Around the Hood: Activities trophies are awesome

Sports aren’t the only thing the New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) covers. After all, it’s not the “New Mexico Sports Association”. That’s something else... probably. The point is, there are a lot of kids competing in a lot of things throughout the school year and not all of them are sports, at least, not recognized as “major” sports by the NMAA.

Take Marching Band for example. Thousands showed up for the first annual Marching Band State Championship at Rio Rancho High School. Thousands of parents and friends and supporters and staff all packed into a stadium to recognize their kiddos.

There are chess players and bowlers and e-sports competitors and DECA students. There are awards for the one-act production competition, the science fair, and Mock Trial. (I’ll go ahead and include a complete listing below.)

At this point, RRPS has blown past the “100 State Sports Titles” goal it opened the year with. That is to say, they were at 99 State Titles coming into the school year and were looking to get at least one more to grab that big, juicy round number to go along with their 30th-Anniversary celebration.

Well, the Rio Rancho Rams cross-country squad took care of that. Then the Cleveland Storm football team came in and grabbed 101. And then the CHS Storm girls wrestling team grabbed 102. Then... well you get the point. RRPS is on a state-championship type of roll.

If you go to the NMAA website (confusingly located at nmact.org) you’ll be able to see the record books and gaze at all those wonderful RRPS titles. But if you really want to be impressed, hop over to the “Activities” page and see what the district has done on that side.

Enough burying the lead. RRPS has 78 activities trophies. That’s 78 first-place wins across 30 years. Or at least, as far as I can tell.

Activities aren’t as cut and dried as sports. ...Unless of course, they are actual sports (bowling) or competitive games (chess). But not every activity recognized by the NMAA has a competitive aspect to it. Things like Student Council, for example, have an end-of-the-year conference. Or Science Fair, which hands out a slew of prizes and scholarship money. Then there are the activities (which I won’t name) that have results sheets too confusing to make any sense out of.

So, the best I can figure, RRPS holds 78 activities trophies and many of them can be viewed in the fine arts buildings at the two high schools.

After all those caveats, I do have some “by the numbers” factoids to give you, however. Everyone loves factoids, right?

The first activities title the district ever won was by RRHS for Mock Trial in the year 2000. Now, 30 years later, the Rams Marching Band is the latest crew to grab a state activities title (with a bonus 2nd place for Cleveland). The title for “most activities wins” in RRPS history belongs to DECA who grabbed 49 (individual) titles between 2018 and 2024.

Like I said, that’s a lot of kids, kicking a lot of butt, at a lot of different things, over a long period of time. Rio Rancho kids are particularly good at spoiling their community in terms of sports and academic achievements, and I’m happy to say the reasons to be proud of our community just keep revealing themselves.

So, on behalf of the Rio Rancho Observer staff, let me just extend a big CONGRATULATIONS to the 10,000+ kids who have participated in these events over the decades. Your hard work and dedication are truly something to admire.

NMAA Recognized Activities* with RRPS title years

Athletic Training Challenge (5)

- RRHS – 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

Bowling (10)

- RRHS – 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2024

- CHS – 2015, 2017, 2023

Business Professionals of America (0)

Chess (0)

Choir (2)

- RRHS – 2016, 2018

Concert Band (2)

- CHS – 2022, 2024

DECA Marketing Education (49)

- CHS – 2024 x3 (Neveah Martinez & Alyssa Rodriguez, Mataya Cheromiah, Jaylee Chavez, Ayana Garcia), 2023 x4 (Victoria Shaner, Jherika Anaya-Campos / Bree Garcia, Bohdistava Garcia, Cassy Shipman), 2022 x4 (Isabella Martinez / Elizabeth Montoya, Aiden Wasson, Shipman, Donald Gallegos), 2021 x6 (Jolena Akudago / Deborah Gorson, Isaac Morgan / Dayree Ramirez, Rachel Richter, Michael Robinson, Isabella Hendricks, Das Ava Chapman / Shipman), 2020 (Jacob Hovey), 2019 x5 (Braden Mackay, John Primaveri / Sophia Sanchez, Aiden Weinstein, Hannah Stewart / Savannah Stewart, Sage Earwood), 2018 x 7 (Mark Campbell, Autumn Hofheins, Christopher Ramos, Emilia Avila, Katrina Carr, Cole Keene, Sage Earwood, Braden Mackay)

- RRHS – 2024 x3 (Noheya Begay, Abigail Schmidt, Abigail Lee), 2023 x3 (Janna Rhea Manalo, Abigail Schmidt, Marcela Silva), 2022 x2 (Ethan Goldstrom, Marcela Silva), 2019 x5 (Evelyn Heavyrunner / Katia Perez, Faith Gresham / Ashley Hildebrand, John Petersin, Anah Black, Tatum Ary), 2018 x6 (Carmen Peralta, Andrea Simmons, Noa Gonzales, Lucas Anderson, Alexis Jacquez, Beau Sandoval, Jose Rivera, Sloan Wilson, Kayla McWhorter, Angelina Lopez)

Drama/One-Act Production (4)

- RRHS – 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023 (Fall competition)

Educators Rising (0)

English Expo (0)

ESports (1)

- RRHS – 2019

FCCLA (Family, Career and Community Leaders of America) (0)

FFA Agriculture Education (0)

HOSA – Future Health Professionals (0)

JROTC (1)

- RRHS - 2023

Marching Band** (1)

- RRHS – 2024

Mock Trial (2)

- RRHS – 2000, 2003

Scholastic Publications (0)

Science Fair*** (0)

Science Olympiad (0)

SkillsUSA (0)

Speech and Debate (1)

- CHS – 2023 (Faith Young)

Student Council*** (0)

TSA (Technology Student Association) (0)

*As of the 2024-25 school year

**The NMAA does not list state championships for Marching Band prior to 2024, the first year its official State Championship was held.

***Activity has prizes and scholarships or hosts a conference, rather than State Championship event and trophies.