Lady Panthers to play Pecos Friday
By John Earp
The JHS Lady Panthers (12-16 overall; 4-6 in district) will travel to Pecos Friday to play the Pecos Lady Panthers (23-6 overall; 9-1 in 2A district 6) in the first round of the NMAA state tournament. The Lady Panthers are seeded 14th, while Pecos is seeded 3rd. Head Coach Gary Simmons says he is excited to see his team make the state tournament in his first year as head coach. The last time the JHS Lady Panthers went to the state tournament was in 2017. Simmons says he has a very young team, with only one senior this year and only two juniors, the rest being sophomores and freshmen along with some eighth graders even. He further says he has seen a lot of improvement in his team this season, and “It’s been a fun year, and we do see improvement. You know, we’re by no means a finished product, but we’re definitely seeing the movement in the right direction which is what we’re looking for. And we’re really happy where we’re at. We’d like to play a few more games here, but right now we’ve got to take it one game at a time and see what happens and keep building on what we’re doing right now and hope we just get better every day. That’s our goal every day in practice, is to get better. And I think we’ve improved a lot since earlier in the year.”
Simmons recognizes Jal’s district as certainly one of the toughest districts in the state. With regard to the other teams in the district that will also be in the state tournament (Tatum, Texico and Eunice), Simmons says, “I would hate to play any of them, to be honest with you. You know, I think they’re all playing well. I think they’re all well coached teams and you know, it just makes our district tough, but it makes us better too. You know, playing those kind of teams every week, we get better for it.”
Concerning the Pecos Lady Panthers, Simmons says, “They’re a really good team. You know, they won 12 or 13 at home this year haven’t lost a home game. I don’t know a lot about what their district’s like, but, you know, watching them on film, they’re athletic. They shoot the ball really well. I feel like we match up with them really well. You know, I think it’s going to be a highly competitive game and I think if we go in there with the frame of mind and play to our potential, the game will be a really good game. I really do. I mean, I feel like we’ve played a team similar to them earlier in the year, Jemez Valley, which I think I can compare them to. They play a lot of the same style and everything like that. If our kids can get comfortable in that environment and, you know, confident in what they’re doing, I think it’ll be a really, really fun game to play. I really do.”
The JHS Lady Panthers have been blessed to not have any significant player injuries this season, Simmons says, “and they’re really excited to go and you know and I’m excited for them to see how they perform on that stage. It’s going to be a different environment for them. Some of them have never experienced any kind of playoff action or anything in any sport they’ve done. So, it’s going to be a fun trip for us and hopefully, we can we can go up there and represent Jal as well as we can and see what happens. It’s exciting for them and I think they’re really proud of themselves.”
Simmons says fundamentals are always the key to any team’s success, and says, “Like I tell a lot of people, if you come the first 30 minutes of our practice every day, you’re going to get really tired of seeing just dribble and pass and shoot. You’ll get really tired of that for us to be where we need to be. Like I said, we’re not a finished product by any means and we won’t be finished with this season. When we get to where we need to be you know, then I’ll be satisfied with where our fundamentals are. Right now, we’re lacking in some aspects of it and we try to overcome it with great effort and things like that, but right now, fundamentally, you bet we focus on it every day and hopefully that that’s going to carry us to where we need to be.”
Simmons says, “Well, to be honest with you, I’m a program guy. I believe in building programs. That’s what I’ve done for my whole career. And to me, a program is year in, year out, we’re going to be competitive and that’s what we’re trying to get. And if we can ever get to that point where even on our bad years, we’re you know, 14th in the state or whatever we are this year. But I can almost guarantee you this—you know, we’re 14th this year. This will be the highest seed we’re at for a while. We’re going to get down in the top five and top six in the next few years. We’re going to be to that point, you know, and we’re going to be highly competitive around here as long as we can put a team on the floor. We’re going to be competitive. And that’s what I tell them every day, you know, it’s about competing as hard as you can compete and see what happens.”
Simmons says, “I’m excited to see what happens Friday night. You know, we’re going up there with the intent to come back to go back to Albuquerque next week. That’s what we’re believing in right now. And so, you know, if we can do that, boy, would that be a stepping stone for these young ladies for the next few years?”