Jan. 1 — The Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia is delayed 24 hours after a Texas man drove a rented pickup into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, then opened fire on the crowd and police. Fifteen people were killed and dozens more injured.
Jan. 2 — Valerio Ferme’s first official day as president at New Mexico State is an interesting one. He references a damning 70-page report from the state’s attorney general in the wake of a 2023 men’s basketball hazing scandal for firing athletic director Mario Moccia with cause after 10 years of service.
Jan. 3 — The Pit hosts the 1,000th Lobos men’s basketball game when UNM plays Nevada in a late-night contest on national TV. It’s an instant classic. With former coaches Steve Alford and Craig Neal on the Wolf Pack bench, it goes into OT where Nelly Junior Joseph picks up a loose ball at his feet and hits a buzzer-beating jumper from the foul line for an 82-81 win.
Jan. 3 — The Mountain West adds a ninth school for football only, Northern Illinois. In the ever-changing 2026 MWC alignment, the Huskies’ shortest conference road trip will be 950 miles each way to Wyoming.
Jan. 6 — Jonathan Garza announces on Facebook he will not be returning as manager of the Santa Fe Fuego. In his one season with the club he kept the team in playoff contention until the final 10 days of the 2024 season, but finished last in its division with the worst record in team history.
Jan. 7 — The New Mexican’s James Barron is named the state’s sportswriter of the year by the National Sports Media Association while KRQE’s Jared Chester is the broadcaster of the year. Barron is the newspaper’s 17th winner in the last 34 years, and second in a row.
Jan. 7 — A series of catastrophic fires begin in the mountains of Los Angeles, quickly spreading through some of the wealthiest real estate in the country in a matter of hours. The NHL, NBA and NFL reschedule games, including the Rams-Vikings wild card game that’s moved from SoFi Stadium to Glendale, Ariz.
Jan. 9 — Santa Fe Indian School’s girls basketball team beats visiting Santa Fe Prep, 77-2 in the opening round of a tournament at SFIS. The Blue Griffins score their lone bucket on a layup by Isa Marquez 90 seconds into the game. The Lady Braves respond with 72 unanswered to end it. It comes after previous Prep losses of 40-5 (Hagerman), 51-2 (Moriarty) and 69-6 (Questa) and is followed in the coming weeks with losses of 74-0 (McCurdy) and 60-2 (ATC).
Jan. 11 — Los Alamos native Roy Sanchez wins the 500th game of his high school basketball coaching career. The longtime coach of Eldorado’s boys program, he leads the Eagles to a win over Rio Grande in the final round of the Metro Championships.
Jan. 13 — The New Mexico Senior Olympics kick off a four-day run in Santa Fe. Events like air gun, cornhole, frisbee accuracy, tai chi, shuffleboard and, of course, pickleball, are on the docket.
Jan. 13 — Michael Cooper’s No. 21 jersey is retired by the Los Angeles Lakers. The former UNM All-American recognizes late Lobos coach Norm Ellenberger in his ceremonial speech during halftime of that night’s Lakers-Spurs game.
Jan. 13 — The Dallas Cowboys fire coach Mike McCarthy, which means the end of the line for Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel. Two decades earlier, he’d started as an assistant coach at New Mexico Highlands before a brief tenure as head coach and athletic director in 2004. He became an assistant coach with the Baltimore Ravens the next season, kickstarting his NFL career.
Jan. 14 — New Mexico Highlands names Shanna Halalilo athletic director. She’d served as the school’s co-AD alongside Jim Deisler for the previous two years. Deisler is moved to the role of senior associate AD overseeing compliance.
Jan. 17 — Play begins in the Nuclear Shootout, a three-day college hockey tournament at the Los Alamos County Ice Rink. Joining UNM are schools such as Arizona State and Texas A&M.
Jan. 18 — Sam Soveranez drains a 10-foot turnaround jumper at the buzzer to hand Santa Fe High’s boys basketball team a 72-71 win over St. Michael’s at Toby Roybal Memorial Gymnasium. The Demons overcame a 6-point deficit in the final three-plus minutes to snap the Horsemen’s seven-game win streak.
