With Leonard Torrez at the helm, the Mesa Vista High school girls basketball team had as hot a start as any team in the state.
The Lady Trojans won their first seven games in 2021, capped with a victory in the Ben Lujan Tournament on Dec. 18 with a 54-41 win over Crownpoint.
It was the last game he would coach for the team.
Torrez, 37, died from a COVID-19 infection the morning of Jan. 13. His father, Leo, who was the assistant coach on the team, died from the virus the night before at 58, an unimaginable double tragedy for the community.
Both were fully vaccinated, in accordance with New Mexico Public Education Department and New Mexico Activities Association guidelines, said Mesa Vista boys basketball coach Richard Apodaca.
“He really loved to teach,” said Leonard Torrez’s longtime friend Ben Rivera. Whether that was children on the basketball court or new coworkers on the special response team at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“Leonard would teach them the ropes, everything they needed to be successful in that job,” Rivera said. “He loved to coach. He loved to mentor people.”
The two Torrezes shared a special bond, according to their friends and colleagues. Not just father and son, the two were best friends, as well as business partners in their Alcade-based towing company. Apodaca said it would be difficult for many fathers to be their son’s assistant, but Leo had no problems taking direction and helping the teams.
Jesse Boies, who coached cross country, said he and the younger Torrez became close with their daughters, Bella Boies and Kylie Torrez, the same age. They developed a friendly rivalry in coaching from tee-ball to youth basketball to when Boies coached the team at Española Elementary School and Torrez at Alcalde Elementary School.
“We made a little rivalry out of the elementary seasons together,” Boies said.
Boies said Torrez was genuine and humble as a coach and as a friend.
“He was always there for the youth,” Boies said. “Always there to lend a helping hand. He would take on any extracurricular activity. If he didn’t know how to do it or how to coach it, and a team or school needed it, he would figure it out.”
A 2002 Mesa Vista graduate, Torrez told the hiring committee, including Apodaca, that he wanted to be a part of rebuilding his hometown program. Rivera said that coaching the Mesa Vista basketball team had been his dream.
“He brought a lot of energy and excitement (to the interview),” Apodaca said, and he said that Torrez brought a passion to his family life, his community, and to basketball and coaching.
Torrez was committed to helping the school and community in any way he could. He took pride in doing Chicago Bulls-like lineup introductions to create an exciting environment and make athletes feel like they were playing on the highest stage.
Apodaca said he was also the biggest fan of the boys team. He and his father were the officiating crew at several of their summer games. At one point, he noticed an issue with one of the boys players, and helped him to overcome an adversity.
“He cared as much about the person as the player,” Apodaca said.
And in hand with his personality came his strengths as a coach. The great, and surprising, starts to both the boys and girls basketball teams invigorated the small community.
Apodaca said that Torrez was “one of the best hires I’ve been a part of.”
Shortly after he was hired as girls basketball coach, the volleyball coaching position opened. Athletic Coordinator Eric Vigil said he begged Torrez to take over the team on short notice.
“But I don’t think he had to beg very much,” Apodaca said, because Torrez loved coaching so much.
Competitive but sportsmanlike, his impact was stark. The Lady Trojans had won just three matches total in the prior three seasons, and in 2019 they won just two sets the entire season.
But they started a shortened spring 2021 season with a surprise victory over the Española Valley junior varsity team — their first win since 2018 and snapping a 38-match losing streak in Torrez’s very first attempt. They won three more matches that season.
The following season, despite having easily the shortest team in the district (most players barely scratched 5 feet), Mesa Vista won nine matches and went a strong 4-6 in district play.
“Heck, man, he looked like he never missed a beat,” Boies said. “It looked like he had been (coaching volleyball) for years.”
In Torrez’s first game as basketball coach, Mesa Vista scored the most points they had in a single game since 2012 in a 72-36 win.
Boies will take over a Lady Trojans team that still ranks No. 3 in the state and lead the team that Torrez built. At the Northern Rio Grande tournament, while the two coaches were hospitalized, Boies added two more strong wins to the team’s resume, including over defending state champion Pecos, before falling in the championship to top-ranked Escalante.
“We’re going to keep the same mindset, we’re going to go in with the same system,” Boies said. “Once we’re there, we’re going to make them proud and play hard every day. We’re going to play for them to keep their memory alive. And these girls are hungry, and they’re ready for it.”
Boies said the team had a counseling session with social workers the night after he died.
“Our girls are torn up,” Boies said. “They loved coaches. Those two guys gave everything to them, and they love them. A lot of them had a lot of relationships with them outside of basketball. It’s going to be a healing process. But I know they’re going to turn it into a season that we’re going to make them proud of.”
Torrez’s two oldest of four daughters, sophomore Kylie and eighth-grader Jaslene, will remain important parts of the team. Boies said when they spoke, the two girls kept asking how he was doing and checking up on him.
“‘I know you and him were best friends, we’re just checking up on you,’” Boies said they told him. “And I was like, ‘You guys are stronger than I’ve ever imagined.’ I have a feeling they’re going to come out and do some special things for their dad and their grandpa this year.”
Torrez became ill shortly after the Ben Lujan Tournament, and went to the hospital on Christmas morning. He never went back home.
Ben Rivera became friends with Leonard Torrez after the two joined the Laboratory’s Protective Force out of high school.
One day, during a physical training session, Rivera noticed that Torrez was wearing basketball shorts underneath his uniform.
“Leonard, what are you doing wearing basketball shorts under your uniform?” Rivera asked.
“You never know when a basketball game is going to pop up,” Torrez responded to him. “I’m always ready.”