2011 State Basketball

GRANTS Long before the crispspring winds blew in March Madness, theLady Pirates of Grants High School knewthis year was different.

Julie Gallegos and most of her team-mates grew up playing ball in the cityleagues together or at St. Teresa of AvilaCatholic School.

We either played on the same team orplayed against each other but we were allfriends, explained Gallegos. Our teamhas great chemistry. You could tell at the(Peidra Vista) game, because weveplayed together for such a long time.

The game Gallegos mentioned was ini-tially recorded as a two-point loss forGrants against one of the states toughestteams. The score raised eyebrows ascoaches around the state began to wonderif Grants could repeat the contest againsta top ten team.

It wouldnt take long.But the summer before

the season started, CoachBill McLaughlin wasacquired from a smallArizona school. The fit wasright and in retrospect thegirls started excelling.

It was very important.He pushed us, told us whattalent we had and what wecould do, explainedMarina Autrey after theseason. He was alwaysexcited. We respected himsince the summer program. . . hes been great to usand weve accomplished alot.

At the Lady JaguarInvitational in early December, the LadyPirates tore through each team includinga matchup with seventh-ranked Demingand district champ. The stunning score of70-51 echoed on headlines from Santa Fepresses to Albuquerque.

A sanction was handed down from theNew Mexico Activities Association thatthe two losses to P.V. would be reversed tovictories. The girls program got off to itsbest start since being at 3A in 2005-06,with 14 wins in a row.

On Jan. 25, ninth-ranked Valenciaended the winning streak on the road, 66-55. The Lady Pirates got vengeance acouple weeks later, cooking up a 68-47score at home on Feb. 11.

The next important date came againsteighth-ranked Albuquerque Acadamywhen it visited the Port on Jan. 28. The

Lady Pirates easily handled the interrup-tion to district play in a 43-27 route.Academy would later split the districtchampionship with sixth-ranked DelNorte.

The seeding and selection committeehonored Grants wins over Deming andAcademy, earning an unprecedented five-seed.

In the first round of the state tourna-ment on March 4, the Los AlamosHilltoppers came to test the mettle ofGrants. A gritty first half gave the LadyPirates a picture of what theyd see therest of March. Finally, the defensiveprowess of Teige Zeller awoke to jawdropping blocks and a performance thatled to L-A only scoring seven points in thesecond half of a 46-28 score.

After moving on to the next round inThe Pit, against powerhouse EspanolaValley, something special happened to the

Lady Pirates guard SydneyMares.

At the end of the seasonplaying in The Pit whenplaying against the bestteams with the bestguards, explained Mareson her ability to competewith any guard in the state.I dont know if it wasmore of the points as it wasgiving every ounce of ener-gy I had til the buzzerwent off. I just didnt wantto give up. I played like itwas my last game I wouldever play.

Mares gave EspanolaValley fits with energeticdefense and quality controlover the Grants offense.

Her efforts contributed in overthrowingfourth-ranked Espanola Valley, withZeller hitting a buzzer-beater and win-ning 38-37.

In the Final Four against top-seededKirtland Central, the Lady Pirates floun-dered for three quarters before regainingtheir senses. A scoring run of 16 points ina row was jump started by Mares, butincluded Zeller, Kyla Elkins andMyranda Rodriguez. The Lady Piratescame up short by just four points frommoving onto the state championship, 53-49. The Gallup girls would eventuallyclaim the state title over Kirtland Centralthat weekend.

Were coming back next year andno doubt in my mind were gonnawin, promised the freshman centerZeller.

Cibola County Beacon Tuesday, March 15, 2011 1

1016 Roosevelt Ave, Grants, NM 87020

Volume 76, Number 21 Tuesday, March 15, 2011

RISING ABOVE!Timeline to final four

By Mark TeshimaBeacon Sports Writer

I just didntwant to giveup. I playedlike it was

my last gameI would ever

play.SYDNEY MARES

BEACON / ROMEROThe tipoff was owned by the frosh phenom Teige Zeller in the start of the final four round ofthe 4A state playoffs against Kirtland Central.