Jan. 18 — UNM women’s basketball player Viane Cumber has her remarkable streak of 55 consecutive free throws come to an end when she misses the front end of a two-shot foul with 42 seconds left in a win at Colorado State. The senior’s last miss came in the season opener against Northern Arizona. It left her 15 short of the NCAA single-season record set by Bowling Green’s Lauren Prochaska in 2010.
Jan. 20 — Ohio State beats Notre Dame, 34-23, in the College Football Playoff national championship game in Atlanta.
Jan. 21 — After reaching the previous two state championship games in 2A, the ATC boys basketball team plays its first game as a member of District 2-3A. It doesn’t go well. The Phoenix are outscored 22-0 in the third quarter and lose 84-38 to visiting St. Michael’s.
Jan. 23 — Peñasco girls basketball coach Mandy Montoya earns the 100th win of her career, doing so in 151 games dating to the start of the 2019-20 season.
Jan. 23 — St. Mike’s guard Sabiani Rios-Guevara scores the 1,000th point of his high school career in a home win over Santa Fe Indian School.
Jan. 24 — Just two months after being forced out as the offensive coordinator of Santa Fe High’s football team after the 2024 season, Adrian Gonzales is hired as the Demons’ head coach.
Jan. 24 — Robertson boys basketball coach James Branch is removed from Gillie Lopez Gym by school administrators just moments before his top-ranked Cardinals played at crosstown rival West Las Vegas. Initially no reason is given, but Branch doesn’t coach another game all season.
Jan. 27 — David Williams steps down as UNM’s assistant athletic director to take a similar position at the University of Houston, reuniting him with Cougars AD Eddie Nuñez. He hired Williams as his top assistant at UNM four years earlier.
Jan. 30 — Fassel is named special teams coordinator with the Tennessee Titans.
Jan. 31 — The Albuquerque Isotopes, in conjunction with the Colorado Rockies, announce their 2025 coaching staff with the return of third-year manager Pedro Lopez, bench coach Michael Ryan, hitting coach Jordan Pacheco, and pitching coach Chris Michalak.
Feb. 2 — Groundhog Day brought us the NBA blockbuster trade that sent Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. It’s the first time in league history two reigning members of the all-pro team are traded for one another.
Feb. 5 — New UNM football coach Jason Eck announces the signing of 51 new recruits on national signing day. Of those, 34 are out of the NCAA transfer portal with the other 17 are high school seniors. He also announces the hiring of the program’s first general manager, Beau Davidson. Davidson held that same title with Memphis the previous season.
Feb. 5 — The NMAA Commission approves boys volleyball as a sanctioned activity, not a sport, under the governing body’s umbrella for the 2025-26 school year. More than 250 players suited up for 162 varsity matches in 2024, although no schools in the Santa Fe area were part of it. If launched, the sanctioned season would begin after basketball and run from March to May.
Feb. 6 — An unprecedented assault on the state’s single-game 3-point record is capped by a 62-point game by Volcano Vista’s Rian Gonzales in a 98-45 win over Piedra Vista. The Hawks senior drills 17 shots from beyond the arc, and his final point total is the most in a game by any player since Santa Fe Prep’s Joel Van Essen in 2009. Gonzales’ big night comes five weeks after Texico’s Jeff Curtis ties the state record with 15 treys against Capitan. It comes less than a month after Springer’s Pablo Romero broke the record with 16 against Reserve.
The Eagles to a 40-22 win over the Chiefs in the Super Bowl in New Orleans. The game was never all that close and it paves the way for Eagles offensive coordinator (and former Boise State quarterback) Kellen Moore to land the head coaching vacancy with the Saints.
Feb. 13 — The New Mexican launches (or, re-launches) its dormant sports podcast, The Sports Den with Will and James.
