So before the school year ends, lets have a brief preview of each region. Hopefully we can all build this together:
South Central (5A and 6A)
In the 5A Division, look for Chapa to repeat as champs. They will have depth and the talent to win the region and get into that 2nd round of the State Tourney. The battle for 2,3,4 will be pretty another interesting. The early nod might go to Alamo. They have more coming back and the taste for state will be strong for another trip. Santa Teresa is losing 10 seniors and will be looking to find the right combo of youth to stay near the top. Deming has arguably best player in the district with Lalo Amaya. If he played at any other school he would make them an immediate contender. Lets see how far he can pull the rest of Deming with him.
In 6A, outside of Hobbs, in this area Gadsden and Centennial will be the ones to watch. Gadsden had a nice balance of youth and experience last season, no matter who they put out there they are gonna play 100% no matter what. Centennial brings back a young but experience group. They navigated to that 3rd place finish and might be either a spoiler or even crack the top 2 in that district.
I wish I knew more of Hobbs to really give an educated opinion on the whole race.
Northwest (5A)
I think it remains Farmington and the rest. I think only Aztec gave them the only loss or draw in district play. I would have to spend ample time to do all the research but I think last years newspaper had them winning 11 straight district titles. I can say that they did not enjoy that 6hr trip to ST last year. I mean the travel time, the weather was like 85 and hot, when they left Farmington it was snowing, and the result.
Central (5A)
SPX is in the 4th year of the AJ era...he seems to be building something special. I can see it being SPX and the others. The Valencia county teams are always hard to predict, who would've predicted Belen winning all those games last year! That race for 2nd-4th will be intense...maybe there will be a spoiler in there to snag one from SPX.
North Central (5A)
With the loss of the Touches...I dont see anyone topping Academy. Who knows..maybe but I dont know enough of what Los Alamos and Capital return. Capital loses their top senior and some strong positional players. Los Alamos was a Final Four team, maybe they can make it tough on AA.
SouthEast (5A)
I dont see anyone topping Roswell. They do lose Mesquita who was arguably the best dual athlete in the region. Lovington has stepped up and taken games with us here in the south central, I hope it pays off for them in the long run.