Aztec boys track coach Steve Lanier gave an explanation Saturday for a split that's occurred this season. Aztec and Kirtland Central have been attending different meets than Farmington and Piedra Vista.
Here's what Lanier said about that:
"Our teams have competed every single week for two or three years. We wanted to go and see some other people. We know what they have and they know what we have. The last few weeks we'll come together and it should be a lot of fun. I hope."
He also predicted FHS to finish first or second at the Class 4A state championship meet May 7-8. The Scorpions could have several high scorers in Josh Newsome, Riley McGovern and Colton Curry.
"Chasing Farmington's hard. I really think Farmington is gonna be a state contender," he said. "Because they're tough, man. They're really tough. They should be first or second at state."
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
Here's what Lanier said about that:
"Our teams have competed every single week for two or three years. We wanted to go and see some other people. We know what they have and they know what we have. The last few weeks we'll come together and it should be a lot of fun. I hope."
He also predicted FHS to finish first or second at the Class 4A state championship meet May 7-8. The Scorpions could have several high scorers in Josh Newsome, Riley McGovern and Colton Curry.
"Chasing Farmington's hard. I really think Farmington is gonna be a state contender," he said. "Because they're tough, man. They're really tough. They should be first or second at state."
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
Piedra Vista wasn't the only dynasty softball team that lost its first game during spring break.
No. 1 Bloomfield dropped a 4-3 game to 4A No. 3 Volcano Vista at the Rio Rancho tournament.
That dropped the Lady Bobcats to 12-1 overall.
"You get a loss against a quality team like Volcano Vista, those help you down the road," coach Bruce Armenta said. "We haven't got over the hump in beating PV. Those losses to me, it just makes you better, I think."
Pitcher Kellie Mason said the wind and dust affected Bloomfield's play on fly balls and throws.
Despite the loss, she sees progress. They beat Silver, last year's 4A runner up, after losing to them last year, and beat Artesia after losing to them two years ago.
PV remains the gold standard and Mason would love nothing more than beating the Lady Panthers before her high school career concludes.
"Playing against all the 4A teams means as much to us as playing for 3A state championships because everyone's goal is not only to be the best team in your class but best team in the state," Mason said. "We always love giving PV a run for their money. Every year we get closer and closer so we're hoping this year comes out on our side."
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
No. 1 Bloomfield dropped a 4-3 game to 4A No. 3 Volcano Vista at the Rio Rancho tournament.
That dropped the Lady Bobcats to 12-1 overall.
"You get a loss against a quality team like Volcano Vista, those help you down the road," coach Bruce Armenta said. "We haven't got over the hump in beating PV. Those losses to me, it just makes you better, I think."
Pitcher Kellie Mason said the wind and dust affected Bloomfield's play on fly balls and throws.
Despite the loss, she sees progress. They beat Silver, last year's 4A runner up, after losing to them last year, and beat Artesia after losing to them two years ago.
PV remains the gold standard and Mason would love nothing more than beating the Lady Panthers before her high school career concludes.
"Playing against all the 4A teams means as much to us as playing for 3A state championships because everyone's goal is not only to be the best team in your class but best team in the state," Mason said. "We always love giving PV a run for their money. Every year we get closer and closer so we're hoping this year comes out on our side."
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
I wished I had earplugs this morning.
The city was installing new speakers at Ricketts Park.
Evidently they were testing their capabilities, because every 30 seconds they blasted the volume... and static came out. It sounded like a TV when the cable isn't working and fuzzy white and black and gray dots hog the screen, only at rock concert decibels.
It seemed like I was trapped in a Seinfeld episode as I was attempting to conduct interviews.
The team will depart Wednesday for Phoenix and the Coach Bob Invitational.
They'll play lots of games but attend two as well, one at Arizona State and another a spring training venture.