Feb. 14 — Todd Kurth steps down after 22 years as the athletic director at Santa Fe Prep. A 1981 graduate of the school, he held several coaching and teaching positions before and during his time as AD.
Feb. 15 — Albuquerque native Alex Bregman agrees to a 3-year, $120 million free agent deal with the Boston Red Sox. Half of that amount is deferred salary to be paid from 2035-46.
Feb. 20 — Former Santa Fe Public Schools athletic director and current SFPS Superintendent Larry Chavez tenders his resignation amid a brewing sexual harassment complaint levied against him by a former Santa Fe High assistant principal.
Feb. 21 — Robertson boys basketball coach James Branch is arrested and charged with criminal sexual contact with a minor. He is booked into the San Miguel County Detention Center and held without bond. His team, which initially struggles without him, beats top-ranked St. Michael’s in Santa Fe twice before the state tournament.
Feb. 22 — St. Michael’s senior Raylee Hunt captures the 100-yard breaststroke title at the State Swimming and Diving Championships in Albuquerque, her third straight win in the event.
Feb. 22 — At the State Wrestling Tournament in Rio Rancho, Santa Fe High’s Leyton Opare is upset by a rival from Cleveland in the 215-pound Class 5A finals while a pair of West Las Vegas standouts, Vicente Garcia and Cruz Martinez, each win their weight class in the 1A-4A competition. Similarly, Wendy Sheppard of Los Alamos wins her division’s title.
Feb. 26 — Academy Award winner, Hoosiers star and longtime Santa Fe resident Gene Hackman is found dead at his home at age 95. He, along with his wife and one of his dogs, is found during a wellness check by police.
March 1 — Legendary radio play-by-play announcer Jack Nixon calls the last New Mexico State home game of his career. He’s been at the mic since the 1970s, serving as the voice of Aggies football and men’s basketball since Jimmy Carter was in the White House.
March 4 — Donovan Dent’s 33 points and seven assists help the UNM men’s basketball team beat Nevada, 71-67, in Reno, Nev., to clinch the regular season championship for the first time in 12 years.
March 10 — Dent is named Mountain West player of the year, and he and Nelly Junior Joseph are voted as first team all-MWC. Richard Pitino is named coach of the year.
March 11 — Robertson’s girls basketball team scores 10 points in 20 seconds in the final minute to stun Tohatchi in the 3A state quarterfinals. The Cardinals trailed 39-31 with 53 seconds left before a four-point play, a technical foul, two turnovers and a clutch 3 turned it into a 43-41 win.
March 14 — The West Las Vegas and Pecos girls make, respectively, the 3A and 2A basketball championship games in The Pit. West Las Vegas falls to top-seeded defending state champ Navajo Prep while Pecos is beaten by No. 1 Tatum. The Lady Dons were seeking the school’s first state championship in hoops.
March 14 — St. Michael’s pitcher Adam Bird threw a 5-inning no-hitter against El Paso Jefferson in the semifinals of the Cobre Invitational. The 5-0 win was cut short by snowy and inclement weather in the Bayard area. Bird threw only 43 pitches, walking one and striking out two.
March 15 — Mesa Vista’s Santiago Martinez hits a baseline jumper with three seconds left in the championship of the boys’ 2A basketball tournament in The Pit. Hoping to draw a foul on the play, he was left wide open by a Texico defense knowing he needed a 3-pointer to force overtime. The Trojans lost 66-65.
March 15 — Robertson beats St. Michael’s for the 3A boys basketball crown, ending the season on an 11-game winning streak after myriad off-court issues that threatened to destroy the Cardinals’ season. It’s Robertson’s second title in four years, both wins coming against the Horsemen.
March 16 — The Mountain West gets four bids to the NCAA Tournament, led by No. 10 seeds handed to New Mexico and Utah State. The Lobos are dispatched to Cleveland for the first round against Marquette.
March 17 — Santa Fe Indian softball coach Oliver Torres wins the 100th game of his career as the Braves rout McCurdy, 15-3, in three innings.
