Take heart, Horsemen fans; give Montoya a chance

May 21—Give Dakota Montoya credit.

He knows who he is to a wide swath of St. Michael's and prep basketball fans in Santa Fe — and maybe much of Northern New Mexico. Montoya, the freshly minted head boys basketball coach of the most decorated basketball program in Northern New Mexico, knows that people will see "assistant coach, Clayton" on his résumé and raise an eyebrow.

Maybe even gasp.

And certainly, some are quietly shaking their heads wondering what the powers-that-be at St. Michael's are doing.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion — and many people who bleed blue and white have expressed their reservations — but it should be noted that this is Wednesday, May 22.

Basketball season is still six months away. There are camps to attend. Open gyms to conduct. Heck, Montoya is very likely trying to find assistants to fill his coaching staff as he sits at the breakfast table.

In short, give the man a chance before you start writing his epitaph.

Yes, Montoya is jumping into the deep end of the coaching pool. St. Michael's is not for the weak; you will endure plenty of criticism. Some of it will be warranted, some of it ... Well, it'll be a little over the top. But any candidate who applies at "legacy" boys basketball programs — think Hobbs, Albuquerque High, Española Valley and Horsemen Nation, of course — understands the scrutiny will be a little harder and echo a little louder than at other programs.

Or, they should know that.

The biggest thing many people gravitated toward was Montoya's only head coaching experience came in football. If you take a deeper dive into Montoya's history, you would see that he also coached basketball during that time and was a Class 2A All-State player for a team that was a whisker away from playing for the state title.

And don't forget he is coming from District 6-2A, which is arguably the small-school equivalent to his new district. He understands what it's like to play six games in which there are no "gimmes."

Montoya also has the support of his now former boss, Clayton head coach Clyde Sanchez, who is well-versed in the trappings of Northern New Mexico basketball, and the politics that stem from it. He coached at Pecos, West Las Vegas and Santa Fe Prep (granted, the Blue Griffins were not yet indoctrinated into the 2-3A world at the time) and knows where the speed bumps are on that path.

Heck, he was blindsided by his own alma mater (Pecos) in 2012 when he was mysteriously let go after the Panthers reached the 2A quarterfinals. Sanchez wasn't given the chance to complete Pecos' turnaround.

Montoya is not walking blindly into this situation.

If he can take any lessons from Sanchez and his past, it's that success on the court does not necessarily guarantee a job.

Heck, he can try to sway former head coach Gerard Garcia to come to his staff as a reminder of that. In two-plus seasons, Garcia guided the Horsemen to two 3A championship games and a 3A title in 2023.

A year later, he is now a former head coach who has become a sympathetic figure about the challenges of coaching at a prestigious and demanding school.

St. Michael's took a big chance on hiring an assistant coach, but it stayed true to its stated goal of moving the program in a different direction. Don't forget; every head coach was once an assistant who needed just one school to show faith. Garcia waited more than 20 years before he got his chance. Montoya is on the other end of that spectrum.

It's up to Montoya to determine the path St. Michael's will take, but he at least deserves an opportunity to succeed or fail. He harbors no illusions about what he is walking into when he begins coaching at the end of the month.

He has a senior-laden team with talented players coming up the pipeline at the junior varsity and C-team levels. It's a program that screams "too big to fail."

Here's hoping Montoya lives up to the expectations and succeeds.

Here's hoping he's also well aware that success guarantees nothing at a program like St. Michael's.

I'm sure someone will remind him of that at some point.

Except, it might come in the form of a pink slip.