I asked Farmington coach Sean Trotter to break down the tournament and its place in the season. Here's what he said:
"(The) the challenge of this trip, it always has been, is being able to separate and differentiate between the vacation part of spring break and the business part of spring break. It's big for us just because generally speaking we get to play quality teams. Usually when you go to a tournament, there's a couple teams that are just OK. For the most part, the teams that travel to Phoenix are spending a lot of money to do so and are serious about the game. It's a week that will be very challenging for us on the field. The other thing that's nice about it is, these kids have worked their tails off and everybody else is in Mexico, or whatever. ...
"(We) get to do some things that you don't get to do in Farmington. So we try and take care of them there, too. Just the experience of getting out and staying in a hotel room, get up and go to batting practice and all those things, it's nothing new for us. Come May when it's time to go to Albuquerque for the state tournament, it's not like it's our first time in a hotel. We've been out and we've had to experience sleeping in a different place and eating something other than mama's food. Those things are important and they all factor in at the end, that final equation in May.
"We've had a lot of kids in the past that haven't had the opportunity outside of our program to go to a spring training game. That's really the neat part about it. It's definitely for baseball, but we get to have some time and enjoy being a kid and go do those kind of things."
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
The city was installing new speakers at Ricketts Park.
Evidently they were testing their capabilities, because every 30 seconds they blasted the volume... and static came out. It sounded like a TV when the cable isn't working and fuzzy white and black and gray dots hog the screen, only at rock concert decibels.
It seemed like I was trapped in a Seinfeld episode as I was attempting to conduct interviews.
The team will depart Wednesday for Phoenix and the Coach Bob Invitational.
They'll play lots of games but attend two as well, one at Arizona State and another a spring training venture.
I asked Farmington coach Sean Trotter to break down the tournament and its place in the season. Here's what he said:
"(The) the challenge of this trip, it always has been, is being able to separate and differentiate between the vacation part of spring break and the business part of spring break. It's big for us just because generally speaking we get to play quality teams. Usually when you go to a tournament, there's a couple teams that are just OK. For the most part, the teams that travel to Phoenix are spending a lot of money to do so and are serious about the game. It's a week that will be very challenging for us on the field. The other thing that's nice about it is, these kids have worked their tails off and everybody else is in Mexico, or whatever. ...
"(We) get to do some things that you don't get to do in Farmington. So we try and take care of them there, too. Just the experience of getting out and staying in a hotel room, get up and go to batting practice and all those things, it's nothing new for us. Come May when it's time to go to Albuquerque for the state tournament, it's not like it's our first time in a hotel. We've been out and we've had to experience sleeping in a different place and eating something other than mama's food. Those things are important and they all factor in at the end, that final equation in May.
"We've had a lot of kids in the past that haven't had the opportunity outside of our program to go to a spring training game. That's really the neat part about it. It's definitely for baseball, but we get to have some time and enjoy being a kid and go do those kind of things."
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
The Piedra Vista softball team did two things of note this week.
PV allowed its second and third runs of the season, both during a nine-run win against Gadsden.
The Lady Panthers also moved to No. 20 in ESPN's FAB 50 national softball rankings.
They started the season at No. 23 and improved three slots after a 6-0 start.
This week is the highlight of their season (at least in terms of their national ranking) when they travel to Huntington, Calif., for the Faster to First Invitational.
They'll play No. 33 El Modena of Orange, Calif., on Thursday at 4 p.m. local time in their opening-round game.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
PV allowed its second and third runs of the season, both during a nine-run win against Gadsden.
The Lady Panthers also moved to No. 20 in ESPN's FAB 50 national softball rankings.
They started the season at No. 23 and improved three slots after a 6-0 start.
This week is the highlight of their season (at least in terms of their national ranking) when they travel to Huntington, Calif., for the Faster to First Invitational.
They'll play No. 33 El Modena of Orange, Calif., on Thursday at 4 p.m. local time in their opening-round game.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
Can you turn the wind machine off?
That was one woman's joke to me as I stood at the top of the bleachers and shivered against a breeze that plunged the wind chill into the 20s today at Ricketts Park.
