Congrats to All-Metro diamond picks
Six city high school baseball players and seven softball players earned postseason recognition on the Albuquerque Journal’s All-Metro teams.
In baseball, Rio Rancho High School second baseman Vascon Smith was the lone first-teamer.
Two of his teammates – Elijah Castañeda and Dominick Priddy – were named to the second team as outfielders, even though Priddy was the Rams’ starting catcher most of the season.
Cleveland’s battery of pitcher Jace Dominic and catcher Braylen Elzy, plus Storm shortstop DJ Sandoval, were also on the second team.
In softball, the Storm and Rams each had two members on the All-Metro first team: CHS’s shortstop Mya Pacheco and outfielder Mercedes Lovato, and Rams Kayla Reed and Kionna King – like Priddy, her team’s best catcher – as outfielders.
RRHS pitcher Labraida Tenorio, shortstop Madison Begaye and second baseman Ashley Burriel were named to the second team.
All are seniors, except for Lovato, a sophomore, and Smith, a junior.
Tennis, anyone?
A youngster shoots a free throw at the Cleveland High basketball camp.
Rio Rancho High School is holding a youth tennis camp June 20-22 on the RRHS courts from 9-11:30 a.m. each day. The camp, to be led by RRHS boys tennis coach Tom Gutierrez, is for boys and girls ages 6-15 and costs $65 in advance.
Campers should be wearing sneakers, and bring their own racquet, water bottle and snacks.
For more information, contact Gutierrez at [email protected] or call 505-450-9819.
New Rams coach plans camp
Lori Mabrey, the new varsity girls basketball coach at Rio Rancho High School, gets a start on her second stint at RRHS with a “Lock Down” girls camp Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to noon each day at Lincoln Middle School.
The camp, coached by Mabrey and some “defensive all-stars,” including former Cibola standout Amaya Brown, playing next season at UNM, is free and includes a T-shirt.
Mabrey may be reached at 505-249-3883.
Youth soccer camp here in June
Longtime Rio Rancho High School boys soccer coach John Shepard is conducting a soccer camp for kids ages 7-12 from 8-11 a.m. June 22-24.
The camp will take place on the RRHS soccer pitch. Instruction will be by the Rams coaching staff and returning players.
Players will receive instruction and practice of basic skills and tactics. More advanced players will be challenged with more advanced techniques and tactics. Each player gets an RRHS Rams Soccer T-shirt.
The cost is $99 per player; $120 for June 22 walk-ups, although space is not guaranteed.
Registration may be done at rioranchocamps.net.
For more information, contact Shepard at [email protected] or 505-896-4042.
Youth basketball camp at RRHS
The second of two Rio Rancho summer youth basketball camps, hosted by head coach Wally Salata, his assistant coaches and current players, runs Tuesday-Friday in the RRHS gym.
The camp runs from 9 a.m. to noon each day, with fundamentals stressed from 9-11 and games played from 11 to noon.
The camp is open to boys and girls in four divisions (fall 2022 grades K-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-9, and no experience in necessary. The cost is $125 per session, with a maximum of 120 per session, and 30 campers per division. Every camper receives a camp basketball and T-shirt, and a concession stand with “Ram cones” will be available.
For more information and registration, go rioranchocamps.net.
Basketball camp at Cleveland, too
Cleveland High girls basketball hosts its second of two “Next Level” basketball skills camps this spring for girls and boys going into grades 3-9 June Monday-Wednesday, from 8:30-noon each day.
The cost is $85.
Sign up at clevelandcamps.net. For more information, contact head coach Susan Kubala at [email protected] or 505-550-2523.
RRHS has two volleyball camps
Ram Camp 1: Designed for players (grades 1-6 in fall 2022) interested in learning the game of volleyball. No experienceis necessary. Emphasis of the camp will include introduction of fundamentals and techniques for all basic volleyball skills of passing, attacking, serving, footwork, setting and defense.
This camp will also emphasize volleyball skills and drills to prepare sixth- grade players for Rio Rancho Metro League and middle school tryouts (where applicable). Small group games will be played daily.
The camp runs from 6-8 p.m. June 23-24 and from 9-11 a.m. June 25. The cost is $65 ($75 for walk-ups) and campers will receive a T-shirt and be eligible to win door prizes each day.
Ram Camp 2: Designed to prepare players for tryouts in their respective grade. This camp will emphasize volleyball skills and drills to prepare seventh- thru 12th-grade players for school tryouts. Fundamentals and techniques for all basic volleyball skills will be emphasized. Additional time will be focused on small and large group team play.
The camp runs from 6-9 p.m. Aug. 1-3. The cost per camper is $85 ($100 on day of), and campers get a T-shirt and the chance to win a door prize each night.
Rams varsity volleyball coach Toby Manzanares, his assistants and area coaches will instruct.
Latest from the local lanes
Big scores were the order of the day in the Memorial Day Scratch Match-Play Madness tournament at Tenpins & More.
Unheralded J.J. Martinez of Albuquerque, a good supporter who had never before made the cut to the finals, fired 265, 244, 236, 210, 268 and 289 for a personal-best 1,512 series to become top seed.
He was closely followed by Tylor Macphee, whose 1,474 included three games above 250. It was quite a vast contrast in styles, too, with Martinez, with a slow-looping southpaw delivery, and Macphee a speedy two-handed right-hander.
It took 1,346/6 to survive the cut from 61 starters to 16 for double-elimination.
It proved to be no place for the faint-hearted, as many matches were decided by fewer than 10 pins, including Aileen Linares (224-223 over multi-time winner J.D. Nance), Josh Burnett (225-224) over Kyle Pearce, and DeeRonn Booker squeezing out a 235-234 nod to remove Nance.
Earlier, Booker (who added a 300 two days later in the “Jim Chapman Trios” league) fired 290, 279 and 275 for a booming 844 series, only to find himself in the losers’ bracket after dropping his third game to Jacob Gill’s 288. Gill finally put Booker out, 255-234, to earn the right to face unbeaten Martinez for the title and $1,000 first prize.
Four strikes in a row from frames three to six, coupled with Gill’s problems finding the strike pocket on the even lane, made it a first-time victory for Martinez by 27 pins, 213-186. He averaged 234/5 beating Sam Small 267-182, Sam Pinge 253-223, Brian Skidmore 213-166 and Gill twice, including the winner’s bracket play-off, 224-183.
* Josh Burnett of Rio Rancho captured his second Junior Bowlers Tour title — a major in the Mountain West Invitational — at Silva Lanes last month. Bowling against Brock Bivens in the best-of-three championship round, and after losing the first 165-232, Burnett made a ball change and went on to win, 221-190 and 246-200.
