By Arnie Leshin
Just think of all the goodies that’s handed out to a new athletic director at Pojoaque Valley.
No problem in the two decades that Matt Martinez served in that roll. He just rolled up his Pojoaque sleeves and got down to business. The problem came when he announced he was retiring, and it didn’t take long before he became bored and was announced as the new athletic director at Cleveland High in Rio Rancho.
The annual Ben Lujan Memorial basketball tournament was a routine that fit into Martinez’ busy schedule. He took over after the tourney was introduced for girls only, and along with his years of coaching hoops at the school, four years later the boys were in the event, and Martinez welcomed this.
After he said he was retiring after the 2016 school year, in came Kevin Chavez as the new athletic director. He resigned after the next school year came around.
Next, Pojoaque brought in Matt Martinez, not the same Matt Martinez who was familiar to the area, but the one who had the same role at Capital High and at Santa Fe Indian School. And the other one was at the Storm.
And when the Lujan tournament came around this time, it was under the direction of a different athletic director for the last three years.
So be it, as long as the results are called in, but it’s frustrating when the new Martinez on the job fails to return one, two calls, but leaves his own return message. Great, the former Martinez always returned calls, but the present one became the opposite.
Now the popular event bounces in again Thursday morning. On Saturday’s final day, the boy’s seventh place game will have the early-rise to start the day at 9 a.m. At around 10:30 the girls play for seventh place. When the girl’s championship is scheduled for Saturday night, 7 o’clock, it will probably be running late. That usually happens at most tournaments.
There’s one undefeated team in the event, that being the Elkettes (7-0) and that is sure to boast the attendance. The girls do have four of the eight teams come in with winning records, that being Penasco at 5-1, Santa Fe Indian School at 3-1, Bernalillo at 6-4, Dulce at 4-2, and Santa Rosa is at 3-3. Rounding out the field is McCurdy (2-3) and winless Tierra Encantada (0-3).
But this is a good field, with half of it capable of hoisting the championship trophy.
The boys have only two schools in the fields with winning records, and they are Bernalillo and Monte del Sol at 4-2 each. The host school will bank on the 3-6 Elks, Escalante is 2-4, Menual is 2-5, and Mesa Vista and Indian School at 1-3 each, and Penasco is at 1-4.
Thursday Schedule:
BOYS – Penasco versus Menaul, 9 a.m.
Bernalillo versus Mesa Vista, noon
Indian School versus Monte del Sol, 3 p.m.
Escalante versus Pojoaque, 6 p.m.
GIRLS – Dulce versus Tierra Encantada, 10:30 a.m.
Bernalillo versus Penasco, 1:30 p.m.
Indian School versus McCurdy, 4:30 p.m.
Santa Rosa versus Pojoaque, 7:30 p.m.