While basketball has taken Mike Dominguez across the country and even south to Mexico, staying close to home and family was a huge priority for the former New Mexico Highlands men’s basketball coach.
So when Northern New Mexico College came calling looking for a coach, it was quite serendipitous.
“It was a perfect storm kind of deal,” he said. “It opened up at the same time (as leaving Highlands). For me, being close to my daughter is one of the bigger things when I was looking to sign with a different university or school. Luckily for me, Northern was opening and it keeps me close by. For me, being from the area, it couldn’t have worked out any better.”
Dominguez, 39, who grew up in Alcalde and was a star basketball player at Capital High School in Santa Fe, is a basketball lifer.
After graduation, he played two seasons at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, where he started every game and helped the team to a 64-6 record over that time. That earned him a scholarship at Florida International, a D1 school in Miami. After a year there, he transferred to Mesa State (now Colorado Mesa) in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he was the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference player of the year, regional player of the year and second-team All-American.
Then he signed to play professionally in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico for two seasons before turning to coaching, spending six years at Colorado Mesa, then the last eight with the Cowboys.
During the latter stint, Dominguez focused on bringing in New Mexico players and that’s something he’s planning to do with the Eagles, as well, by capitalizing on the relationships he’s already built across the state.
“I don’t think there was a school that recruited more kids from New Mexico than we did at Highlands,” he said. “And I expect to do that same thing at Northern. It may take a little bit of time to change the mindset of kids who may think of it as a last resort.”
That was the case when Dominguez got to Highlands, as well, and he was able to alter that perception.
“Before long we were signing some of the best players in the state,” he said. “I plan on doing that at Northern. My recruiting is not going to change. I go to a ton of high school games. I have a good relationship with a lot of high school coaches and players. I’ll be doing that same thing, getting kids who want to come to Northern, who no longer think of it as an afterthought or as a last resort kind of thing.”
The plan is to not only raise the level of play, but also boost the stature and exposure of Northern while tapping into the zealous local basketball fans, Dominguez said.
And that’s why successfully recruiting local players is so important, he said.
“The more New Mexico kids, the more invested Northern New Mexico fans will be,” Dominguez said. “We’ll be getting out in the community and doing more of that. And it helps that me and (new women’s coach) Mandy (Montoya) are both from the area. I think people will want to come out and support us from that standpoint.”
It also helps to put a fun, competitive team on the court, he added.
“We have a lot of room to grow,” he said. “So we’re going to be growing every year, building it. That will be through student athletes, fundraising, winning games and hopefully championships.”
And that means injecting a little of the local passion for up-tempo play.
“In a perfect world, we’ll play fast, press and create a lot of possessions,” he said. “The biggest thing is trying to get them to understand what we’re trying to do in the short term and the long run; win games and recruiting good student athletes who want to graduate and become better people. I will hold them accountable and hold them to high standards.”
Then it’s just a matter of getting it done on the floor, Dominguez said.
“I haven’t lost very much in my life,” he said. “I don’t plan on doing that at Northern. I want us to win as many games as we possibly can. Every game we step on the floor, I hope my guys think we’re going to win, because that’s my mindset. That’s what I’m looking forward to. Turning Northern into a really good college where kids want to attend. I’m in it for the long run. This isn’t in for a year and then and I’m out.”