Dora seeks improvement

DORA — Building a program as a first-year coach can be tough, but luckily for veteran coach John Wootton, he’ll be inheriting a Dora Coyotes team that won 20 games a season ago. The former 12-year coach of Fort Sumner — along with stops at Maxwell, Tatum, San Jon and Santa Rosa — is looking to put his philosophies in place and in the process, he hopes it leads to more winning.

“We’re hoping to push the ball,” Wootton explained. “We got some kids that like to run. Defensively, we want to give people something to look at, and we’d really like to run a full-court press, but we’ll probably start with a three-quarter court to begin the season.”

One of the challenges for Wootton this season, other than being the new coach, is that the Coyotes are still dealing with some injuries from football season. At this point, some of Wootton's players are slowly returning, and the healthier they get, the stronger Dora will become.

Last season, the Coyotes went 20-9 and played for a district title. This season, the key to success will start with senior leadership. Five seniors return, including Zach Dewbre, Slade Hammonn, Hayden Skinner, Xavier Granzow and Aaron Jasso.

That combination, along with junior Bradley Ramirez and sophomore Joseph Urioste, all have a chance to help take Dora to some special places once again this year. As for the Dora players making the successful transition to a new coach with new offensive and defensive schemes, Wooten believes it will take time.

“That’s a good question,” Wootton said. “Our goal is to try to (have them adjusted) by mid-January or early February. It all depends on how everybody buys in. We’re going to be blending in more young guys than last year.”

The Coyotes’ girls team was also pretty good a year ago. Fifth-year coach Gabe Montoya knows that this year’s challenge will be about “getting over the hump,” more than anything.

The Coyotes went 18-11, and suffered many of their losses to top teams. In fact, according to Montoya, his team lost twice to Eunice, twice to Elida, and split with Tatum. As a result of a district tournament loss, the Coyotes fell from the No. 5-seed in the 2A state tournament to the No. 12-seed, sinking their hopes right off the bat.

For Montoya, playing tough 2A-District 6 foes like Fort Sumner and Logan as many as five or six times last year made the 2016-17 season a tough road, and he knows all-too-well that things won’t get any easier in ‘17-18.

Nonetheless, expectations are high, “We have five seniors — three played varsity as eighth graders, and overall, we have a lot of experience back,” Montoya explained. “We had a great summer and we should be in the mix in the state’s toughest district. A successful season for us would just be making it to Albuquerque (second round of state tournament), because the two previous years we struggled to make it with our district.”

Four seniors will offset a young and inexperienced bench. Leading scorer Jaiden Paxton returns for her senior campaign, as she averaged 22 points per game and 43% from 3-point range a season ago.

Joining her is fellow senior Brenna Bates, who has started since her freshman year and got a lot of minutes as an eighth grader. In fact, Montoya says she “controls everything.” As for Montoya’s philosophies, don’t expect things to change much this year.

“Defensively, I’m known for running a lot of zone and matchup zones,” Montoya said. “We run a fast tempo on offense, and we like to slow it down on the defensive end.”