March 18 — Lobos guard Donovan Dent is named honorable mention All-America by The Associated Press. Former Lobo JT Toppin, the reigning Big 12 player of the year out of Texas Tech, is named to the second team.
March 20 — Due to a lack of enough eligible dancers, the fabled St. Michael’s Pony Express drill team announces it will not compete in the State Spirit Competition for the first time in four decades.
March 21 — Donovan Dent scores 21 points to lead the Lobo basketball team past Marquette in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Cleveland. It’s New Mexico’s first tournament win in 13 years.
March 21 — Taos and Questa win state cheerleading championships at the annual State Spirit Competition in The Pit. It’s the 10th title in 11 years for Taos. For Questa, it’s their sixth in 11 years.
March 23 — Late foul trouble for big man Nelly Junior Joseph is a big contributor to New Mexico’s loss to Big Ten champion Michigan State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Cleveland. The Lobos held the lead until the final seven minutes, coming painfully close to the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance.
March 25 — A member of the Rio Rancho junior varsity baseball program allegedly urinates into a water jug that’s placed in La Cueva’s dugout during a subvarsity game. Multiple players and coaches from the Bears drink from the container, sparking an investigation. The Rams team is shut down once word gets out.
March 26 — Richard Pitino is named the new basketball coach at Xavier. His exit opens the flood gates for a mass exodus of Lobos heading out the door. Within a month, every assistant coach and player on the 14-man roster is gone either though graduation or the transfer portal.
March 28 — Matthew Abetya is removed as athletic director at Española Valley. Ricardo Sanchez is named as his replacement.
March 28 — Jesus Aragon steps down as athletic director and men’s basketball coach at Northern New Mexico College.
March 29 — Cal-State Dominguez is beaten by Nova Southeastern in the NCAA Division II men’s basketball national championship game in Evansville, Ind. Former St. Michael’s student, Alex Garcia, is a guard on the Dominguez roster. Garcia hit a clutch 3-pointer in the national semifinals just days before, helping the Toros reach the finals.
March 30 — Eric Olen is named head coach of the New Mexico men’s basketball team. He led UC San Diego to 30 wins and the NCAA Tournament. He is formally introduced to fans and the media in the Davalos Center two days later during one of the worst dust storms Albuquerque has seen in years.
March 31 — Capital grad Mike Dominguez ends his time as a basketball coach at New Mexico Highlands. He was with the Cowboys for eight years, going 66-74.
April 1 — Former Lobos guard Donovan Dent transfers to UCLA, signing a $3 million NIL deal to play for coach Mick Cronin and the Bruins.
April 8 — Sean Jimenez is named athletic director at Pojoaque Valley. The former boys basketball coach at Rio Grande and Cleveland had been an assistant principal and teacher at Pojoaque prior to this.
April 9 — Zach Settembre is named the new basketball coach at New Mexico Highlands. A former assistant at New Mexico State, he replaces Mikey Dominguez.
April 10 — Former Lobos guard Tru Washington ends his transfer portal journey and signs with Miami (Fla.) for an undisclosed amount in NIL funds.
April 12 — Heavy snows that damaged the batting cages at Santa Fe High, Capital and St. Michael’s will be repaired — at least those at the SFPS schools. The repairs come just before the end of the season for the Demons and Jaguars.
April 17 — Santa Fe Indian School boys basketball coach Jason Abeyta and assistant SFIS athletic director Nate Abeyta are killed in a vehicle crash in the early morning hours at the intersection of U.S. 84 and N.M. 554 near Abiquiú. The brothers were going fishing when their vehicle was hit head-on by an oncoming car crossed the center line and hit the vehicle occupied by the Abeytas. All three men were killed. Jason Abeyta, 47, won 139 games in his nine years as the Braves’ head coach. Nate Abeyta, 42, worked in the SFIS athletic department for 13 years.
