A softball tournament, a three-on-three basketball competition and a rugged rodeo highlighted the final day of the annual Chama Days celebration.
After a record-setting low temperature Sunday morning of 35 degrees, the sun relentlessly beat down on the fans and spectators alike later that day.
The event that drew the largest crowd didn’t involve a ball or bull. It was an annual competition between Rio Arriba volunteer fire departments, who decked themselves out in full gear for the event.
The firefighters, split into teams of three, had to direct a stream of pressurized water at a metal barrel hanging from a wire suspended between two poles. The goal of the game was to move the barrel to your opponent’s side. Each round lasted three minutes and it was best-of-three in each competition with the teams exchanging sides between rounds.
Once the competition started, you could see why the crowd gathered. The spray from the hoses showered the spectators with streams of cooling water as the two teams battled it out.
The final pitted the Velarde and Chama fire departments against each other. Velarde quickly won the first round. In the second round, the two teams put on an impressive display of accuracy and stamina. Both teams struck the barrel firmly so that it scarcely moved along the wire. For what seemed like an eternity, but was probably just a matter of seconds, the teams battled to a stalemate. When the three minutes finally expired, Chama had won by a matter of barely 12 inches.
In the final round, another stalemate occurred, with each team not wanting to be the first that faltered.
“I kept telling myself, ‘I’m not getting tired,’” Chama firefighter Josh Ryan said after the competition.
The first to falter was Chama, as Velarde pushed the barrel dangerously close to Chama’s end of the wire to the cheers of the crowd. Chama, however, recovered and gained back the ground they had lost and then some. When the three minutes expired, Chama had won the tournament, claiming the trophy and $200 in prize money.
“We owe it all to the man on the knob,” said Chama firefighter Joey Garcia, referring to Ryan.
As the fireman’s competition ended, the rodeo was also winding down. Bull-riding was the event that wrapped it up and there were only six entrants. John Salazar was in the lead with 71 points from the previous day.
For most of the bull riders the second day, the ride was a short one. They were bucked off their bulls in a matter of seconds, but Cody Nunn, of Bloomfield, stayed on his bull the required eight seconds and scored a 63 to claim second place. He earned $225, while Salazar took home $338 for first.
The team-roping event drew by far the most entries with 47 who paid the $200 entry fee. Travis Pacheco and Justin Higgins made the event a profitable one, taking first place and earning $766 apiece.
Barrel racing drew 16 entries. It paid $185 and was won by Jassarra Baca.
In total, the rodeo paid out $13,361 in prize money in 11 events.
Softball and basketball were still going strong in the afternoon, but there was time to sit and talk about fishing under the shady pine trees or crack piñon nuts and watch an opportunistic squirrel scamper up and down a pine tree. There were also turkey legs to chew on and funnel cakes to devour.
A first-time entrant to the softball tournament took home the trophy in the men’s upper division.
Hardcore from Albuquerque got a game-winning home run from James Saiz to defeat their final opponent by the 10-run rule, 14-3.
The scorekeeper for the softball tournament was Chama Mayor Archie Vigil
“This is one of the top three softball tournament’s in the state,” Vigil said. “It’s the players that make it happen.”
Jamm’s, also known as Anaya’s Plumbing-Gonzales Trucking, of Santa Fe, took the men’s lower division championship for the second straight year, while Orion Electric took the women’s division title for the fifth consecutive year.
All that was left to finish was basketball and the three-on-three tournament proved to be just like the hard-fought high school games that fans flock to in winter throughout Northern New Mexico. The fans cursed at the officials and the action was hard fought as former high school rivals teamed up and faced off.
The women’s final featured players from throughout Rio Arriba County.
The Crew featured Edwina Rivas, who works in the Motor Vehicle Division for the Village of Chama, as well as current Mesa Vista High School junior Carmelita Trujillo and Dulce High School’s Crucita Rivas. They battled past Dulce’s team of high school stars — LeAnn Castleberry, Caitlyn Vigil, Carmen Gomez and Lakeisha Gonzales — to reach the championship, but fell 16-12 to a team called Straight No Chasers in the championship.
In the men’s division, the Takers and Angelo Rivas’ team of former Dulce High School players squared off in the championship. Dulce had defeated the Takers 26-24 in an earlier game, but the Takers battled back to the championship game.
Dulce took an early lead on the hot hand of Marcus Ortiz, but the momentum began to swing the Takers’ way as Dominic Baca, of Pecos High School, crashed the boards for tip-ins and layups. The officials were taking heat from both sides, and the action was physical. The Takers’ Frankie Giron, a star on Mesa Vista’s team last season, and Rivas fouled out. That turned the tide of the competition.
Dulce was without Preston Duncan, who had played when the two teams had first met. They had no one to replace Angelo Rivas and Dulce was down to Ortiz and Anastacio Valdez. The Takers had former Escalante player Nate Rivas to replace Giron.
It now became a two-on-three game in favor of the Takers. Baca, Nate Rivas and Craig Vigil, of Pecos, put the Takers ahead and then protected the lead down the stretch. In the final moments of the game, Ortiz expressed his frustration with a verbal outburst and was ejected by tournament coordinator and Chama Councilor Ron Russom.
“I don’t blame these guys,” Russom said. “They’re competitors.”
That effectively ended the game, which was called by Russom.
The final score was 29-24 in favor of the Taker. For Giron, it was his second championship in as many years. He had been on the winning team in last year’s Chama Days competition.
“I figured after last year I had to come back this year, he said.
Russom had a weary but happy look on his face as the tournament came to an end.
“We played 66 games in three days,” Russom said. “It was a great event.”