Portales tabs Ruth Chavez for AD post

PORTALES — Ruth Chavez came back to Portales High School in 2020 to coach the Ram volleyball program for a second time.

Now, she’ll coach the entire PHS athletic program, with an upcoming promotion to the district’s athletic director position.

The move was announced during Monday night’s Portales Municipal Schools board meeting, with Superintendent Johnnie Cain telling the board, “I think she’ll be a really good addition.”

Chavez, who has also spent time as a track and field coach, said she is looking forward to having input across all of the PHS athletic programs.

“I was born to be a coach,” Chavez told the crowd after thanking Cain for his belief in her. “I know this is now the time to be a coach of coaches.”

Cain told The News Chavez would be the first female to hold the position. She will work for the next two months learning the role under current AD Mark Gallegos, who had put off plans to retire last year because he didn’t want to leave the district in a lurch less than four months into the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People would always tell me I’d be crazy to leave this job,” said Gallegos, who spent 26 of his 33 years in education at the Portales district, including the last nine as athletic director. “This is the best job in the state.”

Gallegos will spend his last few months with one more task — hiring Chavez’ replacement as volleyball coach.

Chavez first became Portales volleyball coach in 2001, following 14 years as an assistant under Brenda Stockton. Portales repeated as Class 3A champions in her first season, despite significant graduation losses. The Rams won three more state championships, and finished runnerup four other times — including three straight during Pojoaque’s 107-19 run of five straight championships.

Chavez retired after the 2015 season, but realized she missed coaching during her year off, and in 2017 took the open coaching position in Clovis.

After spending three years with the Wildcat program, she returned to her former post when successor Charity Gomez accepted an offer to coach at 5A Rio Rancho Cleveland.