April 17 — Arcenio Martinez makes an appearance as the starting right fielder for the Española Valley junior varsity baseball team in a doubleheader against Moriarty. A junior, Martinez is autistic but been with the Sundevils’ program since his freshman year.
April 24 — Santa Fe Prep grad Olivia Hunt (formerly Olivia Cicci) is named women’s basketball coach at Austin College in Texas.
April 26 — Carson West of St. Michael’s throws a no-hitter against Santa Fe Indian School in the second game of a doubleheader. He strikes out eight and walks three in a 2-0 win.
April 28-May 4 — Santa Fe teacher Megan Eckert set a world record in the 2025 Six Days of France Ultramarathon in Vallon Pont d’Arc, France. The 38-year-old teacher at Niña Otero Community School traversed 603.155 miles over the same 0.7-mile paved track in six days, shattering the previous world standard by 42.8 miles. Stopping only to eat and take short rests — and to get a little sleep — she completed a mind-altering 858 laps.
May 6 — NMHU fires athletic director Shanna Halalilo just months after she was awarded the job. No reason is given for the dismissal, although Halalilo insists she stepped down and was not terminated.
May 8 — Santa Fe Prep senior Henry Kaufman and Academy senior Austin Curtis both go down with leg cramps in the decisive third set of the 1A-4A boys tennis singles state championship match. Curtis pulls out a marathon three set win. Prep’s Jackson and Noah Friedland reach the doubles finals and lose to the Los Alamos tandem of Michael Witkowski and Aditya Viswanathan.
May 10 — The dynasty(ies) continue as St. Michael’s wins its sixth straight boys team title in the Class 3A state track and field meet in Albuquerque while the Lady Horsemen girls capture their fifth consecutive blue trophy. The St. Michael’s girls trailed Santa Fe Prep by 37 points but eked out a narrow win thanks to a number of clutch performances, including senior Raylee Hunt who chased down Prep’s Helen Desmond by overcoming a 20-meter deficit in the final 100 meters in the medley relay.
May 10 — Albuquerque Academy wins its 22nd straight boys team tennis tile, beating Santa Fe Prep 5-2 in the finals at the Jerry Cline Complex in Albuquerque.
May 12 — The NMAA prohibits fans from using golf carts at the state tournament sites for 3A, 4A and 5A. The ruling comes after course officials complained some fans were violating course etiquette and driving in prohibited spaces during play.
May 13 — Thomas Trujillo holds on for a top five finish in the 1A-3A state golf tournament in Kirtland. Robertson’s Payton Woolf takes third on the girls’ side with St. Michael’s eighth-grader Danya Narlesky finishing sixth.
May 15 — Highlands continues to clean house, firing baseball coach Bob Estep after just two seasons. The school said he technically chose to “pursue other options after his contract was set to expire in June,” but players and assistant coaches on hand to watch the NMAA baseball state tournament in Albuquerque say it was a firing. He led the Cowboys to a 22-76 overall mark and 10-54 record in RMAC play.
May 17 — Santa Fe High sets the state record in the boys 1,600-meter relay at the Class 5A state track and field championships in Albuquerque. Daniel Busemeyer, Bryce Melton, Cy Anderson and Valin Wittenberg completed the mile in 3 minutes, 15.34 seconds.
May 18 — Robertson’s baseball team is beaten, 7-1, in the Class 3A state championship game in Albuquerque.
May 21 — The Santa Fe Fuego, under new manager Joey Gali, begin preseason drills for their 13th season in the Pecos League.
May 27 — Scott Noble is named athletic director at Highlands. He had served in the same role at Western New Mexico since 2018. Highlands also names Kali Pugh as its new softball coach.
May 28 — The Fuego and the City finish installation of the Turquoise Monster in right field at Fort Marcy Ballpark. The temporary netting — which is neither a wall nor turquoise — stands roughly 18 feet tall and is designed to keep more balls in play on a field whose dimensions measure 285 feet down the line and 355 to center.
