POJOAQUE VALLEY, ESPANOLA VALLEY, HIRE AND FIRE ON THE SAME TRACK

Well, here we go again, Pojoaque Valley down the same road as Espanola Valley in quickly hiring and firing athletic team coaches, but this time the green and white settled for its path to athletic director.

As the norm, the applicants for the position was long, this time the list stretched to 16 when it was announced on June 21. And after all that, who knows how long this latest athletic director will last.

As with Espanola Valley, which we will call the red and yellow, it’s not only that position that has come and gone, no you’re way off base if you’re thinking that, for it’s a mess of them that go way back.

Drum roll first, the newest AD for the Elks/Elkettes athletic programs is Mark Mutz, who has been hanging around checking out athletic department openings since serving as the Santa Fe High assistant principal that he resigned as in 2021. In this short span, he took up construction, classroom teaching, but when the Pojoaque position opened up again, he put his name on the list.

Now that’s the usual list that came in a short time since Matt Martinez retired after about 20 years as athletic director at Pojoaque in 2017. Also head coach of the girls basketball team that won a state championship and lost only three times in a 3-year span on the sidelines back then. After a short time of retirement, he applied for the AD opening at Rio Rancho Cleveland High and accepted the position in 2018.

Quickly, yes quickly, his former office at Pojoaque was taken. In came another named Matt Martinez, no relation, but he didn’t hang around long as he became interim athletic director at Santa Fe Indian School, and James Branch took that position until Indian School named native applicant Eric Brock as its new athletic director.

To get back on the Pojoaque trail, Elvira Crockett, known to have limited knowledge of athletics, especially at Pojoaque Valley, selected there to replace Kevin Garcia after he resigned after one year, and after she announced her resignation after two years, Pojoaque superintendent Sondra Adams wrote in an email on June 12 that interviews had been completed, but no new name was announced. Plus, Adams did not answer phone calls regarding the subject.

Then a Facebook post from board member Adam Muller sent the applicants list through again.

And up popped Mutz, the same Mutz who decided to replace long-time head volleyball coach Sam Estrada at Santa Fe High with assistant coach Josie Adams. All that’s water under the bridge and Estrada is now happily retired.

But up at Pojoaque Valley brings Mutz, its fourth athletic director since the long-time Matt Martinez retired from there five years ago.

Not to go through the many hit-and-run coaches at the Elks/Elkettes, there were some who had good seasons, but were gone in short order, one spending only two years coaching boys basketball before he was replaced by a coach who also lasted a short time. Interesting that Ron Drake spent a short time coaching girls basketball at Espanola before he was replaced, then took the same role at Pojoaque for another short stay before being  replaced.

Administrative problems at Pojoaque weren’t nearly as bad as at Espanola, where twice-interim athletic director Theresa Flores worked under Espanola superintendent Bobbi Gutierrez and went through coaches like they were going out of style. After two years there as head boys basketball coach that included a berth in the state finals, James Branch was let go by Flores, head girls coach Joe Estrada is still there but also hanging on, Gutierrez was fired after interfering with the going investigation of boys head basketball coach Richard Martinez.

Martinez is gone, as is head football coach Miguel Medina, who promptly resigned after losing to visiting Santa Fe High on a last-play field goal in which he stormed the field arguing that there wasn’t any time left on the game-winner. Head volleyball coach Damon Salazar is no longer working the sidelines at Espanola, still wondering why he was not rehired. Then there’s Joey Trujillo, who as present head boys basketball coach at Espanola, and who had the same role before that at Pojoaque, was also on the present list of those applying for the AD position just gobbled up by Mutz.

Oh, and can’t forget John Michael Brooks, a former teacher at Espanola Valley, he’s also on the list. Same with Kelly Horn, the Gear-up director for the Espanola school district also on the list. Can there be better things at one valley school over the other? Well, they both travel the same route, so there’s not much difference.

Names and more names that include a dearth of assistant coaches at both schools. Johhny Abeyta, Matthew Abeyta, Jesus Maes, plus Phillip Roybal, who is no longer an athletic director with the Sundevils.

And south of these two schools is where we know who the athletic director is, Matt Martinez, and he currently is safe and sound.