1st Friday: Cougars finally ditching soft imageBy
James Staley (Contact) Terrance Motley, Cibola's 265-pound offensive lineman, is helped back to the field by 140-pound wide receiver Brent Jorgensen after halftime at Milne Stadium against Highland.
As much as anything, the Cibola Cougars are haunted by their
history, defined by their tradition of failing to build any
tradition. The Cougars are so often vanilla, bland, average, almost or
second-ran when there is no reason for them to be this way. They are the Pillsbury Dough Kids of the gym, the diamond, the
turf, the whatever. The Cougars' laundry list of faults has never been limited to
football, but if there is a poster child for what Cibola has failed
to grasp, it probably is this sport and the labels placed upon it: Cougars are soft. Cougars are underachievers. Cougars don't win big games, district titles or state
championships. Cougars don't beat football teams from the South. The history of Cibola doesn't contradict the veracity of the
list. The underachievements of the athletics program once billed as
"La Cueva of the West Side" can be traced through a list of almosts,
exposed through a belly of softness. But maybe, in football, not any more. "When I came here, I was told by many, many people that those
Cibola kids are soft," said Ralph "Judge" Chavez, the first-year
Cougars coach. "I addressed that in our first meeting. I told them I
heard they were soft and I didn't believe it. "Maybe that all goes back to expectations. Maybe that goes back
to the perceptions of Cibola in general - that Cibola can't win the
big ones." Cibola football (10-2) has won some big ones this year and lost
some. Most importantly, the Class 5A playoffs are in the semifinal
stage and the Cougars are still dancing. They play Alamogordo at 7 tonight at Milne Stadium. It is
Cibola's first berth in the semifinals in 21 years. The Cougars' 10
wins are a school record. "I didn't think so much would happen in one year," said Cougars
senior Joe Lehocky. "It's been drastic. I wish I had one more year
with these coaches. It's great to see what has happened." What happened to Cibola football was Judge Chavez. A coach
motivated to take a wannabe team to a higher level. A coach that
simply believed in doing things the right way, the hard way. Chavez came to Cibola after 17 years at Highland. He made the
jump because he needed a change. He also saw a better chance. It wasn't that Highland was void of talent. That was proven by
the 10-2 Hornets team that lost to Cibola 24-20 Friday in the 5A
quarterfinals. But that game also exposed what Chavez saw at Cibola that he
didn't see at Highland: numbers, bigger bodies, depth. The Cougars beat Highland for several reasons but one reason was
Cibola simply wore the Hornets down. Chavez said a good season at Highland produced about 70 football
players. He had about 170 put on the pads at Cibola - a season that
produced a varsity state semifinalist, a undefeated JV team, an
undefeated freshman team. The Pillsbury Dough Boys of football are becoming a tough chew. "It takes time," said Philip Lovato, Cibola's defensive
coordinator, who coached at La Cueva from 1995-2004. "At La Cueva,
it took us years to break through. "Here, people see what is happening, see what is coming up and
they say wait until next year and the next year after that. But
we're in it this year." Lovato, who supervised a lot of the weight work at La Cueva, was
one of the new line of Cibola coaches who recognized what to attack
- the softness, the attitude, the work ethic. "We had all these big kids with no strength, no explosiveness,
none of that stuff," said Lovato. "We started with a mind-set. We
told them they had to respect what the weights could do for them. "I think a lot of these kids had the same attitude you'll find at
any high school: `We're the best and nobody can beat us.' But they
needed to learn how to get to work." Said Cibola quarterback Jonathan Mader: "We lifted before, but
never that intense. I don't think we've ever had coaches who expect
so much out of us." Said Lehocky: "When we went to the weight room, it was a shock.
We left there dead tired and we were sore for weeks." The weight room has its off-season values. Players get bigger.
Players get stronger. But the iron is also a teaching tool. It
teaches you that hard work produces good results. Now, Chavez and his staff had to carry that over to the football
field. "We told them that we heard Cibola kids were soft and that they
fall apart and don't finish," said Lovato. "Judge went in telling
them that if that's the way it was in the past, we don't know. But
it's not that way anymore." Said Cougars' Andrew Medina: "They told us we were going to win
and they made us believe it. Football is a lot harder than it used
to be. It's more structured, more intense and the coaches are on us
more. But we've seen the results." The Cougars came out of the 2006 gate strong. They roared to a
5-0 mark and were being mentioned in the same breath as Clovis,
Mayfield, Sandia and Highland. Cibola posted impressive wins over
Los Lunas (36-18), Rio Grande (30-14) and O¤ate (24-7). The Cougars hit a minor bump on Oct. 7, losing 21-13 at Milne to
Clovis. But they came back to edge La Cueva 21-14. The stunner was the final game of the regular season - a clash
with West Side rival Rio Rancho High School. It was a game Chavez
had pointed to long before the season began. It was an important game, a step Cibola needed to make in order
to change the also-ran image of Cougars football. The game wasn't a contest. The Cougars went soft, losing 34-14.
The district title went to Rio Rancho. Coach Chavez left that game confused. Was it too much to expect
the Cougars' attitude to change in a single season? Was this another
Cibola team not ready to finish? "I would have bet everything I owned that we were ready to win
that game," Chavez said. "I think we fell into that thing where the
kids realized on some level that Rio Rancho was beating us in every
sport. "It was like we felt we couldn't beat them." Chavez was surprised by the collapse to Rio Rancho, but the wily
coach knew what to tell his Cougars. "I think maybe the kids went back to some of their old thoughts.
They fell back and found their old selves." Lovato said. "We looked
intimidated against Rio Rancho. It seems like every sport here at
Cibola loses to Rio Rancho and maybe there was too much pressure on
us to stop that. "Judge just told the kids not to worry about it. That we'd still
be playing football when Rio Rancho turned in their pads." The Rams turned in their pads after a 24-14 first-round loss to
Rio Grande. Cibola nudged past a mediocre Hobbs team 15-12 to earn a
shot at a good Highland team - Chavez's old team. The Cougars again wear the pads tonight. "It takes time to change things," Lovato said. "The kids believe
in us and we believe in the kids. But there is a lot more that needs
to happen." Chavez's view of what needs to happen can be condensed,
simplified, into two words: time and wins. Chavez needs time - maybe seasons - for the changes in attitude,
work ethic and coaching to soak into the Cougars' collective psyche. The Cougars also need some big wins; need to learn how to earn
those big wins. They got one against Highland. They take another
shot tonight. It's a game that could lead to a championship. It's also a game
that adds to a foundation and maybe begins a tradition. "The teams that win championships talk about winning
championships. That's what they expect," said Chavez. "Their
programs are good all the way through because of those kinds of
expectations. "And we're getting there. That's what we are building." Richard Stevens is the Trib's deputy sports editor. You can reach him at 823-3663 or rstevens@abqtrib.com. Back to Jorgensenfamily.org Home Page |