June 3 — Cecily Decker of Santa Fe placed second in the Unbound Gravel 200, considered the discipline’s crown jewel event. Held in Emporia, Kan., Decker rode the 200-mile course in 10 hours, 12 minutes, 29 seconds.
June 5 — The NMAA increases the number of weight classes in boys and girls wrestling from 12 (girls) and 13 (boys) to 14 for both. The boys will see the formation of the 167-pound division, while the girls side will have its first 10 weight classes (from 100 to 145 pounds) separated by 5-pound increments.
June 10 — The Lobo Alliance is launched by UNM. The initiative will assume responsibility for compensating student-athletes for their NIL usage, UNM athletic director Fernando Lovo said.
June 10 — Orlando “Orly” Romero and Marquez Espinoza, both 18 and members of the Robertson football team in 2024, die in a single-car crash in Las Vegas, N.M.
June 11 — NMHU hires Steve Jones as its new baseball coach. Jones is already the winningest coach in Cowboys history. He left the program a decade earlier to coach a Texas A&M-Texarkana and the previous season as an assistant at unbeaten NAIA national champion LSU-Shreveport.
June 13 — The NMAA strips Robertson of a share of the Director’s Cup for being the high-point athletics program the previous school year. The school reported inaccurate results, leading to incorrect information used by the NMAA.
June 18 — Popular Santa Fe cyclist and pickleball devotee Steven Ballinger is killed when the bike he is riding is struck by a vehicle.
June 28 — Robertson grad and Cardinals assistant Lucas Sanchez is named the head football coach at his alma mater.
June 30 — The Fuego blow a 13-7 ninth-inning lead against Tucson, losing 14-13. The Saguaros then outscore Santa Fe 60-15 over the next two nights as part of an eight-game losing streak. Tucson hit 14 home runs in a 34-11 win the night of July 3.
July 3 — West Las Vegas freshman Malie “Moogie” Satete is named New Mexico’s Gatorade Softball Player of the Year.
July 8 — Mikey Dominguez is named the new men’s basketball coach at Northern New Mexico College. An Española native, it’s a homecoming for the man who won a state title while playing at Capital, played college in Colorado and coached in college in Colorado and Highlands.
July 10 — Los Alamos names Joe Vigil its boys basketball coach. He had been with Santa Fe Prep before stepping down from the Blue Griffins in April.
July 13 — Jayla Wilson represents the Santa Fe Little League in the T-Mobile West RegionalHome Run Derby in Lawrenceville, Ga., ahead of the Major League All-Star Game in nearby Atlanta. She does well enough to advance to the national finals on Aug. 21 in Williamsport, Pa.
July 17 — The UNM football team is picked to finish 11th in the 12-team Mountain West Conference during the league’s preseason media event in Las Vegas, Nev.
July 22 — Despite a 10-7 win over Tucson, the Fuego are eliminated from playoff contention in the Pecos League.
July 25 — Byron Trujillo is named boys basketball coach and Terrell Calabaza assistant athletic director at SFIS, replacing Jason and Nate Abeyta.
July 28 — St. Michael’s assistant football coach Chris Meyer dies at age 39. The Horsemen will eventually dedicate their season to him with the coaching staff wearing commemorative shirts in his honor.
Aug. 1 — Oliver Torres is named head baseball coach at Pojoaque Valley.
Aug. 5 — UNM releases a spoof video showing football coach Jason Eck inadvertently telling local school kids they’ll get free tuition to the school thanks to a decision made by athletic director Fernando Lovo when, in truth, the idea is to allow kids 12 and under into home games for free. The video goes viral on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, putting a lovable and likable spin in the first year football coach.
Aug. 9 — Northern New Mexico’s JJ Gonzales is inducted into the Ruidoso Downs Racing Hall of Fame.
Aug. 21 — The SFIS football team beats visiting Cuba, 14-8, in the season opener for both teams. The Braves don’t win another game for the remainder of the season.
Aug. 28 — Freshman running back Jeffery Jones erupts for 222 of his 227 rushing yards in the second half of a season-opening 34-28 win at Eastern New Mexico.
