A farewell to the fall

Nov. 30—Winter athletes, you got next.

But let's first reflect on the end of the 2025 prep fall sports seasons, which officially reached the finish line Saturday afternoon with the last of the state football championship games.

MAKE IT THREE: Gianna Rahmer of Eldorado won her third straight Class 5A cross country championship, though for the first time there was a genuine rival to challenge her. So to speak.

That would be Moriarty junior Carmen Dorsey-Spitz, the 4A champion, who was the fastest girl (in any division) both at the state meet and at the Albuquerque Academy Extravaganza meet several weeks prior. Let's hope the two schools arrange for several head-to-head races between these two in 2026.

Rahmer was not the only Albuquerque girl to be a three-time state champion. So was Oak Grove Classical Academy's Olivia Marquez.

We also crowned four three-peat team champions, starting with the undefeated girls volleyball team from Las Cruces and the Bulldawgs' remarkable hitter, Kansas State-bound Addison Massey.

St. Pius also won its third straight volleyball title, and the end of the championship match at the Rio Rancho Events Center also led to a wonderful post-match moment, as Sartans coach Jordan Russell received a marriage proposal from her partner, Isaiah Bradford.

Texico's football team is the Class 2A champion for the third time in a row.

And then there are the St. Michael's Horsemen, not just 3A state champs for the third straight November but owners of a 33-game winning streak.

If St. Mike's wins its first two in the 2026 season, the Horsemen will have the second-longest win streak in New Mexico history, surpassing Gadsden's 34, achieved in the 1950s. But they're not yet even halfway toward the 69 in a row Animas won between 1985 and 1990.

Two efforts at a four-peat were ended with Cobre volleyball taking down St. Michael's in the 3A final, and Cleveland's boys finishing first at state and stopping rival Rio Rancho's hopes for a fourth straight cross-country title.

FIVE AND 5X: I have, and will again here, describe the Hope Christian girls soccer program as New Mexico's most accomplished current dynasty.

The Huskies last month won their fifth consecutive Class 4A state title, and this program, pretty much all the way throughout this run, has been New Mexico's best overall team regardless of class.

Until late October, Hope also had the most impressive winning streak going among all the major team sports.

But the Huskies' 56-game winning streak, which spanned 25 months, ended with a dramatic 4-3 loss at rival Academy on the eve of the state tournament. Hope beat the Chargers 2-1 in the 4A final a couple of weeks later.

BACK-TO-BACK: There were seven fall teams who captured a state championship for the second year in a row.

That list included the Gianna Rahmer-led Eldorado girls cross country team. The Santa Fe Prep girls cross country team did the same, and just a few hours prior to the school's boys soccer team winning a tremendous penalty-kick shootout state final versus Sandia Prep.

Quemado's volleyball team went back-to-back, as did Cleveland football, Bloomfield football, Academy boys soccer and Pecos boys soccer.

Individually, Elijah England of Navajo Prep (3A) and Tagoya Pedro of Laguna-Acoma (1A-2A) each bagged a second straight cross-country victory at the state meet.

FOOTBALL: As I noted in my game story Saturday, Cleveland has won seven state titles since its first one in 2011. It has been eight years since the Storm hasn't appeared in a final. The Storm define excellence in just about every possible way.

Artesia put up that giant orange "1" atop the press box at Bulldog Bowl after the school's unexpected 33rd championship, a 25-24 win over Roswell. I pored through the records; never had Artesia won a title with a one-point victory in the bracket era. Only one school in the United States (a school in South Dakota, with 42) has more football championships than Titletown, N.M.

Roswell's loss is, for me, tied with the Sandia Prep boys soccer team for the most gut-wrenching loss in the postseason. The Sundevils had the 1A-3A title on their foot, but a missed penalty kick led to total heartbreak. The Coyotes led Artesia 21-3 in the second half Saturday.

No team Saturday left more of an impression with me than Bloomfield, which hung 58 points on a superb St. Pius team in the 4A championship game.

FIRST TIMERS: Two tiny schools in Albuquerque joined the precious first-timers club this year: the Legacy Academy volleyball program and the Oak Grove Classical girls cross-country program.

Legacy continues to make such progress across the spectrum; the football team won its first-ever football playoff game and made it to the 2A semifinals.

Other schools added to a large haul, like the Los Alamos girls cross-country program, now a 25-time state champion. St. Pius boys soccer has 19 and is closing in on Sandia Prep for the all-time lead in New Mexico. (St. Pius, Santa Fe Prep and La Cueva boys soccer were all runners-up at state last year before that trio rebounded to win a blue trophy in November this year.)

UNDER THE LIGHTS: The best visual story of the fall came on a Tuesday night in September at Albuquerque Academy, when for the first time in the state's history, New Mexico — joining about a dozen other states that already had done so — staged an outdoor prep volleyball match.

Playing in front of a large crowd, on a temporary court set up on the east side of the school's football field, visiting La Cueva beat the Chargers in straight sets. The weather cooperated, the environment was fantastic and it made for a memorable evening. And I would imagine we shall see some other schools/districts around the state trying this in 2026.

GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK: La Cueva girls soccer coach Amber Ashcraft won her 500th career game during the regular season, a road win at Capital, and she ranks among the top 10 in the country in that category. She is the only female coach to be on that list in this sport.

But Ashcraft after the state tournament announced that she was stepping down, leaving behind a trail that includes those 500-plus victories, plus 10 state championships with her alma mater.

Meanwhile, few football coordinators — in fact, I'd be hard pressed to think of anyone — have had a more prodigious career than Eddie Kilmer. Kilmer, the Cleveland defensive coordinator and a member of the school's Hall of Fame, had a fitting swan song going into retirement as the Storm defeated Las Cruces 35-28 on Saturday.

He coached this sport for over five decades and was privy to serving on two dynastic football staffs: the one at Clovis, and this one at Cleveland.

Best wishes to Amber and Eddie in the next chapter of their lives.

And with that, we officially turn the page. Winter is imminent, and it's time to move things indoors for the next 3 1/2 months.