Ian Maestas has big shoes to fill.
Roberto DeVargas, the legendary longtime coach who racked up over 200 wins and twice led McCurdy baseball to a state runner-up, retired at the end of the 2023 season. Maestas, the assistant for five years, steps up to take over the head coaching job.
McCurdy has a seismic change this year, but look to keep their continuity of a strong program. Under Maestas, the Bobcats (4-2) took third place at the Santa Fe Indian School Tournament, defeating Navajo Prep (3-7) 12-2 in the third-place game.
“A lot of things haven’t changed,” Maestas said. “He placed a foundation that we plan to carry on.”
Ironically, Maetas takes over the year after his son, Adrian, graduated from the school.
“The plan was never for me to retire after Adrian left,” Maestas said. “DeVargas actually announced his retirement a whole year ago. And Adrian, along with some other boys, and I, all asked DeVargas to come back to give us one more year. The boys are the reason I decided to stay and continue.”
DeVargas left a longtime mark on the program, and is still around the team. Local baseball players have often chose to go to McCurdy so they could play in that baseball program.
Maestas is making mostly small changes to the program. Practices can focus more on fundamentals, with the help of new assistant Robbie Garcia. There is more “dynamic stretching.”
His focus is on “Bobcat Baseball.”
“Bobcat Baseball is playing our tempo, playing our speed, how we want to play,” said junior catcher and pitcher Cruz Martinez. “We want to let our defense work. Just get the ball in play and let our defense work. That ball’s hit, you saw me on the mound, I wasn’t even looking at it, because I knew it was going to be an out.”
Junior Tino Salazar-Archuleta said the month of practice before the start of the season made the transition pretty easy.
“You couldn’t really replace that guy, he knew so much about baseball, so much experience,” Martinez said. “Ian has it too. He’s more serious now, but still the joking and laid-back way how we’ve always been.”
Also different this year is the team makeup after losing three big senior leaders from last year. Now, seniors Lucas Martinez and Thomas Bolton, along with Cruz Martinez, are taking on more of a leadership role with the team.
But early on, things are going well. After losing their opener, McCurdy has won four of five games. In their four wins, they average nearly 17 runs.
Against Navajo Prep, McCurdy benefited from strong defense stranding runners. In the first, the Eagles loaded the bases with no outs, then lined into a double play as the Bobcats escaped without any damage. In the second inning, McCurdy recorded an out at home off a passed ball. Navajo Prep left the bases loaded in the fourth.
The Bobcats scored a run in the first inning, manufactured by Thomas Bolton. Bolton reached on an infield single, stole second, advanced on a groundout, then scored on a passed ball. Bolton reached base in all four plate appearances, and scored three times.
In the second, McCurdy’s bats exploded after a dropped popup extended the inning. Jeremaya Roybal tripled as five runs scored for the Bobcats.
They scored two more in the fourth inning. And in the fifth inning, McCurdy scored four runs before recording an out, including a three-run double by Salazar-Archuleta, and Roybal’s RBI-single led to the mercy rule win.
In the first round, McCurdy won 17-2 over Laguna-Acoma (2-2) with Salazar-Archuleta hitting a double, triple and home run for five RBIs.
In the semifinal, though, the Bobcats fell 13-0 to Santa Fe Indian (2-1), recording just two hits.
McCurdy next plays a doubleheader on Wednesday (3/27) at Santa Fe Indian.
One of the biggest changes for Maestas is now coaching third base instead of first. Which puts him at risk for the righty pull hitters.
When Roybal hit a line drive wide of the foul line, he had to jump out of the way.
The team shouted from the dugout, “That’s not DeVargas!”