It's official: Farmington and Piedra Vista's baseball teams will play twice during the regular season this year. Both games will count toward the District 1-4A standings.
The teams will travel to a tournament in Phoenix during spring break but won't play each other.
That'll be reserved for April, as PV lost to Fruita, Colo., by five runs today.
The No. 1 Panthers, in my opinion, still are the Class 4A favorites. Their team will get better as they incorporate a couple of injured players and shore up their defense, which played worse than championship standard in losses to Durango, Colo., and Fruita.
Coach Mike McGaha didn't give his team a resounding endorsement after an 11-0 tournament win Thursday.
Here's what he had to say on the team's lack of execution in the run-rule win:
"We have to prove to ourselves that we can execute certain things. I don't care what anybody else thinks we can do. I think it's important for us to mentally understand what we can do. When you get into a situation where you face up with somebody that has a buzz saw on the bump or you match up with somebody that goes man for man with you through their lineup, you match up with somebody that has the same expectations that you do about excellence, you have to be able to separate yourself somehow. You have to know, 'If we get into that situation, we're going to execute that because we can.' I think if there's any doubt in your mind that you can execute and you can get some stuff going without having your 'A' game, that's when you get in quicksand and you don't get out of it."
He also had an interesting take on Jake McCasland's pitching performance:
"I think he's probably excited about getting the ball down in the zone a little bit better today. I think he's a little bit more excited about being around the zone all the time, but I still don't think that's the Jake McCasland that we know. My conversation with him was, 'Good job finishing strong, but we have to fix pitch one through pitch 81 or whatever it is.' When you get to the state tournament in May, you don't get a second chance. There isn't a tomorrow. You lose and you're done."
To play Captain Obvious, every team is working on something at this point in the season. I asked McCasland about that balance and he had this to say:
"We want to win every game. Every one of us is very competitive. We don't want to lose a game. We want to get beat."
In summary, PV (8-2) may have the best collection of baseball players in 4A, but they aren't playing A+ baseball right now. We'd have a better comparison between the Panthers and Scorpions if they played Saturday, but FHS (5-4) beat Durango twice, once by 10 runs, and the Demons are a team that blew away PV, 20-8.
But there's no need for concern. There's months left in the season and I'd expect PV to tighten the screws one week at a time.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
That was one woman's joke to me as I stood at the top of the bleachers and shivered against a breeze that plunged the wind chill into the 20s today at Ricketts Park.
It's official: Farmington and Piedra Vista's baseball teams will play twice during the regular season this year. Both games will count toward the District 1-4A standings.
The teams will travel to a tournament in Phoenix during spring break but won't play each other.
That'll be reserved for April, as PV lost to Fruita, Colo., by five runs today.
The No. 1 Panthers, in my opinion, still are the Class 4A favorites. Their team will get better as they incorporate a couple of injured players and shore up their defense, which played worse than championship standard in losses to Durango, Colo., and Fruita.
Coach Mike McGaha didn't give his team a resounding endorsement after an 11-0 tournament win Thursday.
Here's what he had to say on the team's lack of execution in the run-rule win:
"We have to prove to ourselves that we can execute certain things. I don't care what anybody else thinks we can do. I think it's important for us to mentally understand what we can do. When you get into a situation where you face up with somebody that has a buzz saw on the bump or you match up with somebody that goes man for man with you through their lineup, you match up with somebody that has the same expectations that you do about excellence, you have to be able to separate yourself somehow. You have to know, 'If we get into that situation, we're going to execute that because we can.' I think if there's any doubt in your mind that you can execute and you can get some stuff going without having your 'A' game, that's when you get in quicksand and you don't get out of it."
He also had an interesting take on Jake McCasland's pitching performance:
"I think he's probably excited about getting the ball down in the zone a little bit better today. I think he's a little bit more excited about being around the zone all the time, but I still don't think that's the Jake McCasland that we know. My conversation with him was, 'Good job finishing strong, but we have to fix pitch one through pitch 81 or whatever it is.' When you get to the state tournament in May, you don't get a second chance. There isn't a tomorrow. You lose and you're done."
