Spencer receives highest recognition with Hall of Honor

ALBUQUERQUE

With an extensive list of possible candidates former longtime Tohatchi girls basketball coach Fern Spencer was very moved when she was selected to the New Mexico High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor.

The ceremony took place on July 27 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Albuquerque.

“The significance of this one is it’s the highest honor for the New Mexico High School Coaches Association,” Spencer said.

Two years ago Spencer was enshrined into the Hall of Fame for the New Mexico Activities Association.

“They are two important awards but I was really surprised that I got this one because there is a long list of names that are worthy of this award,” Spencer said of the Hall of Honor.

Legendary Albuquerque High boys basketball coach Jim Hulsman nominated Spencer for her latest recognition. Spencer went through the process of submitting her credentials and a five-member committee selected her this received this award.

“To be recognized is a real honor not for myself but for my kids and my former players,” Spencer said. “My assistants and school administrators are also a big part of this. It’s been a great ride but of course I did this for all of my students.”

As a graduate of Western New Mexico, Spencer got hired with the Navajo Nation as a scholarship liaison.

“I did that for a year and a half and then there was an opening for a teaching position at Tohatchi,” Spencer said. “I thought, ‘Shoot, why not?’ I thought I was only going to do that for a couple of years but I ended up there for 42 years.”

Thirty-six of those years she headed the girls’ basketball team where she instill her philosophy of education first and then sports through discipline. In addition to coaching basketball, she also coached cross-country, track and softball.

“If you don’t have discipline, you can’t manage the work you do in the classroom,” Spencer said. “It’s the same way for sports. If you don’t manage your athletes you are not going to have a team. They are going to fall apart.”

At her induction ceremony last week, Cathy Newby, a former basketball standout at Tohatchi, had the honor of introducing Spencer.

“Coach had a culture of expectation and preparation,” said Newby, the Director of Tribal Government and Customer Engagement for PNM. “You couldn’t take the court unless you were academically and physically prepared to be in her program.”

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