Recruiting New Mexico: WNMU eyes in-state talent (Part 2)

Tasked with transforming D-II Western New Mexico University football into a consistently winning program, third year head coach Frank Tristan is taking a different approach than his predecessor by actively recruiting in-state players for the Mustangs. In 2017, the final season for Adam Clark in Silver City, WNMU had just 10 players from the Land of Enchantment, 42 from the state of California. Because of graduation and other factors, the number of New Mexico players on the Mustangs’ roster fell to seven in 2018 and 2019 before jumping to 18 on the current 2020 roster. Of those 18 New Mexico products, 16 are freshmen or sophomores. Clearly, Tristan and his staff are focused like a laser beam on bringing capable New Mexico players to WNMU as they seek to revitalize a program that last had a single season record of .500 or better in 2006. “Obviously, we have New Mexico in our name, so we’d better be recruiting New Mexico,” Tristan told Prep Redzone New Mexico. Tristan and his staff recruit mostly within a four-hour radius of Silver City, meaning most of New Mexico, Tuscon, Phoenix, El Paso and portions of West Texas are all fertile recruiting territory for the Mustangs. “If we get a player within four hours, his parents can come to Silver City on a Saturday for a game and he can go back home for a weekend,” Tristan said. “We think that’s a home run.” Tristan travels the state of New Mexico twice a year visiting various high schools in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Las Cruces and other hot spots in search of talent. “I go around the state and try to hit as many schools as I can,” Tristan said. “We’ve had some success. This is my third fall with Western New Mexico and this is by far the most New Mexico kids we’ve had on the roster. Right now, about 30 percent of our roster is New Mexico players, which is really good for us.” Tristan is steadily changing the perception about the WNMU program within the state, but still faces hurdles – and some reluctance - in convincing players to come to Silver City, situated on the southern edge of the Gila National Forest in rural southwestern New Mexico. “We swing and miss a lot on New Mexico kids because we’re kind of away from everything,” Tristan said. “We’re 2-1/2 hours from El Paso and 2-1/2 hours from Tuscon, but we’re four hours from Albuquerque. We know we haven’t had much success in the Lone Star Conference. Some kids will go to Eastern New Mexico because they’re closer to home and they’ve been winning. So, I don’t blame them. “We’ve given offers to guys at some of the big schools like Rio Rancho and Cleveland and Volcano Vista, but we’ve swung and missed on all of them. Part of that  is the distance. Some of them prefer to walk-on at UNM because it costs about the same or go to junior college and pursue the dream of playing Division I football. Recruiting is very competitive.” Prior to arriving at WNMU shortly after the 2017 season, Tristan was the head coach at Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU), located 30 minutes south of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. He quickly discovered recruiting the state of New Mexico was different than the North Texas region, where the population is counted in the millions. “As I’ve traveled the state, there is not a ton of football players in general because there is not as many schools,” Tristan said. “There is not as many fish in the pond. But we’ve done well (recruiting NM) so far and we want New Mexico kids.” Tristan has also found that once they get a New Mexico player on campus, he’s usually ‘all in’ with the demands of playing college football “Two things we’ve seen with the New Mexico guys we have here is they consistently work hard and they haven’t reached their full potential,” Tristan said. “A lot of our players from New Mexico played multiple sports in high school, which is a great thing. Their ceiling is higher because they haven’t focused specifically on one sport.” Not surprisingly, the majority of New Mexico players on the current WNMU roster are form Southern New Mexico. Five (see below) are from Carlsbad, two from Socorro and two from Las Cruces, while others came from Hatch Valley, Portales and nearby Silver High School. Three graduated from Albuquerque High Schools, including WR Jack Blakenship, who played on Manzano’s 2017 Class 6A state championship team. Last season’s second leading tackler, James Lee, graduated from Class 3A Cobre High School in Bayard, NM, a short distance from Silver City. Lee is currently trying to make inroads into the rough-and-tumble world pro football and recently had a tryout with a spring league team. "We’ve gotten some small town players,” Tristan said. “It’s still kind of regional in New Mexico. If you’re going to stay in-state, you might as well go to a school closer to home.” That could hold true for one of the most dynamic dual threat quarterbacks in the state. 2021 prospect [player_tooltip player_id="26201" first="Walker" last="Wenzel"] attends Silver High School, located down the street from the WNMU campus, and the Mustangs were the first (and still only) college to offer the potential program-changing prospect. Like some Div. II schools, WNMU is waiting until the spring to play games. Right now, the Mustangs are scheduled to play New Mexico Highlands on Feb. 20 in the first of what they hope will be a five or six game spring schedule. They will also travel to Portales to face ENMU in early March in what should be a battle of contrasting offensive styles. <strong>New Mexico Players on 2020 Western New Mexico Roster</strong>: Jalen Allen (Portales) Jonathan Barnett (Volcano Vista) Jack Blakenship, WR (Manzano) Andrew Bradford (Silver) Juan Chairez (Hatch Valley) Kyle Daniell (Carlsbad) Elijah Etheridge, LB (Carlsbad) Payson Hicks (Socorro) Trent Jones (Santa Fe) Enrique Martinez (Cibola) Crimson McKenzie (Carlsbad) Lucas McNatt (Capital/NMMI) David Melendez, DL (Las Cruces) Nate Najar (Carlsbad) Isaiah Perez, LB (Carlsbad) Jason Romero, DL (Socorro) Jonathan Soto (Centennial) Brendan Thrasher (Clayton) https://twitter.com/WNMUFootball/status/1307156943652356096 https://twitter.com/WNMUFootball/status/1306737286231408640 https://twitter.com/coachb_blevins5/status/1291361564264501248 https://twitter.com/WNMUFootball/status/1288649899861401600