Weekly News & Notes: Grants, Capital Hire New Coaches

Not so long ago, when he was a first-year college student, 24-year-old Brandon Hernandez caught the coaching bug. He was a freshman at New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas when he started helping coach the West Las Vegas boys basketball team. In 2017, after transferring to the University of New Mexico, Hernandez contacted nearly every school in Albuquerque and volunteered to coach. West Mesa football coach Ron McMath offered him an opportunity. He spent the next three seasons (2018-20) coaching the Mustangs, most recently serving as offensive coordinator. Then his alma mater, Grants High, called him home. Hernandez was named the new head coach of the Pirates earlier this week, becoming one of the youngest high school head coaches in New Mexico, if not the country. “It’s been a dream, for sure,” Hernandez told Prep Redzone New Mexico. “Especially coming in and taking over my alma mater. It’s a great opportunity. I don’t have a whole lot of time to sit here and think about it because we have to get right to work.” Hernandez plans to run a spread offense with four wide receiver sets, occasionally bringing an H-Back into the game. “We’re going to be reading defenders all the time,” Hernandez said. “I’m a firm believer in if they’re hard to block, they’re easy to read and if they’re easy to block, they’re hard to read.” Hernandez’s top priority, of course, is finding a quarterback in the wake of rising senior [player_tooltip player_id="26232" first="Brandon" last="Furbee"]’s transfer to Farmington. The leading candidate for the job is 6-foot-2, 190-pound rising senior [player_tooltip player_id="135109" first="Tyler" last="Everhart"], who played wide receiver and defensive back in the spring. “Tyler is probably our best overall athlete,” Hernandez said. “He’s got good size, he’s a great kid and he’s fast. He has some speed.” Except for Everhart and a few other seniors, Grants will be a young football team in 2021. The Pirates ended the spring season with 27 players. “We graduated a lot of talent and with Brandon transferring, that leaves a hole at quarterback,” Hernandez said. “We’re going to need some freshmen and sophomores step up and grow up quickly, a lot sooner than they normally would have.” <strong>NEW CAPITAL COACH NAMED</strong>: Capital High School in Santa Fe has promoted assistant Joaquin Garcia to Jaguars head coach. He succeeds Bill Moon, who resigned in May after compiling a 36-50-1 record with three district titles in nine seasons. Garcia has previous head coaching experience. He directed the West Las Vegas program for two years in the early 2000’s. Twenty years later, he’s a head coach again. Between 2002-20, Garcia served as an assistant at Clovis, St. Michael’s, Santa Fe and Capital. “ I feel like we need to build upon the tradition here at Capital,” Garcia told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “Butat the same time we have to kick it up a notch and do some different things, as well.” Garcia coached linebackers and running backs for Capital in his two seasons as an assistant under Moon. One of his major goals is expanding the roster. Capital had fewer than 40 players for the spring season after nearly two dozen players opted out after participating in workouts in 2020. <strong>NMAA CALENDAR RELEASED</strong>: The NMAA has posted the fall sports calendar on its website. Here are the key dates for football: Aug. 2 – Football practice begins Aug. 19-21: Week 1 Aug. 26-Oct. 30:  Weeks 2 thru 11 Oct. 30 – Playoff brackets released for Classes 2A-6A Nov. 5 – Classes 3A-6A First Round Nov. 12 – Classes 3A-6A Quarterfinal Round Nov. 19 – Classes 3A-6A Semifinal Round Nov. 27 – Classes 3A-6A State Championship Games <strong>NOTES</strong>: -- Rio Rancho RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26227" first="Zach" last="Vigil"] </strong>continued his camp tour this week with stops at Utah State (Tues), Weber State (Thur) and Colorado Mesa (Sat). His camp tour ends Monday at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Co. before he returns to Rio Rancho. -- 2022 Farmington QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26232" first="Brandon" last="Furbee"]</strong> also attended the Colorado Mesa camp yesterday. -- Carlsbad QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137916" first="Dane" last="Naylor"]</strong> and <strong>OL [player_tooltip player_id="134796" first="Ramon" last="Loya"]</strong> attended the Abilene Christian University camp in Texas on Saturday. 2022 Rio Rancho LB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26231" first="Lucas" last="Lucero"]</strong> was also the ACU camp. -- 2023 Albuquerque Academy QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137884" first="A.J." last="Rivera"]</strong> is camping at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA on Wednesday. -- Three Las Cruces players camped at Texas Tech on Monday: <strong>Luis Nevarez</strong>, <strong>Tre Evan</strong>s and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26230" first="Royce" last="Paulk"]</strong>. In addition, 2023 La Cueva QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137862" first="Aidan" last="Armenta"]</strong> participated in the camp and made some nice throws. 2023 Cibola DE <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="137935" first="Brayden" last="Mummert"]</strong> and 2022 Highland LB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135135" first="Abraham" last="Lopez"]</strong> were in Lubbock as well. Several players from Volcano Vista were at the Texas Tech camp too, including QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26247" first="Josh" last="Gerardo"]</strong>, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135101" first="Tyler" last="Martinez"]</strong>, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135097" first="Kaden" last="Valdez"]</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="135095" first="Kieran" last="Cordova"]</strong>. -- Four Santa Fe football players <strong>- Isaiah Madril</strong>, <strong>Dylan Tapia</strong>, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26265" first="Martell" last="Mora"]</strong>, <strong>Harrison Ostenberg</strong> – combined to capture the district title in the 4x100 relay. 2022 Santa Fe OL <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26271" first="Ben" last="White"]</strong> camped at Northwestern earlier this week. -- 2022 Jal OL <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26228" first="Roger" last="Carreon"]</strong> took an official visit to Boise State this weekend. https://twitter.com/CoachBranTheMan/status/1404599408604291074 https://twitter.com/capital_jaguar/status/1405756206132514818 https://twitter.com/zacharyvigil21/status/1406388611524698120 https://twitter.com/danenaylor13/status/1406444387962400768 https://twitter.com/ramonloya77/status/1406428826897317890 https://twitter.com/AidanArmenta/status/1404903850859929602 https://twitter.com/Abe58Lopez/status/1404614192112443395 https://twitter.com/demons_football/status/1406009226493763588 https://twitter.com/LukeWysong/status/1406349104322473985