Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CLOVIS — There’s no way to sugar-coat the weather at Clovis’ Monday-afternoon football practice. It was stinking hot, hovering near triple digits throughout. The Wildcats took precautions, though, with coaches parked under hats that should’ve had their own zip codes, and players getting regular water breaks. Ghastly as the heat was, the ’Cats were out there hoping to stay hot — figuratively, that is — as they try to follow up last Friday’s 42-16 season-opening victory over Ho...
It’s Week 2 already for some teams. Week 1 for Farwell. The teams in the former category — Texico and Elida — are trying to go 2-0, and each face tough teams standing in their way of doing so. Dexter (1-0) at Texico (1-0), Friday, 7 p.m. A win for the Wolverines would put them at 2-0 for the first time since 2012. That year, they started 8-0. But this year’s team will just worry about getting win No. 2 and go from there. Heading to town for the Texico home opener is Dexter, a defending state 2A championship team that opened...
CLOVIS — Without even having to put in a full night’s work, the Clovis High football team clearly showed its dominance Friday against Hobbs. In a contest shortened 9 minutes and 5 seconds by relentless lightning and torrential rain, the Wildcats poured it on the rival Eagles, breaking open what had become a dicey game to notch a 42-16 victory at Leon Williams Stadium. “It’s always good to win your first football game and get off to a good start in the win-loss record,...
CLOVIS - The Clovis boys soccer team was hoping Friday would be the start of big things, lighting the fuse for a season that ends with a second consecutive lengthy playoff run. Though the Wildcats may yet have that long postseason run, the season did not begin as they had hoped. They lost a defensive battle against Sandia Prep, dropping their opener 1-0 at Yucca Middle School. But, the 'Cats didn't have to wait long to bounce back. The schedule had them right back at Yucca...
It was a big Friday for regional football teams, as Melrose, Texico and Elida all notched lopsided victories. There were successful head-coaching debuts for Texico’s Bob Gilbreath and Elida’s Jereme Woodruff, plus a memorable first-ever home game under the lights for the Tigers. Melrose 54, Dulce 0 ALBUQUERQUE — A victory is always worth the trip — even when it’s a three-hour trip and the win takes a little more than a half to complete. The Buffaloes journeyed northwest to neutral-site Menaul High School in Albuquerq...
Curry County volleyball is in a good place right now, with a five-time defending champion in Texico, a 2017 state champion and ’18 state finalist in Melrose, and a Grady team that posted a winning record last year and returns a solid contingent. Texico This year’s Lady Wolverines will be vying for their sixth-consecutive state championship, their 12th in the last 14 seasons, but will be doing so with a different team than the one that captured a fifth-straight state title last November. Among the players returning, sen...
CLOVIS — The Clovis volleyball team is on a mission this season. A mission to win? Yes, of course, like any team. But the Lady Wildcats are also on somewhat of a philosophical mission, a mission not to be ordinary, a quest to stand out. “Our theme for the year is ‘built different,’” Clovis volleyball coach Ruth Chavez said, “because I told (the players), ‘if you want to do great things, you can’t do what everybody else is doing. ... We have to go and do extra. ... We don’t want to be average. We want people to know that Clov...
CLOVIS — The night of Nov. 2, 2018 might be one the Clovis High football team may want to remember as among its best of last season. It was a game the Wildcats lost 10-7. Huh? Yes, the ’Cats did lose their final regular-season game and missed out on handing La Cueva its first loss of the season. Instead, the Bears prevailed and went on to become undefeated state 6A champions while Clovis was one-and-done in the playoffs and wound up 4-7. The Wildcats, though, were not onl...
PORTALES — What happens in August doesn’t necessarily stay in August. At least not as far as preseason football practices go. What happens in August can actually have a long-lasting effect on football teams. What goes right, how fast the players catch on, usually goes a long way toward a successful season, sometimes right on through to late autumn. If things don’t work, if the players don’t absorb what the coaches are trying to teach them, problems can arise as early as the...
CLOVIS — It was certainly a memorable 2018 season for Clovis High’s boys soccer team, which posted an 18-3-1 record while reaching the state 5A semifinals. But with that season, the bar crept a bit higher. “Oh yeah, that’s what we’ve been wanting to do,” Clovis’ 12th-year head coach Greg Trujillo said. “We were one of the top 10 teams in the state for a while, but when we were in that Albuquerque district we got knocked around. And it made us really step up our game.” The Wildcats stepped it up big time last year, and th...
CLOVIS — Friday afternoon’s Clovis football practice began under expanding blue skies and departing dark menacing clouds. Fitting, because the Wildcats’ first scrimmage was then just five days away, their first regular-season game a mere two weeks off. And like any team, the season’s approach can signal the coming of metaphoric clear skies along with some ominous ones. And like any team, Clovis hopes for more of the former than the latter. It was in literally clearing and sli...
PORTALES — Now well into the second week of August, there is still no new athletic director at Eastern New Mexico University. But, that is to be expected. The search is proceeding just about how university president Jeff Elwell thought it would in late June when Greg Waggoner resigned from the position, setting in motion the quest to find his replacement. Saturday afternoon, Elwell said the application process was complete, and that Eastern’s nine-person search committee ended up with a final pool of 38 coast-to-coast can...
