Before Miranda Salazar could commit to signing with Northern New Mexico College, she had to make sure everything was in order. So she took a pause from the staged photo-op to read over her contract before posing while signing.
Northern coach J.R. Giddens remarked that it was the first time he had seen an athlete read the papers during a signing event.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” said Española Valley High School coach Joe Estrada while sitting to Salazar’s left. “She’s a perfectionist.”
The Sundevil point guard, and the High School’s valedictorian, made the late decision to continue playing basketball at Northern New Mexico College, joining high school teammates and former foes to represent the Valley while staying close to her family. She officially signed at a May 26 event at the High School gym surrounded by nearly a dozen family members.
“Miranda’s been the leader in practice from the first day I got here,” Estrada said.
“Miranda has a toughness to her, and she plays with a high IQ,” said Giddens. “She’s also valedictorian, it shows her work ethic and attention to details.”
Salazar nearly did not get a chance to play her senior season, with the COVID-19 pandemic threatening all high school sports.
“Being that we almost didn’t have a season, it was really sad,” said Salazar. “My basketball career almost got cut short. Coaches wouldn’t have been able to see my senior season, so I wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity to play. I was really sad.”
Instead, despite all the challenges of a pandemic season, she put together a second-team all state season, commanding the offense and defense and leading the Sundevils all the way to the state championship final.
“We made history,” she said.
Estrada said Salazar would change the defensive schemes during games, and it was important to Estrada for her to have that freedom.
“That’s the kind of basketball smarts she has,” he said.
Miranda’s father, Bobby, was at every game this year, even at the beginning of volleyball season when there were no fans allowed in the gym, with him working as a team assistant coach. He said he has coached her ever since she played t-ball.
“Me and my wife are there, it don’t matter where she’s at, we go,” Bobby Salazar said. “If we’ve missed a handful of games, that’s a lot.”
Miranda teared up thinking about the end of their basketball season, which ended with a tough loss against Gallup, with the Sundevils down double digits nearly the entire game.
“Still thinking about it now it makes me sad, but we just have to move on,” she said.
But even down by 18 in the final minute, Salazar was determined to make the end of her high school career count. She hit a 3-point look, and then in the closing seconds launched a half-court heave that went straight through the net.
“I made the last two shots of my high school career,” she said. “It was definitely something to remember. I ended on a good note.”
Salazar said by staying at Northern, her family can continue to come support her and watch her play. She also joins high school teammate Destiny Valdez, and she played AAU basketball with Rachel Williams from Eldorado who will also join the Eagles and has played against others in the incoming class.
“It means a lot to the younger girls who are coming up, and might have some of those aspirations,” said Estrada. “And to see that there is a place for all of us to play. And I think it speaks well for the kind of student-athletes that we produce here, too.”
As late as the team’s senior day, though, Salazar had plans to attend the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, with no basketball offers in hand.
Not until the last game of the regular season, at Pojoaque, Giddens attended and talked to her parents. And after their first state tournament game, he called Salazar after the game to offer her an opportunity to play for the Eagles.
“I was really excited,” said Salazar. “I definitely wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t ready to give up basketball.”
She had also received a preferred walk-on opportunity at Trinidad State to play both basketball and volleyball – Salazar was also the Sundevils’ starting libero this season and one of its strongest players.
But she said playing two sports would be too time consuming for her studies. And basketball has always been her favorite sport since she started playing at 3 years old. She decided she was going to take one of those opportunities.
Salazar plans to major in chemistry and become an anesthesiologist. She said she wants to support and care for people, using that same perfectionism from throughout her life.
“Academics have always come first to me,” Salazar said.
Throughout high school, Salazar balanced playing multiple sports, including volleyball, basketball, tennis, and softball at some points, as well as keeping her grades high enough to be the valedictorian.
And that all manifests in ways such as holding up a signing event to read the contract word-for-word.
“She’s not going to put 50 percent in,” Miranda’s father said. “She’s going to put in 100 percent every time. She’s not just going to sign just because. She’s going to sign because she knows it’s right and she feels it’s right.”
“That’s Miranda,” Estrada said. “She likes to do everything right. She’s just a special kind of kid with a tremendous work ethic, and she knows what she wants and knows how to go out there to pursue it. I believe that anything that Miranda sets her mind to, she will absolutely achieve it. How can you not, with that kind of work ethic?”