To play Captain Obvious, every team is working on something at this point in the season. I asked McCasland about that balance and he had this to say:
"We want to win every game. Every one of us is very competitive. We don't want to lose a game. We want to get beat."
In summary, PV (8-2) may have the best collection of baseball players in 4A, but they aren't playing A+ baseball right now. We'd have a better comparison between the Panthers and Scorpions if they played Saturday, but FHS (5-4) beat Durango twice, once by 10 runs, and the Demons are a team that blew away PV, 20-8.
But there's no need for concern. There's months left in the season and I'd expect PV to tighten the screws one week at a time.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
Well, that was fun while it lasted.
A bunch of dumb moves shredded my NCAA Tournament bracket on the first day.
Marquette, San Diego State, you cost me two Sweet 16 teams because you failed to secure a defensive rebound with less than a minute left. BYU, you nearly cost me another by doing the same thing against Florida.
UTEP, you blew one of my Elite Eight selections because you refused to come out of the locker room after you took a 33-27 lead against Butler at halftime.
Then there were the unfortunate outcomes of the one-possession games: Notre Dame (lost by one to Old Dominion), Vanderbilt (lost by one to Murray State), Texas (lost by one to Wake Forest), plus San Diego State (lost by three) and Marquette (lost by two).
I finished a lousy 8-8 on the day, dead last in my ESPN group, one spot behind my girlfriend (whom I helped fill out a bracket) and two behind my sister and 10-year-old brother.
That's the worst first day I've ever had.
So long, bracket. The bottom of my wastebasket has a nice, apportioned new home for you.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
A bunch of dumb moves shredded my NCAA Tournament bracket on the first day.
Marquette, San Diego State, you cost me two Sweet 16 teams because you failed to secure a defensive rebound with less than a minute left. BYU, you nearly cost me another by doing the same thing against Florida.
UTEP, you blew one of my Elite Eight selections because you refused to come out of the locker room after you took a 33-27 lead against Butler at halftime.
Then there were the unfortunate outcomes of the one-possession games: Notre Dame (lost by one to Old Dominion), Vanderbilt (lost by one to Murray State), Texas (lost by one to Wake Forest), plus San Diego State (lost by three) and Marquette (lost by two).
I finished a lousy 8-8 on the day, dead last in my ESPN group, one spot behind my girlfriend (whom I helped fill out a bracket) and two behind my sister and 10-year-old brother.
That's the worst first day I've ever had.
So long, bracket. The bottom of my wastebasket has a nice, apportioned new home for you.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
ESPN's FAB 50 rankings have not been updated during the regular season, so Piedra Vista's still stuck at No. 23.
The Lady Panthers' season may come down to the Nike Faster to First Invitational. PV lost its only games of the season at the tournament last year and it's set to include 16 of the preseason top 50 this year.
Don't expect the team to fret.
Check out these two quotes from consecutive Saturdays.
"I felt really good and then the team scored early so I just got to get out there and do what I do. As long as the team scores, we're good to go." -- Pitcher Karysta Donisthorpe after her one-hit shutout of last year's 4A runner up Silver
"As soon as I hit it, I was like, 'Oh, yep, that's gone.' I think that helped us a lot. We got really pumped up after that." -- Jourdan Ensign on her home run against top 5A team Cibola
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
The Lady Panthers' season may come down to the Nike Faster to First Invitational. PV lost its only games of the season at the tournament last year and it's set to include 16 of the preseason top 50 this year.
Don't expect the team to fret.
Check out these two quotes from consecutive Saturdays.