Late 1990sThe majority of the Lady

Pirates meet on school yardbasketball courts and city

recreation leagues to begina bond necessary for thejourney to the Final Four.

Summer of 2010Following Tim Van Heckes

resignation, the LadyPirates program acquired

Coach Bill McLaughlin fromSt. Michaels in Arizona.

Dec. 12, 2010Grants blows away the competi-

tion to easily take gold at theLady Jaguar Invitational at

Capital High School. In the threewins includes a 70-51 victoryover district champ Deming.

Jan. 28, 2011A decisive victory, 43-27,

over Albuquerque Academy,the split district champ,

would guarantee a higherseed over a second district

champion.

March 4, 2011Hosting the first round againstLos Alamos, the Lady Pirates

turned up the heat runningaway with the contest 46-28

and moved onto The Pit for thefirst time in half a decade.

March 10, 2011In a David and Goliath situation, Grants came

out looking timid for three quarter againstKirtland Central. The Lady Pirates awoke fromtheir slumber to pour in 16 straight points in thefourth quarter. Roaring to life, the Lady Pirates

just ran out of time in the final four, losing 53-49.

Nov. 30, 2010Grants visits top-tier

school Piedra Vista andtakes the game to thewire, leaving coaches

around the state wonder-ing if the lackluster pro-gram had a fluke game.

Mid-December, 2010Piedra Vista had the whistle

blown for using ineligible play-ers turning two of Grants

recorded losses into victories.The Lady Pirates new recordwas 9-0 and eventually turned

into 14-0.

March 8, 2011In the elite eight, Espanola Valleywas scrappy and erased a nine-point deficit at the half. The Lady

Pirates mounted a comeback in thewaning moments of the game, whenZeller nailed a shot to send the team

to the semi-finals, 38-37.

Fall of 2009Eighth grade players are barred from play-ing in high school basketball programs in adecision made by Coach Walter Sarracino

at Los Alamitos Middle School. The decisionkept players like Brianna Fank, Roxanne

Autrey and Teige Zeller from valuable expe-rience until the following season.

2 Cibola County Beacon Tuesday, March 15, 2011

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GRANTS Calling theGrants Pirates girls bas-ketball teams season asuccess might be theunderstatement of theyear. Nobody could havefathomed that it wouldhave finished in the semi-final round of the statetournament, or could ithave?

New Head Coach BillMcLaughlin certainly hadhigh expectations, andwhen he now admits thatthe honeymoon is over,he is readily admitting thatother teams know that theGrants High School LadyPirates have arrived.

We asked the coach tograde his team this year,and some other questionsrelated to the season.

Cibola Beacon: Giveyour offense a letter gradeand explain why youarrive at this grade.

BM: C+; The systemwas a big change for ourteam from what they ranin the past. They had beenprimarily a set play teamfocusing on one or twoplayers, and we came inand installed a fastbreaksystem with a motionoffense. The motionoffense takes time to learn,especially how to read andreact to defenses. We real-ly only put in about 33 per-cent of the offense thisyear and the more com-fortable we become read-ing and reacting the morewe will be able to do. Wereally hope to see signifi-cant growth in our offensefrom the first year into thesecond year.

CB: Give your defensea letter grade and explainwhy you arrive at thisgrade.

BM: B; We did an out-standing job learning anddeveloping our amoebapress and Syracuse Zone.The girls learned quicklyhow to read the offenseand make adjustments onthe run. We only gave up50 points six times (sevencounting the first gameagainst Piedra Vista) andfinished 2-4 in thosegames. Next year, weshould be deep enough toreally turn up the pressureeven more.

CB: What will youteam have to improve onfor next year?

BM: We have to becomebetter at handling pressureand shooting the basket-ball. We will work on get-ting better, stronger andfaster in all aspects of thegame. We will work overthe summer at becomingbetter fundamentally, and

increasing our strengthand conditioning pro-gram.

CB: How "set" is yourteam roster wise for nextyear?

BM: We are returning 11out of the 14 players whosuited up for the districtand state tournaments. Allthe ladies will have towork to get better. We havea strong group of youngplayers on our JV and Cteams. The competition atpractice will be very toughand make us a better team.We will be extremely deepnext year. Our second fivewill be as good as mostteams first team.

