The coaching carousel of high school sports landed on a pair of beauties this summer, the latest of which was Monday’s hiring of Stacy Fulgenzi as the new volleyball coach at West Las Vegas.
Fulgenzi, of course, had a celebrated run and wildly controversial ending as Robertson’s coach from 2016-19, leading the Cardinals to the state finals her first two years and building the foundation of what became the state championship team in 2019.
That last year saw her placed on administrative leave by Las Vegas City Schools less than a month before the start of the state tournament. She was later fired, then went through months of legal wrangling before her termination was upheld.
Fulgenzi moved to Albuquerque and appeared to be settling into a new life when West Las Vegas went searching for a new coach after Lori Vigil stepped down after her one and only season with the Lady Dons. Neither Las Vegas school played during the pandemic, meaning the last time anyone saw a high school volleyball team take the floor in the Meadow City was Fulgenzi’s rocky final season with Robertson.
She’ll have her hands full. West Las Vegas has gone 6-53 its last three seasons and hasn’t won a district match since 2017. Their last winning record came in 2015.
Fulgenzi’s hiring provides an instant spark to a program in dire need of one. It also injects even more spunk into a crosstown rivalry that is easily one of the best in the state. One of the most recent examples of leaving one school for the other was 2018 when Jose Medina ditched West’s green and gold for Robertson’s red in girls basketball, then leading the Cardinals to that year’s state championship.
It comes on the heels of this summer’s first carousel ride when Bill Moon left Capital’s football program for Santa Fe Indian School, opening the door for new Jaguars coach Joaquin “Wax” Garcia — whose wife, Natalie, is a lifelong close friend of Fulgenzi’s.
The Major League Baseball amateur draft isn’t what it used to be, but it got back to normal-ish this week with a two-day, 20-round event that had a couple of players from the state get picked.
Both come out of the University of New Mexico as Lobos shortstop Mack Chambers went in the 11th round to the St. Louis Cardinals and pitcher Justin Armbruester in the following round to the Baltimore Orioles. The draft has been considerably shortened the last two years, going just five rounds in a COVID-shortened 2020 and 20 this year. Past drafts have dragged on for three days and 60 rounds.
Chambers and Armbruester were two of 12 players from Mountain West Conference schools taken, led by San Jose State first baseman Ruben Ibarra in the fourth round to the Cincinnati Reds. According to his bio on the SJSU website, Ibarra enjoys hot yoga, yelling, pingpong and hanging with his “bromingos.” According to Adrian Ortega’s Facebook page, the two are cousins.
Ortega is a Robertson graduate and the two-time state championship boys basketball coach at Atrisco Heritage Academy.
Matthew Abeyta has been named the new athletic director at Española Valley, replacing Ira Harge. The school didn’t have to look far to find its new man as Abeyta had served as the dean of students before sliding into the spot Harge held for just one year.
Harge, who led Pecos to four straight state basketball titles before taking over as Española Valley’s AD, was named as the new athletic director at Escalante just a few weeks ago.
While their names and final roster spots are still a mystery, the Cowboys of New Mexico Highlands University at least have a travel itinerary they can hang their hats on. The football team finalized its schedule this month, announcing a 10-game regular season slate that has five games at home.
It all starts Labor Day weekend with the first of two road games. The Cowboys head to Fort Lewis on Sept. 4 in what will also be the college debut of former Capital running back and incoming Skyhawks freshman Luke Padilla. It’s followed by a Sept. 11 trip to Colorado School of Mines, which went undefeated the last time NCAA Division II had a full season in 2019.
The home opener will be Sept. 18 against Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado Mesa, a noon kickoff at Sanchez Family Stadium. Other home dates include Chadron State (Oct. 2), CSU-Pueblo (Oct. 16), Adams State (Oct. 30) and South Dakota Mines (Nov. 6).
The last time we saw NMHU was April 23; a 62-26 rout of Fort Lewis at home in what was the only game in the 2020-21 school year. That game teased at the potential of what’s to come in coach Josh Kirkland’s rebuilding project that featured more than a dozen Division I transfers — although no one could be sure because Kirkland didn’t want the roster publicized in fear of losing those players to bigger schools this summer.
