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A lack of experience and depth will face new Pecos head boys basketball coach Arthur Gonzales

By Arnie Leshin 
Starting at the guards, No. 0, 5-foot-9 senior Willie Trujillo and No.13, 5-9 sophomore Jodaiah Padilla, at the forwards No.12, 5-9 sophomore Aidan Holton and No. 45, 6-0 junior Isaiah Sandoival, and in the post, No. 23, 6-foot senior Rolando Sandoval.
Sound familiar? If not, they will when the Pecos boys basketball team take the floor for the upcoming season. These are the five returnees off the roster that won four-straight state championships. Not from day one, but at least off the 2020 team that is graduating its five starters and and four reserves.
Which calls for a drum roll to introduce these five that return. Who knows, there could be some additions off the junior varsity, but as of now, this is what new head coach, Arthur Gonzales, will have to work with after assisting Ira Harge, Jr., for the last five seasons. Harge had become the new athletic director at Espanola Valley and Gonzales will now run the show that could be described as a new cast starting from scratch.
Gonzales’ son, Devin, an honor student who doubled as the school’s best cross country runner, was the recipient this year of a academic scholarship and will be heading to New Mexico State University to major in engineering. He and fellow starters Xavier Padilla, Ismael Villegas, Anthony Armijo and Juan Varela were the Panthers who made up the District 7-2A first team, plus Padilla, Villegas and Armijo were also selected to the state 2A first team, and Villegas also planning to join Gonzales at NMSU and to also major in engineering.
Gone and not forgotten, with Padilla and Armijo going four years at hoisting the state championship trophy and Villegas making varsity his junior season to complete the quintet with Varela and Gonzales.
Now it will be a new look for the Panthers and their fans who pack the Louis Sanchez gymnasium every game.
Now they will also be without graduates Keith Flores, Christian Tanuz, Jacob Sandoval and Aaron Ortiz.
In these four remarkable seasons in which Harges’ team compiled a 112-8 record after going 83-7 the first three years and posted a 28-1 record this past season that included one loss, an 8-point one to 5A Santa Fe High in the Al Armendariz tournament semifinals at Capital High, it was said that this team with little size could play with anyone, and it did with a rather tough schedule that included 3A, 4A and 5A schools.
Now Arthur Gonzales, a 1991 Panther graduate, gets his turn with an even smaller five, but with a vast familiarity of the program. It will again feature team play, aggressive defense, outside shooting, pressing, racing up court  and whatever it takes, but there will a big drop in experience. Of the probable new starters, Rolando Sandoval did score at a 4.8 clip last season and figures to be the go-to man, especially inside where the 6-3 Villegas was the main man.
Trujillo, who did have one quality campaign with the junior varsity, will need to regain his shooting touch, and Jodaiah Padilla, Xavier’s brother, showed signs of being strong underneath, was versatile, and could provide a big lift. After that, new head coach Gonzales will have to find ways to come out ahead in the manner the previous teams did. A big task for him as he checks out who played well for both the freshmen and JV teams last season, for depth could be a big problem.
As for Harge, he was a part-time coach who was also employed with a computer company, but when he learned he wasn’t to be rehired with the computer company, he decided to accept the position offered by the former Pecos superintendent of schools who is now at Espanola Valley.

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