CB: What other thingswill you do in the offsea-son?

BM: We will spend ourtime getting better funda-mentally, stronger andfaster. We are planning on

attending a couple ofteams camps; at AdamsState (Colo.) and eitherMesa State (Colo.),Highlands, or EasternNew Mexico. We will alsobe attending a roundrobin tournament atMiyamura High Schooland the New MexicoHigh School CoachesAssociation round robintournament during theNMHSCA All-StarWeekend. In addition tothe camps and tourna-ments, our players will beput on a strength and con-ditioning program as wellas a shooting program. Anumber of our playerswill be playing AAU ballthis summer gaining expe-rience against various lev-els of competition.

Our summer goal is tobecome better, faster andstronger.

Coach gives passing gradeson girls court performance

By Ron GonzalesBeacon Correspondent

BEACON / TESHIMACoachBill McLaughlin demonstrates proper passing technique in this file photo.

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BEACON / ROMEROThe Grants girls varsity basketball team, front, from left, are:Manager Ana Ibarra, Sydney Carpenter, Micaela Rougemont,Marina Autrey, Sydney Mares, Roxanne Autrey, MyrandaRodriguez and Assistant Coach Molly Carpenter. Back, fromleft, are: Head Coach Bill McLaughlin, Katherine Tillman,Kalleen Shutiva, Briana Fank, Julie Gallegos, Teige Zeller andKyla Elkins.

BEACON / ROMEROKyla Elkins, left, put up some crucial shots throughout thestate tournament at The Pit. Elkins played on a hurt knee dur-ing the season, depicting the teams grit. Lady Pirate SydneyMares, above, handled the offense for the final four con-tender. Mares intesity was magnified on the floor of The Pit,where players are made or broken. She exploded for 19 in thefinal four against Kirtland Cenral.

LAGUNA-ACOMA The Hawks of Laguna-Acoma High Schoolendured a trying year thatended on about a highnote as one could hope for,a shot at the state title.

The schedule strength ofthe Hawks was called intoquestion as the 2A teambattled five 1A contestsand came away with fourwins, which are nearlymeaningless to the seedingcommittee. The Hawksonly faced two 2A schoolsoutside of their districtand beat unranked Cuba.However, the Hawks wentup against seven 3Aschools and won three ofthose contests.

Of those, the significantwins were over 12th-ranked (1A) ToHajiillee,16th-ranked (1A) Ramahand 16th-ranked (3A)Zuni.

Coach Emmett Hunttalked about beefing upthe schedule, but the ques-tion remains, will theyhave the money?

In district play, the pairof wins over 16th-rankedEstancia was a must to getinto the state tourney asthe 3-2A District runners-

up.The Hawks got a 15

seed and was pairedagainst a beatable twoseed Mora in the firstround. In a short weekprior to the game, theHawks lost a key starterfor disciplinary reasons, a

beloved junior varsityplayer to death andAustin Jones to injury.

C.J. Douma, MikeSaavedra, Mike Aguinoand Kevin Cheresposy putup a valiant fight in the 86-63 loss at Mora. Thatgroup of seniors moves on

to make way for the nextgeneration led by Jonesand Josh Paytiamo, soph-omores.

Big names coming upfrom the second string willbe the likes of ChristopherSalvador, Augustus Cuchand Isaac Gallegos.

A wild card is eighthgrader Ryan Arkies val-ued height of six feet andgrowing, which couldland him a spot inside thepaint with some off-sea-son tuning. Another isDavid McGee, the bulkyeighth-grader was

brought up to varsityafter displaying excep-tional speed and ball han-dling technique. The onlysenior on next yearsyoung squad is TrevorHunt, who saw playingtime off the second stringthis year.

GRANTS Wrappingup a season always seemsto be tough endeavor. Butwith the high school ver-sion of March Madnessnow done and gone, its aroad that must be crossed.

For the Grants Pirates,the year started with somuch promise includinga top-10 ranking to beginthe year, which wasntexactly a welcome num-ber.

Our players were disap-pointed with that rankingwhen polls came out,Grants Head CoachMarty Zeller said at thetime. But with the smallschool we are, people arestarting to understandsomething about us.

