Volleyball

You’d be hard-pressed to find any two teams as different as Española Valley and Capital. One is well on its way to playoff contention while the other is just trying to score a point.

Norah Holladay’s mind was made up before the play even began — she was going to block whatever came her way.

Boys soccer

"I love the energy," Horsemen senior Cole Sandoval said. "I love the student sections, the crowds; the coaches are yelling, the players are yelling. Everyone is talking crap to each other. I love the intensity. That's what I want."

Senior setter Haley Aguilar had 20 assists to lead the offense, Kaycee Tsosie turned 11 of them into kills and Kailynn Calabaza added seven.

It was the first time this season the Horsemen faced adversity, but the defending Class 3A champions showed their mettle to start the second half.

The Demons coach pushed all the right buttons in the second half after spotting the Eagles a 21-7 lead at the midway point. 

Correction appended

Hey, Siri, how long does it take to prepare crow?

Girls soccer

Last year was a watershed moment for the program, as it made its first championship appearance.

It’s pretty clear St. Michael’s should be the class of Northern New Mexico again, but has that gap closed?

As far as first weeks go for the prep football season, this one was relatively tame.

The Horsemen didn't let the absence of head coach Joey Fernandez phase them in their 42-0 season-opening blowout of the Taos Tigers.

In a game that was a sloppy, defensive battle, and Santa Fe High's Santiago Villaseñor was a huge playmaker when the moment arose, and he thanked his coach for that.

“I think the team we had last year was pretty good and a lot of us just kind of learned how to do things as we went along,” said senior Reed Bass, the team’s starting quarterback.

Head coach Andrew Martinez said previous Santa Fe high teams talked big, but the results were lacking with a combined 2-17 record over the past two seasons.

Joey Fernandez will miss the season's opening games against Taos and Capital. An anonymous source claims the suspension is due to an expletive-filled video from last season following a win.

Santa Fe High had plenty of scoring chances in the second half before Cy Anderson recorded his first goal of the season.

If nothing changes, nothing changes. That is the credo John Michael Salazar is living by in his first year as the head football coach at Capital. 

It's time to dust off the crystal ball, break out the tarot cards and summon our inner Nostradamus to forecast this week's opening salvo of the high school football season.

Marley Belyeu has a chance to do for others what was done for her when she was an underclassman with the Santa Fe Prep girls soccer team.

Class 5A

Their new independent status gives the Braves a real shot at a hard reboot, to pile up a few wins and bring some nonexistent swagger to a program that has gone 2-17 the past two years and hasn’t had a winning season since 2015.

The Demons weathered high temperatures and hot tempers in their season-opening win against Albuquerque High.

The bulk of last year's Demons squad is returning. Even better is the addition of several players who missed all or significant parts of the 2023 season because of injuries or ineligibility.

The cast of favorites among Northern New Mexico schools will look familiar — Santa Fe High, Los Alamos and Las Vegas Robertson have the looks of district and state contenders. However, there could be a few surprises in the 2024 season.

The program's goal is to play on the last Saturday of the season. For seven of the past 10 years, the Cardinals have done just that.

Boys soccer

Was this a sign of the new-look Dons, who won’t back down from any challenger?

Coming off a four-win season that ended with the exit of one of the most successful coaches in school history, the Taos Tigers are hitting the reset button under first-year man Johnny Olguin.

Officials said the issue was a lack of players, especially at the eighth-grade level, as well as having only one head coach hired in the offseason.

The Hilltoppers won nine games a year ago and reached the second round of the state playoffs in a top-heavy Class 5A. A good portion of that team has been lost to graduation, although enough key starters are back to make things interesting this fall.

ATC assistant coach Anthony Apodaca was promoted to head coach, replacing Ben Martinez, as the Phoenix look at their first season in Class 3A.

The first step in that journey, though, is to beat Los Alamos, and the Sundevils have plenty of motivation going into the Aug. 23 season opener.

The Jinx is real.

JACONA — Zeke Villegas has been one part meteorologist, one part coach the past four weeks.

The now-former Hilltoppers track and field star said this week she is attending Albuquerque Eldorado for her senior year, saying it was the perfect fit for her.

The sounds of the football season were in the air long before most people got to work Monday morning, the first day high school teams were allowed to take the field for preseason workouts.

One of the biggest names to emerge from the Summer Olympics in Paris is French swimmer Leon Marchand, who was coached in college at Arizona State by St. Michael's graduate Herbie Behm.

Demons coach Andrew Martinez remembers having six District 5-6A games in 2021, which meant the Demons started their district schedule five weeks into the season.

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.

After decades of decay, the Capital football and soccer teams now have use of a new turf field that is gopher-free and ready for use once the fall season begins in a matter of weeks.

The run is the major fundraiser for the middle and high school cross-country program. The money raised goes to cover the cost of new uniforms, travel expenses and shoes for the athletes. Last year's Panther Run raised about $5,000. 

We are just one week away from the start of the 2024-25 prep sports season.

The New Mexico Activities Association gave Santa Fe native Joe Abeyta the Distinguished Service Award during last week’s annual New Mexico High School Sports Award Show and Dinner in Albuquerque.

You don't win 422 games and two state titles while reaching five championship games over a 26-year coaching span by luck.