As an eighth grader, Leandro Salazar was more fluff than substance. So much, that one of the seniors on the Española Valley football team dubbed him “Chungas” or, in this context, fat rabbit.
“Kind of like Bugs Bunny,” Salazar said with a laugh.
It was a nickname that stuck, even if it quickly became less appropriate to the athlete into which Salazar made himself.
The Sundevils football teams in those years lost all three games in the 2021 COVID spring makeup season, being outscored 160-6, then followed that up by losing all nine games it played in the fall of 2021.
Yet Salazar persevered, helping change the culture in a revitalized Española football team, as well as helping usher in the Sundevils top notch power lifting program. He also was a member of the school’s bowling team and participated in track and field in the shot put.
But it was his outstanding prowess on the football field and in the weight room this school year that has earned him the honor of being the SUN’s male prep athlete of the year.
It’s a well-deserved recognition, Rudy Martinez said. He’s been Salazar’s position coach on the football team and the head coach of the Sundevils power lifting program.
“It’s one of those things, legacies in high school sports, people talk about them, but they’re non-existent in most cases, unless you get a real superstar performer,” Martinez said. “Well, he is that guy. He will have a legacy. The kids coming up talk about him and they want to meet him, because they have heard about him.”
Although a lineman, Salazar has some impressive numbers. He stands 6-foot even and weighs about 275 lean-and-chiseled pounds, a far cry from his days earning his nickname when he easily topped 300.
During this past season, he was credited with 32 pancake blocks — when his opposing defender ended up on his backside. He played sparingly on the other side of the ball, but of his eight tackles, one was a sack and the other was in the backfield. The Sundevils had their best season ever, hosting a state playoff game and reaching the Class 4A semifinals for the first time in school history.
Española featured a power-rush offense that wasn’t just run heavy, it was a punishing ground game almost to the exclusion of any kind of passing attack.
And many of those big runs would be directed through the gaping holes that Salazar, along with fellow right side lineman Jesus Gonzales, would gouge in opposing defensive lines.
“We went behind him as much as we could,” Martinez said. “He was just a man child and we were literally almost unstoppable.”
There is nothing an offensive lineman relishes more than the chance to be a part of a rushing attack that cannot be contained.
“Getting to be a run-heavy team, it was really fun to be down on the field, always driving, getting to manhandle another person,” Salazar said. “That was my favorite part. That’s why I always like the offensive line better than the D-line. There’s no better feeling than seeing defensive linemen angry because they know there’s nothing they can do about it. It’s an awesome feeling. You never know what’s about to happen on the O-line, but you have a general feeling. And when you come out on top, it’s so nice.”
There were games this past season in which Española did not throw a single pass, yet still dominated its opponents.
“We won a couple of games without passing,” he said. “To win against a team just by running, winning like that is a good feeling, too, because that’s imposing your will on another team. Especially that first win against Los Alamos. That was a good one.”
In power lifting, Salazar won his second consecutive state championship in the 275-pound weight class and holds the 4A total weight and the all-classes bench press record in his class, despite competing with a pectoral injury that he suffered during the district meet the week prior.
But perhaps even more noteworthy is that Salazar was part of a cadre of six football players who went to Martinez following that 2021 disaster of season.
When it became obvious that the players were in it for the long haul, the coach began to show them how to lift with purpose.
And when the New Mexico Activities Association created power lifting as a varsity sport, the Sundevils were already well positioned to compete.
“It was really cool,” Salazar said. “When I took third, it made me realize this (winning state) was a possibility. It’s cool. ”
Salazar, however, has not been just working hard on his body and sports. He was named one of the area’s Super Scholars and finished in the top 10 in his class with a weighted grade point average of 4.2.
So while he will continue to workout and follow sports, Salazar believes his athletic career is complete. He plans to attend Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, to study engineering.
And that doesn’t surprise Martinez in the least.
“He is the most humble, most friendly and generous young man,” he said.