As long as the trip to the Academy for Technology and the Classics was for Bobby Romero, it was longer for Ben Martinez.
Romero cited a 90-minute commute from his job with Los Alamos National Laboratories to ATC for boys basketball practices and games as the reason for his resignation as head coach in May. Martinez, the head girls basketball coach, was up by 4:30 a.m. to leave his house in Cordova to work, and home by 10:30 p.m. after the boys and girls practices.
Martinez said Thursday he was ready for a second season with the Phoenix, but that changed when Romero took the girls job at Pojoaque Valley. He resigned two weeks ago after one 12-15 season at ATC to be Romero’s varsity assistant with the Elkettes.
His decision officially reunites the pair, who coached together with Mesa Vista girls from 2018-20 and with ATC boys from 2021-23.
While it was great to be back with Romero, Martinez said he liked trading almost three hours’ worth of driving for about an hour.
“It saves me about two hours a day,” Martinez said. “But me and Bobby talked and you want a [defensive-minded] coach and that’s my specialty.”
The statistics bore that out with the girls team. The Phoenix only allowed opponents 34.1 points per game, although the team struggled to score (32.8 ppg). Martinez said he feels that he leaves the program in a good position, with a lot of young players who developed over the summer. However, he cautioned that the program’s transition to Class 3A after being a 2A school for its entire athletic existence will pose some challenges.
“They learned a lot of my defensive philosophies and they were a heck of a defensive team this summer,” Martinez said. “Problem was we just struggled to score. It’s kind of where we were at. Most of the returning kids are going to be freshmen this year and a few seniors, but the core of that group is going to be really sophomores and freshmen this year.”
Martinez said he has spent the past couple of weeks working with Romero and the Elkettes as they try to make up for lost time since he took over in early July. He added Pojoaque has a similar makeup to ATC, with a host of underclassmen sprinkled with a handful of juniors and seniors.
“They’re here learning the system right and start learning the plays, “Martinez said. “They’re learning the philosophies that we’re trying to teach.”
ATC athletic director Vanessa Maryol did not return phone messages regarding the search process for Martinez’s replacement.
