Former Lea County head football coaches find new positions

  Former Hobbs football coach Bruce Dollar and former Eunice coach Daniel Hutchins have both found new football coaching opportunities for next season.
  Dollar is the new head coach at Class 2A Alva in Oklahoma. Dollar, who resigned in November as Hobbs football coach, went 10-22 in three seasons with Hobbs, leading the Eagles to their only playoff win since 1982 in 2009.
  Alva went 5-6 last season, losing in the first round 42-18 to eventual state semifinalist Millwood.
Hutchins is the new assistant head football coach and offensive coordinator at Class 2A Friona High School in Friona, Texas.
  Hutchins in his lone year at Eunice last season led the Cardinals through an undefeated season until losing the Class 2A state title game to Santa Rosa. Following the season, Hutchins was informed by Eunice it wanted to go in a new direction with its football program.
  Friona went 3-7 last season and hired Mike Prokop earlier this month as its new head coach. Prokop coached at Texico from 2000-08 and led the Wolverines to three state titles. Prokop coached at Farwell, Texas, the previous two seasons – going 19-6.

NMAA to go to computer rankings, wood bats to stay

  Computer rankings are in, coaches’ polls are gone and wood bats are going to continue to be a part of Land of Enchantment prep baseball.
  The New Mexico Activities Association board of directors gave the green light Thursday to using the MaxPreps Freeman Rankings, replacing the New Mexico High School Coaches Association poll in the selection and seeding criteria for state tournament events.
  The NMAA also approved the continued use of wood bats for the near future, but I’ll get back to that later.
  My first thought when I heard the NMAA was going to the MaxPreps Freeman Rankings was of disapproval – that is until I did a little more research and remembered how the coaches’ polls had become more political than objective over the last year or two.

Summer is far from a break for Lea County prep athletes

Clayton Jones/News-Sun

Hobbs' Kennedy Sims goes up for a shot during

the Lady Eagles' team camp Saturday in Hobbs.

  Team upon team and player upon player poured into Tasker Arena this weekend to participate in the Lady Eagle Basketball Team Camp.
  Black, blue (of all shades it seemed), red, green and purple practice jersey-clad girls littered the legendary gym, its back gyms and the Hobbs Freshman School gyms from morning until evening Friday and Saturday.
  Hundreds participated in what is just the beginning of a busy summer ahead for prep athletes of all sports.
  While we often enjoy the fruits of their labor when their sports season comes around, it’s easy to forget the hours of work these players put in – particularly during the summer.
  It’s hardly a summer break.

NMJC men's hoops program shows growth with D-I signings

Clayton Jones/News-Sun

NMJC's Marvin Binney is signed to play at

Duquesne University next season.

  I wrote a story earlier this week in the News-Sun about a trio of New Mexico Junior College men's basketball players signed to play NCAA Division-I basketball next season – point guard Marvin Binney (Duquesne University), guard Alex Phillips (University of Nebraska-Omaha) and post Ryan Okwudibonye (Sacramento State). Likely it will be four if and when forward Dequan Hicks signs with someone (was signed with Missouri State).
  These signings show the growth of the program under third-year coach Chris Tifft. He's put his mark on the program, improving from 16-14 in his first season to 23-9 last season and taking the Thunderbirds to the Region V Tournament for the first time since 1998. More impressively, in Western Junior Conference Athletic Conference play NMJC has gone from 3-11 in 2009-10 to 10-4 last season, finishing tied for second with Howard College.

A few summer events for Lea County to look forward to

  I apologize for the delay in blog posts. With spring sports coming to a close, Memorial Day weekend (full of good food with a little yard work on the side) and refocusing for the summer - I was able to sneak a break away from the blog for a week-plus.
  But I'm back and thought I'd share some events for Lea County to look forward to and stay interested in this summer.
   – Hobbs Nite League basketball
  This is always a staple of the Hobbs summer. Numerous former Eagles come back and battle against the current guys - making for great entertainment through all of June and July. It's also a chance for the guys that are going to make up next season's Hobbs basketball team to start getting on the same page against quality competition. Also, the all-star event held around July 4 is always a good time.

Hobbs spring football: Practices conclude, transfer to watch

Brad Cox/News-Sun

Hobbs' Brandon Amaya runs with the ball during the

Eagles' spring practice Thursday at Watson Stadium.

  The Hobbs football team concluded its three-day spring practice session Thursday night at Watson Stadium, ending it with a 30-minute scrimmage.
  There was plenty of enthusiasm from the Eagles as they played in front of a few hundred people in attendance. First-year coach Charles Gleghorn signaled the offense, testing the Eagles' knowledge of his no-huddle spread attack, while defensive coordinator Mike Felicetti signaled from the sidelines the defensive calls.
  Hobbs had bright spots, particularly Brayden Price guiding his offense down the field for a score during the first possession of the scrimmage – going 3-for-5 passing and tossing a beautiful 30-yard slant down the middle for a touchdown. Price has the tools to have a break-out senior season, including a strong arm and the ability to make plays with his feet. It should be interesting to see how he grows under the coaching of Gleghorn – whose quarterbacks have put up huge numbers over the years.

Hobbs spring football: Transition to spread, QB routine, new uniforms

Clayton Jones/News-Sun

Hobbs' Donavon Fierro catches a pass during

the Eagles' spring practice Wednesday.

  The second day of Hobbs' spring football one-hour practices mainly focused on working on the short passing game – and by short I mean screens (with both wide receivers and running backs) and shovel passes as the Eagles transition to first-year coach Charles Gleghorn's pass-heavy spread offense.
  It's a dramatic transformation for Hobbs adjusting to this passing attack. Remember, Hobbs was a wing-T based, ground-and-pound offense the last three seasons (accounting for two of the top three rushing totals in program history).
  Last season the Eagles were 37-for-112 passing as a team for 420 yards in 10 games. Over the last three seasons, the Eagles have completed 81 passes for 1,319 yards.

  In contrast, Gleghorn’s Mesilla Valley Christian team last season was 211-for-336 for 3,426 yards through its first 10 games before going on to win the state title.