Heat of the Moment: NM’s newest 7×7 travel team is red hot

The Heat is on in Albuquerque. The state’s newest 7-on-7 travel team is the New Mexico Heat, which like New Mexico Legacy is based in Albuquerque. Head coach Isaiah Brown, an assistant at Cibola, organized the Heat about a month or so ago and they’ve already participated in a pair of tournaments in Dallas and Phoenix. At the Dallas tourney, the Heat reached the final eight in its bracket, finishing 8^th out of 38 teams. “We made a couple of plays and definitely got better in Dallas,” Brown told Prep Redzone New Mexico. “We fell two games short of the championship. But it was fun and exciting.” In addition to his duties as Cibola assistant coach, Brown is also a personal trainer and has worked with many of the Heat’s players over the past few years. “I’ve been training a lot of our guys for the past two years straight,” Brown said. “I started out as a trainer and then I became a high school football coach. I kept wanting to do more with the players. So, I said let’s take this to the next level and travel, go out of town and compete and represent the state.” The Heat’s roster consists mainly of players from (in alphabetical order)  Albuquerque High, Cibola, Eldorado, Volcano Vista and West Mesa, with a heavy emphasis on the latter school. The roster includes QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="275488" first="Elijah" last="Brody"]</strong> (still attending Cleveland HS but could transfer to West Mesa to join his father Landrick, the new head coach of the Mustangs), 2022 QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26242" first="Daniel" last="Ayala"]</strong> (signed with Eastern NM), WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="138047" first="Chris" last="Johnson"]</strong> (West Mesa), DB/WR <strong>Chris Jinzo</strong> (West Mesa), WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="26249" first="Tim" last="Drennan"]</strong> (West Mesa), DB twins <strong>Zebadiah Thompson</strong> and <strong>Zedekiah Thompson</strong> (West Mesa), S <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="274989" first="Juelz" last="Hartzog"]</strong> (Volcano Vista), CB <strong>Nomar Alfaro</strong> (Cibola), WR/CB <strong>Ricky Martinez</strong> (West Mesa) and LB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="269929" first="Joseph" last="Saavedra"]</strong> (Albuquerque High). Brown told Prep Redzone New Mexico that La Cueva WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208744" first="Exodus" last="Ayers"]</strong>, arguably the state’s top 2023 WR prospect, is also a member of the Heat but was in Tacoma, WA last weekend participating in another 7x7 tournament. He played for the Heat in the Dallas tournament. Both Legacy and the Heat are headed to different national tournaments on the weekend of April 23-24. Legacy will go to Scottsdale, Ariz. (a suburb of Phoenix) for the Legends Showcase, while the Heat will travel to Las Vegas for the Pylon Mecca II tourney. Both teams battled last Sunday afternoon at La Cueva High School and definitely put on a show with some entertaining 7x7 action. “The future of 7-on-7 is this state is exciting,” Brown said. “A lot of our kids are getting exposure. And the development and confidence they get from doing this is second to none.” https://twitter.com/chris_2_shifty/status/1512884605195636739 https://twitter.com/suavericky13/status/1512149973760102411 https://twitter.com/jhayesfilms/status/1511496908572876801