished 42-8. Outside of that game, the Sundevils had an average defeat of 53-8 in Archuleta’s reign.
“I’d really like to express my gratitude to Coach Archuleta for everything he did for the program,” Abeyta said. “I really believe that he did put his heart into it. It was evident by the number of kids that he was able to get.”
Wilder was selected over 10 other applicants: Philip Camp, the former coach at Milby High School in Houston, Texas; Gerald Cates, a planner at Los Alamos National Laboratory; Delfin Quintana, the current coach of the Española Middle School football team; Dereon Washington, an assistant coach at Lutheran South Academy in Houston, Texas; Tarik Embrack, the coach at Newcomb; Zeke Villegas, the athletic coordinator for Santa Fe Public Schools; Ryan Calabaza, a coach of the Rio Grande Heat women’s football team; Daniel Haymes, a boxing security officer in Albuquerque; Jonathan Salazar, a middle school teacher in Raton; and Joseph Serrano, a previous assistant coach.
Stories differ on the events of a May 13 softball practice that led to Wilder being placed on administrative leave but then cleared shortly afterward; Wilder called it “a miscommunication with a parent” and is open about telling the events.
Abeyta said after a background check, including speaking with the athletic director and superintendent, he felt comfortable with the hire.
“One of the questions we ask as part of our reference check is, ‘Would you want this person coaching your own kids?’ Abeyta said. “Two of the respondents said, ‘Yes, he is coaching one of my kids right now.’ That definitely cleared the air for us.”
It started when the softball head coach chose the sparring training out of Wilder’s strength and conditioning catalog.
Wilder said all the proper safety equipment was in place for an exercise he has done with over a thousand participants, with gloves, headgear and body armor.
At that practice, Wilder said all coaches were present and all safety parameters were in place. He instructed students to hit at 25 percent strength, and exclusively in the “T-shirt area,” nothing to the face, back, or below the belt. After teaching procedures and techniques, Wilder sparred with the first three participants, he said, as a demonstration on how to maneuver on the 1-minute bouts. Then for about an hour, 16 players sparred with each other.
“Everything was fine, it was a great training. I’ve seen this a thousand times,” Wilder said.
Through one parent’s telling to the New Mexico Public Education Department and to KRQE News, however, Wilder “forced” the players to box even after they wanted to stop, and was violent when he fought with them. She said one player had a bloody nose, another had bruised knuckles to a point where she could not properly hold a bat, and a third was nauseated from Wilder’s hits to the chest and stomach.
In a May 2021 article in the Silver City Daily Press, one player on the team said the practice was conducted with the proper safety techniques, and was the same as the exercise undergone by the football team. She said that one player’s punch slipped off of a shoulder pad and accidentally hit another in the nose. She also said that nobody was forced to participate, which Wilder reminded players multiple times.
In the PED investigation, the team’s head coach supported Wilder’s explanations that the training was conducted with proper safety and on a volunteer basis, no students complained, and the only injury was to one student who had a bloody lip (whether it was a lip or nose that spawned blood differs in various tellings.)
One student told the investigator, according to the report, that players were peer pressured to participate. She said that Wilder “did hit hard” during the sparring, and that he told a player to continue fighting after sustaining a bloody nose.
In the police report, one student (whose name is redacted) said that Wilder also pressured players to participate, and told them to stop complaining about their wrists hurting.
But other coaches on the team said in the police report that nobody was pressured, and that nobody complained during the activity. Six other players said the sparring was voluntary, and had no problems with it. And the school’s Athletic Director said according to the police report that in four years, this was the only complaint against Wilder.
Police, school, and PED investigations all concluded that Wilder did not misconduct himself.
Wilder said the allegations, in his eyes, stemmed from another issue. Four days later, one player came late to their game, Wilder said, and the head coach told her to stay in the press box and play walk-up music. Per Wilder’s telling, suddenly a parent was complaining about their daughter, and the sparring practice was only an issue after the benching.
“Just a parent trying to get her five minutes on the news,” Wilder said. “Everything was cleared, there were no issues whatsoever.”
Wilder was placed on administrative leave on May 17, which he said took him by surprise, but he said he was removed after three weeks, and was back with the softball team as they won the district title and made the state semifinal game.
The Silver City Police Department closed the investigation June 7 finding no criminal activity. The PED’s license complaint and investigation officially closed on Nov. 18 with no action taken.
“The conduct was sanctioned by the school district, the activity was consistent with Licensee’s job duties, and the students consented to the activity,” wrote PED prosecutor Phillip Gloudemans in an internal email closing the investigation.
From Hobbs, Wilder knows the challenges facing a football program in a self-described “basketball town.” But he also knows about the excitement that follows the teams, and the potential for greatness.
Wilder said he wants to get the athletes from the basketball team to join the football team, or at least to try it and experience the exhilaration of scoring a touchdown, but also will not force anyone to stay and he will fully support the basketball team.
“We’re going to get those great athletes that like to catch balls and shoot hoops,” Wilder said. “They’re going to catch balls and score touchdowns now.”
Of course, that would be the goal of any coach, and the execution is the challenge. The current overlap between the basketball and football teams is essentially none (quarterback Nate Chacon is the only player from the full football season on the current varsity basketball roster, and he plays as a junior varsity floater.)
But Wilder also hopes to keep consistency by speaking with the current assistant coaches.
When asked about goals for the program, though, Wilder said, “First and foremost, to get kids graduated.” Second is to emphasize football as an extension of their schoolwork. Only then comes the third and fourth goals, to be competitive on the field, and to just have fun by creating an entertaining fan environment and an active student section.
“We’re going to have camouflage night, we’re going to have pink night,” Wilder said. “I want them rowdy, I want them loud, I want music blaring. I just want energy. We’re clapping and yelling when there’s a first down, a fumble recovery. Just, it’s exciting.”
And in moving to Española, Wilder hopes to establish a program over several years, knowing how long it could take to build a winner. Abeyta knows firsthand those challenges, watching former coach David Church in the 1980s take six years to bring Española to the playoffs.
“I don’t have an exit strategy,” Abeyta said Wilder told him. “I’m coming up there with the intent of being there as long as you’ll have me.”