"I felt really good and then the team scored early so I just got to get out there and do what I do. As long as the team scores, we're good to go." -- Pitcher Karysta Donisthorpe after her one-hit shutout of last year's 4A runner up Silver
"As soon as I hit it, I was like, 'Oh, yep, that's gone.' I think that helped us a lot. We got really pumped up after that." -- Jourdan Ensign on her home run against top 5A team Cibola
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
I drove back from Albuquerque this morning and passed Kirtland Central's caravan.
They made sure everyone knew who they were, from the purple-and-gold paper streamers tied to the hitch of a pickup truck to the markings that proclaimed KC's win from every window of every vehicle.
Even the team bus made mention of the school's 18th girls basketball state championship on the back facade.
The team can't have gotten much sleep. I saw a group of Kirtland players and fans walking through the lobby of my hotel at 1:30 a.m., and I left to drive back to Farmington just after 9:30 a.m. this morning.
They deserve to celebrate. I feel like there should be another game for them to play. They never were challenged, even though Española Valley stayed close in the semifinals. It feels as if they should play someone else, maybe 5A champion.
Congratulations to the girls and to coach Charles Kromer.
You may have noticed from my gamers that Amanda Kerr dominated the quotes. Although I like Kerr and think she's a good interview, don't blame me -- the loquacious senior guard had a lot to say and her teammates were shy.
Shiprock appropriately was disappointed. I got the perception that the girls and coach Brady Rivers were just happy to be there after the Lady Chieftains beat Roswell in the semifinals, but if that was the case, they changed their minds by the time the game tipped off.
Expect Shiprock to return to The Pit next year for the 3A state championship game.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
They made sure everyone knew who they were, from the purple-and-gold paper streamers tied to the hitch of a pickup truck to the markings that proclaimed KC's win from every window of every vehicle.
Even the team bus made mention of the school's 18th girls basketball state championship on the back facade.
The team can't have gotten much sleep. I saw a group of Kirtland players and fans walking through the lobby of my hotel at 1:30 a.m., and I left to drive back to Farmington just after 9:30 a.m. this morning.
They deserve to celebrate. I feel like there should be another game for them to play. They never were challenged, even though Española Valley stayed close in the semifinals. It feels as if they should play someone else, maybe 5A champion.
Congratulations to the girls and to coach Charles Kromer.
You may have noticed from my gamers that Amanda Kerr dominated the quotes. Although I like Kerr and think she's a good interview, don't blame me -- the loquacious senior guard had a lot to say and her teammates were shy.
Shiprock appropriately was disappointed. I got the perception that the girls and coach Brady Rivers were just happy to be there after the Lady Chieftains beat Roswell in the semifinals, but if that was the case, they changed their minds by the time the game tipped off.
Expect Shiprock to return to The Pit next year for the 3A state championship game.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
The New Mexico Activities Association is charging for its live internet feed of the state basketball tournament in Albuquerque.
You can pay $7.95 to access a single game for 24 hours or $14.95 to have access to every game.
The NMAA didn't charge last year.
I view this as a way to bilk fans (and media) out of a few hundred dollars during a time when most people don't have the money to spare. Shame on the NMAA or whoever made this decision.
Too bad gas isn't cheap; it would be less expensive to drive to Albuquerque from the Four Corners than to buy an online pass.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
You can pay $7.95 to access a single game for 24 hours or $14.95 to have access to every game.
The NMAA didn't charge last year.
I view this as a way to bilk fans (and media) out of a few hundred dollars during a time when most people don't have the money to spare. Shame on the NMAA or whoever made this decision.
Too bad gas isn't cheap; it would be less expensive to drive to Albuquerque from the Four Corners than to buy an online pass.
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
I apologize to all my dozens of loyal readers (if you believe the spam bots that post fake comments) for my lack of updates.
I got into a car accident on Wednesday, rendering poor Mable (my '95 Mustang) dead at the old age of 15 years.
That's created a lot of 8 a.m. phone calls with the insurance company the last several days and a maximum sleep time of five hours.
