Times honors the best in winter sports

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Mar 26, 2015 | Sports |

WINDOW ROCK

The 2014-15 winter sports season began in mid-November and after five grueling months the Madness ended with a handful of basketball teams reaching the finals in their respective brackets.

And although the wrestling season finished a month earlier there were some bittersweet endings. And no one had a year quite like the Piedra Vista Panthers as they claimed its fifth consecutive state title.

As we get ready to turn the page into April, the Navajo Times would like to honor these athletes at an awards ceremony scheduled for Monday, March 30 at the Phil Thomas Arts Center in Shiprock. Doors will open at 9:00 a.m.

All listed athletes are encouraged to bring their school uniform tops for a photo session, which will begin promptly at 10:00 a.m. The awards presentation will begin at 11:00 a.m.

This event is free and open to the public. Photos and an article of the winners will be published in the April 2 edition of the Times.

Information: 928-871-1130.

Girls

The decision for our player of the year candidates amounted to a crisis in girls basketball.

With Division I prospects, the Navajo Times had to seriously consider the numbers turned in by Winslow standout Shandiin Armao and Tuba City’s Tate Tsingine.

Armao averaged 18.8 points per game while hauling in 13.9 rebounds a contest. She was named to the all-tournament team in both the Gallup Invitational and the Winslow Winter Classic.

Tsingine, meanwhile, finished her prep career by scoring 421 points this season, which amounted to 19.9 points per game. The Tuba City senior also recorded 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists a game.

Those lofty statistics earned both players recognition from the Arizona Interscholastic Association with Tsingine earning the section player of year while Armao was tabbed the division player of the year.

Recently, both players made the Arizona Republic’s First-Team, All-State team with Armao earning the Small Schools Player of the Year award.

It was not easy to relegate one player over the other so the obvious choice was to recognize both as our players of the year.

They share that honor with Gallup junior post Ni’Asia McIntosh as she lead the Bengals to a second place finish in the New Mexico Class 5A state tournament.

McIntosh finished the year by averaging a double-double with 23 points per game while collecting 16 boards per outing.

And like our player of the year award, there were many qualified candidates for our coach of the year award.

Of course, it was an easy decision to peg Page head coach Justin Smith as one our recipients after he mentored the Lady Sand Devils to a first place finish in the Arizona Division III state tournament.

And with a 35-1 record, the 2014-2015 team set a new school record in terms of wins.

And while Smith did a marvelous job with his girls it would do no justice to leave out Valley head coach Julia Six as she led the Lady Pirates to the Division IV title game.

In New Mexico, Tohatchi head coach Tanisha Bitsoi revived a program that was almost nonexistent when it came to be a state playoff team.

It took her four years to mold her players and the most frightening thing is she has a young group players so expect more things to come out of her program in the years to come.

Wrestling

Piedra Vista qualified 14 wrestlers for the New Mexico Class 5A state wrestling meet and they left the tournament with five state champions headed by senior Anthony Juckes, who made history by winning his fifth straight individual state crown in the 145-pound weight class.

The Panthers finished the two-day state meet with 294.5 points and had 11 wrestlers that made the podium under the direction of first-year coach Michael Bejar.

With that the Panthers head our list of all-stars with Juckes earning our middle weight wrestler of the year award while Bejar was named coach of the year.

The other top wrestlers who earned our wrestler of the year award include Holbrook’s Theron Johns (lower weight), Kirtland Central’s Aiden Crockwell (lower weight,), Flagstaff’s Wyatt Nez (middle weight), Tuba City’s Adrian Sixkiller (upper weight) and Miyamura’s Jasper Denetclaw (upper weight).

Tuba City coach Brandon Williams was also named our coach of the year.

Boys

After noteworthy finishes in their respective divisions the Gallup Bengals and Laguna-Acoma Hawks lead our all-stars for boys basketball.

The Bengals finished second to Las Cruces Centennial in Class 5A while Laguna-Acoma earned the runner-up trophy in 3A, losing to Mesilla Valley Christian School.

Because of their accomplishments the Navajo Times felt that Gallup head coach Domonic Romero and Hawk head coach Ryan Peil deserved to be recognized as our coach of the year.

They share that honor with Chinle head coach Brandon Tso, who guided the Wildcats to the quarterfinals of the Arizona Division III state playoffs in a rebuilding year.

Gallup senior Colton Lowley and Red Valley-Cove senior Mitchell Howe topped our player of the year awards in pool of talent playmakers.