Aug. 30 — The Jason Eck era begins at UNM as the Lobos lose, 34-17, at No. 14 Michigan in front of more than 110,000 fans in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Sept. 5 — St. Michael’s is dominant on defense, shutting out Santa Fe High 28-0 at Ivan Head Stadium. It’s the 20th win in the last 23 intracity rivalry games for the Horsemen.
Sept. 6 — Jones strikes again for NMHU, rushing for 385 yards in a win over Western New Mexico. It sets an NCAA Division II record for single-game yardage by a freshman.
Sept. 13 — The Lobo football team picks up its first win against a Big Ten team, hammering UCLA 35-10 in the Rose Bowl.
Sept. 27 — A sold-out crowd turns out at University Stadium to watch the Lobos beat New Mexico State, 38-20. It’s the first sellout in more than a decade as UNM improves to 3-1.
Oct. 1 — Roughly half of Robertson’s varsity football roster is suspended for an unspecified violation of team and school policies. It leaves just 14 players with varsity experience heading into the District 2-3A season.
Oct. 3 — Pojoaque Valley quarterback Joshua Gonzales scored on a 2-point conversion in overtime that gave his team a 32-31 win over a depleted Robertson squad in both teams’ District 2-3A opener at Jacona Field. It represented the first win over the Cardinals in Pojoaque’s 30-year history in football.
Oct. 10 — West Las Vegas ends a 17-year losing skid to crosstown rival Robertson, hammering the shorthanded Cardinals, 35-6.
Oct. 16 — Vilma Ontiveros is suspended for the rest of the season by administrators at the Academy for Technology and the Classics. The girls soccer coach posted a video on social media showing players pulling pieces of paper out of a bag telling what position they’d play in a match just minutes later at Santa Fe Indian School. ATC officials claim it was bad sportsmanship and put her on leave.
Oct. 18 — Forked Lightning, a new facility serving Santa Fe tennis, pickleball and padel players, marked its soft opening with First Serve’s annual gala and exhibition matches from Grand Slam champions like Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi.
Oct. 23 — Down 21-0 to Highland in a District 1-5A game, Capital’s football team pulls off a stunning comeback to win 23-21. Little does anyone know it at the time, but it starts what turns into a playoff run to the Class 5A postseason for the Jaguars. The Jags get an additional boost when Miyamura forfeits an Oct. 17 game, pushing Capital’s résumé into playoff status.
Oct. 25 — Wearing turquoise throwbacks, the UNM football team beats Utah State and former coach Bronco Mendenhall, 33-14.
Oct. 27 — ATC boys soccer earns its first postseason appearance after earning the No. 7 seed in the Class 1A/3A boys state tournament.
Oct. 28 — Highlands President Neil Woolf unveils an ambitious plan to request $85 million from the state to revamp the school’s athletic facilities. The plan calls for what is essentially a rebuilt football stadium for about $20 million to $30 million.
Nov. 7 — Sophia Miera scored her 61st goal of the season, and the St. Michael’s defense recorded its sixth straight shutout to beat Bosque, 1-0, to claim the Class 1A/3A championship at the UNM Soccer Complex.
Nov. 7 — Capital’s football team manages just 32 yards of offense in a 50-0 loss at Gadsden in the first round of the Class 5A state playoffs in Anthony, N.M.
Nov. 8 — New Mexico United beat Orange County, 2-1, to reach the finals of the Western Conference in the United Soccer League.
Nov. 8 — Henry Kocon’s goal in the sixth round of penalty kicks hands Santa Fe Prep the Class 1A/3A state soccer championship against Sandia Prep. The Blue Griffins overcame a 2-0 deficit to force overtime.
Nov. 8 — Sophie Bair’s winning performance leads the Santa Fe Prep girls cross-country team to the Class 3A team state title in Albuquerque. The Blue Griffins had their top four runners placing in the top eight, including a 1-2 finish by Bair and fellow senior Pippa Barrett.
