It’s been more than two months since Española Valley athletic director Matthew Abeyta was suddenly reassigned.
While he dug into his new position as dean of students at Carlos F. Vigil Middle School, Española Public Schools Superintendent Eric Spencer has been busy trying to find a replacement, looking to do so before his retirement at the end of June.
The district recently completed a similarly lengthy process of finding a new head football coach. Caleb Holbrook was hired in May to replace Tylon Wilder, who resigned to take a job at Sandia High School after leading the Sundevils to their first Class 4A state playoffs semi-final appearance.
While Spencer said a replacement is imminent, there still is no timeline for the new athletic director to hit the campus.
“We’re conducting background checks on candidates,” he said, although no formal offer has been made yet.
From the candidate pool, schools officials brought in three finalists for interviews, Spencer said. Although he did not name the finalists, two were from New Mexico and one from out of state.
“I’m hoping we can be making an announcement here pretty soon,” he said.
Abeyta was finishing his fourth school year as athletic director and presided over the unprecedented rise in the Sundevils football program. He also helped get raises for the school’s head coaches and oversaw upgrades to many of the facilities.
The district entered the athletic director search without a set deadline to have one in place, Spencer said.
“We’re just letting things take their course,” he said. “We opened the position for individuals to be able to apply. As applications have been rolling in, we’ve been evaluating those for ones that rise to the level of an interview. We want to make sure we make the right selection as an athletic director and not be up against a timeline. So we’re doing evaluations and making the decisions in the best interests of the district. And sometimes that just takes time.”
At this point, he said, that means checking references and getting documentation from prior employers that the candidates have not been involved in any violations or misconduct involving students.
“We are doing due diligence to make sure background checks are completed for administrators,” as required by state law, he said.
In addition to having experience as an athletic director, Spencer said he’s looking for someone who has a proven track record of developing the athletic department beyond sports and the high school.
“One of things high on my radar is creating school experience and fan experience,” he said. “I want to know when I roll into town that the town actually has high school athletics in the community.”
Creating that community engagement between the high school student athletes and the town and residents of Española is paramount, he said.
“Fan experience was an important key to building school and community pride,” Spencer said. “Also, how do you work with coaches and how do we train and support people. If coaches are supporting kids and the athletic director is supporting the coaches, that’s what we’re looking for.”
Additionally, being able to tap the community to help create a successful athletics program is a must, he said.
“That was big for me, making sure the candidate has knowledge and background doing fundraising,” Spencer said. “Also, a pretty good knowledge of equity in the athletics program and Title IX.”