While one coaching vacancy at Pojoaque Valley High School is nearly filled, another one has opened.
Wrestling coach Jacob Jiron, after just one year on the job, has been let go, he said.
Jiron, 23, had just completed his first year as a head coach after spending four years as an assistant with Santa Fe High School.
For Jiron, who also was the Elks defensive coordinator and helped out with the track and field team at Pojoaque Valley Middle School, the release came as a complete surprise.
“It was a stab in the heart,” said Jiron, who was working on his summer program with the team. “I didn’t really have any interaction with the AD, but I was having off-season practice and kids were coming out. We had new boys, new girls.”
New Athletic Director Sean Jimenez said, “We decided to go in a different direction with the wrestling program.”
Jiron said that’s all he was told.
“We had a meeting, 40-second conversation,” Jiron said. “He said, ‘Thank you for time, I’m going in a different direction.’”
Under Jiron, then-sophomore Natalie Romero was the New Mexico state runner-up at 138 pounds and also the regional champ — the Elkettes first.
And rising junior Benjamin Duran was expected to compete for a state championship at 152 pounds before being injured in the regional meet and was forced to watch the state meet from the sidelines.
“I felt like we were making some headway with the Pojoaque team,” Jiron said. “It’s very devastating. We build bonds with these kids and families. I consider these kids like my own kids. It’s heartbreaking to be there for one year and be gone.”
Jiron, who is set to become a parent for the first time in December, said he’s not sure what he wants to do in the near-term, although coaching again at some point is something he certainly sees in his future.
In other Pojoaque coaching news, Jimenez said the school has zeroed in on a new volleyball coach and is just awaiting the results of a background check.
The school also is finishing up interviews for the vacant baseball and softball positions, he said, with announcements expected in a couple of weeks.
One of Jimenez’s mandates when he took over the position in April was to explore the possibility of adding tennis and golf teams for boys and girls.
That is in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, however.
“We’re still in the process of doing that, but we’re waiting for the school year to start,” Jimenez said. “We’ll have a meeting to see how many student athletes are interested. We’ll see what kind of interest level we get. And then we’ll take the next step after we see what the interest is like. There’s definitely a lot of interest from the administration and other adults around campus.”
Some of the athletic facilities have undergone facelifts this summer, as well, with Ben Lujan Gymnasium now painted Kelly green with the newly-branded Elk logo prominent.
The soccer and softball fields have new bleachers and the wrestling room was repainted and spruced up with new mats.
Finally, on the re-branding, it caps a process that was started some time ago under the previous athletic director, who formed a committee of six or seven people, including school board members, community members and school staff to arrive at a singular logo moving forward to provide labeling continuity.