Soon, their opponentsunderstood that thePirates were all aboutproving their detractorswrong: they went 10-0 in2010, and had wins overstate tourney-bound teamsPojoaque, Santa Fe andSt. Pius X, the latter ofwhich ended up in thesemifinals of the 4Abracket.

By the end of 2010, theirundefeated record seemedto have paid off for thePirates, as they climbed toa number five spot in theNew Mexico High SchoolCoaches Association poll,their highest such ranking

since Zeller took over forthe converted 3A pro-gram.

Unfortunately, thatmove either raised expec-tations of the team toohigh, or misplaced thePirates. Their detractorscomplained all seasonabout the pre-District 6-4A parade of patsies onthe schedule, in referenceto teams like Bloomfield,Dulce and Moriarty. Andthough they were all wins,this theme seemed tohaunt the Pirates all theway through the seasonsconclusion.

As the new yeardawned, the Pirates weresaddled with their first loss to eventual 3A runner-up Sandia Prep butquickly rebounded withwins over 5A Rio Grandeand another over statetourney participantKirtland Central, whichalmost upset top-seededGallup in the first round.

Then came the Piratessecond loss, to Capital, ina close game that thePirates admit should havebeen theirs to win. It wasthe second opportunity forGrants to earn a qualitywin, but alas they justcouldnt quite pull it out.

Prior to the Capitalgame, the Pirates haddropped to sixth in thepolls (following theSandia Prep loss) and the

loss to Capital sent themto seventh, and in theweeks to come, the bigwin continued to eludeGrants.

The Pirates lost twice toGallup late in the regularseason here again ingames that were winnable and they continued theirslide down the rankings,eventually falling to thenumber nine spot at theoutset of the regular sea-son.

Then, they had yetanother chance to beat theBengals in the District 6-4A tournament, but the

futility continued, and itultimately cost them achance to host a first-round state tournamentgame. At least that was thefeeling when the seedingcommittee sentencedthe Pirates to head toRoswell for the secondtime in four years to battlethe Goddard Rockets.

The outcome of thestate tournament doesraise a couple of questionsregarding the Piratesplace in it.

The Rockets needed twoovertimes to beat thePirates by one point. That

win set up an 18-pointquarterfinal win over top-seeded Gallup, then a 27-point win over PiedraVista in the semifinals forGoddard. Eventually, theRockets played in the titlegame, and by all accountshad the game in theirhands before EspanolaValleys Rodney Colestook over.

Taking all of this intoconsideration, the Piratesloss to Goddard set abouta series of events benefi-cial to the Rockets. Buthow will this years statetournament loss in a

year where so much prom-ise was held affect thePirates of next year?

Surely, the losses of fiveseniors, Landon Chavez,Richard Fortenberry,Eddie Gonzales, ChrisLopez and Legus Losito,can never be positive. Butwith their highest seedingever at the state tourna-ment, the Pirates did treadnew waters this season.

What lies ahead? Will itbe choppy waters orsmooth sailing? November2012 is right around thecorner to reveal theanswers.

BEACON / FILEThe Grants boys varsity basketball team, front, from left, are: Denis Moleres, Daniel Chavez, Byron McLaughlin, DamionWillie, Reuben Hands and Legus Losito. Back, from left, are: Logan Lewis, Weston Zeller, Richard Fortenberry, EddieGonzales, Landon Chavez, Chris Lopez and Head Coach Marty Zeller.

BEACON / FILEThe Laguna-Acoma boys varsity team, in no particular order, is: Michael Aguino, Ryan Arkie, Anthony Carpio, Kevin Cheresposy, Augustus Cuch, CliffordDouma, Isaac Gallegos, Trevor Hunt, Austin Jones, Ian Lewis, Martin Molina, Josh Paytiamo, Christopher Salvador, Scott Small and Jayden Tiller. The teamis coached by Emmett Hunt.

4 Cibola County Beacon Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Pirates season a mix of highs and lows

L-A Hawks welcomed back to 2A tourney

By Ron GonzalesBeacon Correspondent

By Mark TeshimaBeacon Staff Writer