Hopefully you feel placated by Sunday's sports section, which is chock full of local copy despite a 10 p.m. deadline tonight (and four state championship basketball games, including one in Kirtland and one in Shiprock, where sports editor Darren Vaughan and I attended 7 p.m. tipoffs).
Thanks to coach Charles Kromer for providing me with a pen before the game. He seemed in a good mood after Friday's glorified scrimmage against No. 16 Santa Teresa.
The Broncos got crushed by 25 points, losing to the same team that they beat by one a few weeks ago.
KC scored six points in the first quarter and labored from the field. They scored 17 in the second only to give up 19 to St. Pius. Then they chipped the deficit to three multiple times during the third quarter, but the Sartans hit a 3 at the end of the period to stretch the lead back to eight.
That broke the Broncos, who'd used a 3-2 zone to throw St. Pius off balance and gain some traction.
The zone helped counteract the Sartans' quick guards, but coach John Zecca had to change to a man-to-man defense because St. Pius started stalling with a lead.
I thought the Broncos did a great job attacking the rim during the second half, but made just 5-of-17 free throws. DJ Frank is an admirable player and easy to enjoy as a basketball talent, but shot 3-of-9 from the line in the second half.
I saw a Kirtland administrator in the tunnel after the game berating a St. Pius player for celebrating by grabbing and hanging on the rim after the game. I didn't think the celebration was disrespectful or malicious -- I love grabbing the rim after the basketball games that I play -- but it seemed to upset the Kirtland brass.
*****
I'll stop and write more tomorrow so I don't say anything off the wall in my delusional state, but here are the team stats from tonight's game. St. Pius is listed on the left.
Turnovers: SP -- 8, KC -- 15.
2-point FG: 14-28, 15-29.
3-point FG: 5-15, 1-12
R: 23, 31
FT: 22-25, 7-20
A: 11, 6
F: 18, 22
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
I got into a car accident on Wednesday, rendering poor Mable (my '95 Mustang) dead at the old age of 15 years.
That's created a lot of 8 a.m. phone calls with the insurance company the last several days and a maximum sleep time of five hours.
Hopefully you feel placated by Sunday's sports section, which is chock full of local copy despite a 10 p.m. deadline tonight (and four state championship basketball games, including one in Kirtland and one in Shiprock, where sports editor Darren Vaughan and I attended 7 p.m. tipoffs).
Thanks to coach Charles Kromer for providing me with a pen before the game. He seemed in a good mood after Friday's glorified scrimmage against No. 16 Santa Teresa.
The Broncos got crushed by 25 points, losing to the same team that they beat by one a few weeks ago.
KC scored six points in the first quarter and labored from the field. They scored 17 in the second only to give up 19 to St. Pius. Then they chipped the deficit to three multiple times during the third quarter, but the Sartans hit a 3 at the end of the period to stretch the lead back to eight.
That broke the Broncos, who'd used a 3-2 zone to throw St. Pius off balance and gain some traction.
The zone helped counteract the Sartans' quick guards, but coach John Zecca had to change to a man-to-man defense because St. Pius started stalling with a lead.
I thought the Broncos did a great job attacking the rim during the second half, but made just 5-of-17 free throws. DJ Frank is an admirable player and easy to enjoy as a basketball talent, but shot 3-of-9 from the line in the second half.
I saw a Kirtland administrator in the tunnel after the game berating a St. Pius player for celebrating by grabbing and hanging on the rim after the game. I didn't think the celebration was disrespectful or malicious -- I love grabbing the rim after the basketball games that I play -- but it seemed to upset the Kirtland brass.
*****
I'll stop and write more tomorrow so I don't say anything off the wall in my delusional state, but here are the team stats from tonight's game. St. Pius is listed on the left.
Turnovers: SP -- 8, KC -- 15.
2-point FG: 14-28, 15-29.
3-point FG: 5-15, 1-12
R: 23, 31
FT: 22-25, 7-20
A: 11, 6
F: 18, 22
Stay true and keep pounding,
Christopher