TEXICO - For a spectator, the best part about Tuesday morning's Texico football practice was being able to watch it from the shade. Even for the Texico players who were out in the blazing sun, it was all good. They were practicing to play the game they love, the game they've played most of their lives. Practices began Monday, meaning the regular season isn't too far behind - it's a little more than two weeks, actually, before the Wolverines visit Jal for the 2019 opener. New...
CLOVIS — Football was back at Leon Williams Stadium Monday. There were no pads, there was no contact. The Hobbs players didn’t come jogging through their balloon tunnel out onto the stadium turf. But, Day 1 of Clovis High football practice was still a big thing. Monday was just 18 days before Hobbs does indeed come out onto the field ready to battle Clovis in the regular-season opener. That’s18 days, as in less than three weeks. As in two weeks from this Friday. As in, footb...
PORTALES — If you can breathe, walk, ride and buck, the Roosevelt County rodeo wants you. It’s mainly a youth rodeo that’s taking place at the Roosevelt County Mounted Patrol Arena in Portales this Saturday, but adults are more than welcome. “As long as they can ride, up to 99 (years old),” rodeo organizer JoAnna Provencio said. “We have different age groups.” It’s happening at 506 East Spruce Street in Portales, where the arena that was once abandoned has been resuscitated by a six-week rodeo Buckle Series and a separate...
Whenever the final seconds tick away on a football team's season, the players have all winter, all summer, all spring, to wait before they get another crack at it. Sure, there are offseason workouts, slices of football, team bonding and all that. But when fall practices officially start, the countdown to actual football is on. In Clovis' case, it's the countdown to facing Hobbs. Monday, that countdown begins, as teams from throughout the area get out on the practice field,...
Harvey Park hopes 13 is a very lucky number. Park is 12-2 as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter, and if he gets his 13th pro victory on Aug. 6, he will earn an invite to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It won’t be an engraved invitation, but it may as well be. For Park, reaching the UFC has been a goal since he began training 10 years ago after leaving the Navy. Park is fighting Venezuelan-born Omar Morales (7-0) in ‘Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series’ on Aug. 6 at Las Vegas’ UFC Apex, a bout televised by...
McKINNEY, Texas — Fourth place is neither the penthouse nor the basement. And fourth is where the Eastern New Mexico football team was projected out of a nine-team field when the Lone Star Conference’s preseason poll was released at Monday’s LSC Media Day. Coming off a 5-6 season, Eastern New Mexico head football coach Kelley Lee will take the prediction — for now. But when it comes time to go out and do it on the field, Lee thinks his team is capable of so much more. “It’s n...
CLOVIS — If you one day see Javier Jimenez pitching in the majors, you might remember you read about him here when he was 10. Javier has a long, long way to go before he could even get a whiff of pro ball. But, he's on a good path, a path that future major-leaguers once dug their cleats into when they were just kids. Javier is part of USA Baseball, which the Clovis resident and his family hope will lead him to the national youth team that will compete next year against t...
CLOVIS — When Anya Hammond first came into the world, she didn’t have a sister. That lasted for 1 minute and 10 seconds. Then, Anya was joined by her twin Maya, and the pair has been close to inseparable ever since. Oh, they’ve had their own personalities, separate interests, especially when they lived in Albuquerque. Since moving to small-town Clovis, however, they’ve had to run — and swim — in the same circles more often than not. The Hammonds have been integral parts of Cl...
Quick, now. What comes to mind when you think about University of California athletics. Aaron Rodgers? Jared Goff? If you’re old enough you probably remember when Cal football’s kick-return laterals beat Stanford while New Mexico native Joe Kapp was coaching the Golden Bears. If you’re older still, you might remember when Kapp was California’s quarterback. Cal men’s basketball? Kevin Johnson likely comes to mind. “KJ” in 1992 became the first California men’s basketball play...
Division I college basketball is a grand stage no matter what size the school. Consider Oklahoma's Southwestern Christian University kind of off-Broadway. It's the elite level but in a smaller setting. And in that setting, 2018 Clovis High graduate Jakeem Wynn will continue his basketball career with the NAIA school. Wynn recently signed a letter of intent to attend Southwestern Christian in Bethany, Oklahoma, where he will play point guard in the Sooner Athletic Conference....
PORTALES — This was one of those times where there was room to get it right. There will be plenty more times, plenty of preseason practices and scrimmages between Friday’s Seven-on-Seven Tournament and Lineman Challenge at Greyhound Stadium and the start of high school football season late next month. But Friday was a fairly important preseason milepost, a chance for coaches to see what’s good, what’s bad, what needs tweaking, how their skill players might be looking early....
PORTALES — Athletes come, athletes go. Fade out, fade in. That’s the story for collegiate athletics. A good crop comes in and it’s soon time to bring in a fresh batch of recruits. Eastern New Mexico cross country/track & field head coach Jeff Kavalunas is quite pleased with this year’s batch. Earlier this week ENMU announced the signing of 23 athletes who will compete for the university’s cross country and/or track & field teams, a diverse group that includes athletes from Israel, Nebraska, Arizona and Colorado, plus athl...
J.D. Hipp is not the father of 16-year-old Mikaela Snider nor 11-year-old Kailie Wieland. But he’s like a proud papa this month just the same. Hipp serves as gymnastics coach for Snider and Wieland. Each gymnast competed in the 2019 USA Gymnastic Championships during the first week of July at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, and each turned in memorable performances. Snider of Clovis reached the finals and finished top-eight there, “which is a big deal,” Hipp said, “because the U.S. Olympic team will come out of the eli...