Nov. 8 — Santa Fe Indian School wins the Class 3A boys cross-country state championship while Pecos wins the 1A/2A crown.
Nov. 15 — Three-peat denied. Cobre knocked off two-time defending Class 3A volleyball champion St. Michael’s in the finals in Rio Rancho.
Nov. 22 — The Taos football team reaches the Class 4A state semifinals but loses to eventual champion Bloomfield, 62-20. The same weekend, St. Michael’s advanced to the 3A title game for the fifth straight year by beating New Mexico Military.
Nov. 23 — In a stunning move, Eastern New Mexico University hires former Baylor head coach Art Briles to run its football program. The former Big 12 coach of the year has been out of coaching since 2015.
Nov. 28 — The Lobo football team beats San Diego State in overtime, 23-17, to earn a share of the Mountain West regular season title. Four teams tie for first, but the MWC tiebreaker sends UNLV and Boise State into the championship game for a third straight year. Still, the 9-3 regular season is the best for a first-year coach in school history and is one win short of just the second 10-win year in program history.
Nov. 29 — In Dexter, Kamal Stith’s 10-yard run on fourth down hands the St. Michael’s football team a dramatic 28-21 win over the host Demons in a rematch of their epic 2024 state title game. Just like Round 1, this one ends in a Horsemen blue trophy. It’s third straight 3A state title for St. Mike’s and extends the school’s winning streak to 33 games, third longest in state history.
Nov. 30 — Jason Eck gets a contract extension that will pay him $8.75 million though the 2030 season. It makes him the highest-paid football coach in state history.
Dec. 2 — Jason Eck is named Mountain West coach of the year and his son, Jaxton, is named the league’s co-defensive player of the year.
Dec. 3 — The NMAA drops Santa Fe High’s football team from Class 6A to 5A in 2026, a move that likely spells a few more wins for a Demons program that had struggled in the state’s largest football classification. The NMAA also redraws several districts.
Dec. 4 — In an upset that sends shockwaves across the state, tiny Mesa Vista knocks off 5A powerhouse Hobbs in a boys basketball game at a tournament in Española. Hobbs has an enrollment that is approximately 17 times bigger than Mesa Vista. Hobbs ends 2025 with a 10-1 record and enters the new year as the top-ranked team by MaxPreps.
Dec. 5 — Picklegate. Española Valley boys basketball coach Joey Trujillo is disciplined and later fired after he has an altercation with a fan after a game. The fan allegedly threw a pickle at the coach, which led to a heated exchange in front of other fans.
Dec. 13 — Albuquerque native and former NMMI and New Mexico State quarterback Diego Pavia finishes second in the Heisman Trophy voting. He immediately draws the ire of the country by criticizing voters and making light of winner Fernando Mendoza of Indiana.
Dec. 19 — The Santa Fe Gloom futsal club opens its third season with an 11-6 loss to New Mexico Flagship.
Dec. 26 — The UNM football team is beaten 20-17 in overtime by Minnesota in the Rate Bowl in Phoenix. More than 27,500 fans show up, the majority of whom are from New Mexico. The Lobos play well but struggle on offense, getting three field goals and a 100-yard kickoff return.
Dec. 27 — North Texas holds on for a 49-47 win over San Diego State in the Isleta New Mexico Bowl. It’s the final game as a member of the Mountain West for SDSU, which jumps ship to the Pac-12 in 2026.
Dec. 29 — Fern Lovo is hired as athletic director at Colorado, signing a five-year, $6 million deal that ended his 13-month tenure as UNM’s athletic director.
Dec. 30 — Ryan Berryman is named interim AD at UNM. The 32-year-old is an East Mountain and UNM alum who rose through the ranks as a basketball student manager to serving time as the student representative on the UNM board of regents, and later climbing into an administrative role with the athletic department after a stint with the men’s basketball staff. He spent one year as the CFO at Washington before Lovo recruited him to return to UNM in March.