When I began covering sports for the SUN in the fall of 2001, Theresa Flores was Española’s athletic director and Mark Senteney was boys basketball coach at Española Valley High School. Now Flores is back as athletic director and Senteney will be back at the Sundevils’ gym — only now he will be coaching district rival Capital High School.
When Flores was director and Senteney was coach, Española put together one of the most memorable runs in school history. Starting as the last seed in the 2003 District 2AAAA tournament, Española had a stirring string of on-the-road victories over Los Alamos, Taos, St. Pius X and finally Capital to win the district championship. Española’s “worst to first” accomplishment stands out as one of the most exciting events I’ve covered. I went to every game and it was amazing to watch a team that had struggled to unify finally pull together and win a district championship.
Unfortunately, after that season, things unraveled. The basketball team lost three senior starters. Sophomore starters Mike Dominguez and DeSean Smith left Española to attend Capital and Rio Grande high schools, respectively. Senteney resigned and also ended up at Capital.
Former Española coach Lenny Roybal will also be visiting the Sundevils’ gym in 2010-11 as boys basketball coach at Santa Fe High School. Santa Fe will be dropping down from Class AAAAA to Class AAAA to join a district with Española, Los Alamos and Bernalillo. Santa Fe is one of the biggest Class AAAA schools in the state with about 1,550 students, as opposed to about 950 for Española.
Although Santa Fe is much larger, let’s not forget that it has been three years since the Demons beat the Sundevils in boys basketball. If Española can maintain its level of play and not use Santa Fe’s size as an excuse, the Sundevils will more than hold their own.
Another familiar face returning to Española’s gym in 2010 will be Sam Estrada, the volleyball coach at Santa Fe High. Back in 2001, Estrada was in the first year of his second stint as Española’s volleyball coach.
Estrada built Española into one of the most respected programs in the state, and along the way he got me excited about volleyball. Estrada left Española in 2008. No disrespect to his replacement Garry Maskaly, but the program slipped last year. Lingering questions about the hiring of Damon Salazar as the new volleyball coach aren’t going to help.
Salazar is as dedicated an individual to Española sports as I’ve met. But his abilities as coach of a high school program have yet to be tested. It’s going to be a wait-and-see situation, and there’s going to be some pressure on the players to move forward and rally as a team.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t surprise me if Santa Fe enters District 2AAAA volleyball and instantly dominates, because Estrada is that good a coach.
I’ll be rooting for Salazar and the Sundevils to regain their status as a top program. It’s better to write about winning teams, and I like when local athletes do well.
I often browse old issues of the SUN looking for information, and I come across other articles I wrote. 2003 was a good year for Rio Arriba basketball, with Española winning the district title, Mesa Vista making it to the boys Class AA state championship game and Coronado winning the Class AA girls championship.
Later that spring, Mesa Vista’s Robert Velasquez set a state track record in the 400-meter run that still stands.
It’s funny how you forget past events. I look at those stories and it seems like someone else wrote them. I’ve moved on, but the stories remain.