It’s safe to say that Jordan Romero was born for this opportunity, but this certainly is not the way he wanted to go about it.
Romero has the task of filling the Española Valley boys basketball coaching vacancy for the remainder of the season, replacing coach Joey Trujillo, who was fired Dec. 11 after getting into a verbal altercation with a spectator during a game.
Romero, who was in his second season as a volunteer coach for the Sundevils girls program, coached his first game with the Sundevils on Thursday.
He was a former assistant boys coach for St. Michael’s High School, where he was a five-year member of the varsity team. Romero played under legendary New Mexico coach Ron Geyer, winning two Class 3A state championships. And his dad, longtime Horsemen girls coach Martin Romero, owns the school record for wins for the program.
And Jordan Romero, after his standout high school career that ended in 2009, played four years at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, where he earned a degree in business administration and also was an assistant coach for a season before returning to Northern New Mexico.
“It’s definitely not ideal in any aspect, especially for the boys,” he said of the situation. “That’s what it ultimately comes down to is the boys. When I heard what happened, my initial thought was that I never thought they would come to me to help.”
And that was not the original plan either, as assistant coach Filiberto Dominguez originally agreed to coach the team for the remainder of the season before deciding against it and resigning.
After the Española administration came to Jordan Romero, “I took a couple of days to talk it over with my wife and father-in-law (Sundevils girls coach Ray Romero),” he said. “I ultimately said yes because of the senior boys. I coached at St. Michael’s before this and I had a lot of respect for them before. I didn’t want them to have a bad senior year where there is uncertainty as far as stability goes.”
At this point, Jordan Romero said he sees his job as getting the team back on track emotionally.
“It’s something you don’t expect to happen,” he said. “So you take it day by day, take it in stride. And hopefully good things come with that and we can make the most of the situation.”
In his first meeting with the players, the coach said he tried to get them to focus on the rest of the season.
“The main thing is, I reiterated that this is not their fault,” he said. “It had nothing to do with them. What’s happening with these circumstances is I’m going to step in and I’m not going try and change everything. We’re not starting from scratch. I wanted to hear them out and get their side of it as far as what’s been working, what’s not been working, any weaknesses we need to address.”
That being said, the goal for Española has not changed from what it is every year, Jordan Romero said, to reach the state tournament and make a deep run.
“I’ve been working with the coaching staff to put us in the best situation and put together a way to succeed into the future,” he said. “I’m here to win. As competitors, that’s what we all want to do, win and get after it and compete. I’m not worried about district. I just want to get these guys to where they need to be to have the best success possible. Those guys are tough, hard working, very coachable, smart kids.”
And that was immediately apparent as soon as he stepped into the gym with them, Jordan Romero said.
“The first day of practice, it was great,” he said. “They listened and took in everything we were preaching or teaching. If you just stuck your head in the gym, you would not have known that it was the first day that I was there. And that’s a credit to them and how well they adapted and adjusted to me and my staff.”
As for his future with the program, that’s looking too far ahead, Jordan Romero said.
“It’s still so fresh and new, I’m taking it day by day,” he said. “If that opportunity (being the next coach) presents itself, it’s definitely something I’m interested in. But right now, I’m just trying to focus on the next day.