Around the Hood: Prep sports are hard

Editor's Note: Every week, Rio Rancho Observer sports and education reporter Taylor Hood looks at one of the main news items in sports around Rio Rancho, Bernalillo, and Sandoval County. From Gladiator's football to prep cheer to club sports, Taylor will dive in as he takes a look, “Around the Hood.”

I consider myself a very lucky person in terms of my profession. I love my job.

I love tracking sports and writing about them. I don’t even care what it is. If there are numbers and standings and there’s a league to follow, I’m in. I’d cover professional Cup-Stacking if someone would pay me to do it. (A man’s gotta eat, after all.)

I love going through endless rolls of sports photos and digging through stats sheets.

I won’t get rich at this job, but I love going to work every day and that’s worth a lot. I’m a little surprised someone actually pays me to watch sports. I am so very grateful for all of it.

It took me a long time to get to my goal: sports reporter. It wasn’t easy but it was definitely worth it. This specific assignment, covering prep sports in Rio Rancho, is exactly where I want to be. But I’m realizing this job comes with its own set of challenges.

To quote sportswriter and analyst Pablo Torre’s catch phrase, “Here’s the thing...” I really like this level of sports.

Go higher up on the sports ladder and you have professional athletes and all of the drama and negativity that can accompany that. Go lower on the ladder and the stakes are too low to justify significant journalistic coverage.

But prep sports? Well, prep sports are serious enough to be worth following, but the athletes are still kids and that somewhat relieves me of the responsibility of crushing athletes for poor performance.

I spent three years at Albuquerque the Magazine, where the rule is “positive stories only.” Their goal is not “breaking news” journalism, so much as telling the stories that don’t get told; the happy ones, the ones that won’t necessarily get the clicks, but will highlight the amazing parts of the communities in which we live.

So, telling happy stories is my wheelhouse, and I like it that way. I want the freedom to tell the truth, good or bad, but I naturally gravitate towards positivity.

Well, hold your horses, my friend. Prep sports are a strange in-between where kids become athletes. It’s the first level where winning becomes a significant priority. (More of a priority for some coaches than others, admittedly.) It’s also that in-between period where kids are approaching their entrance to adulthood. The future is rushing up on them and that’s scary.

In all of this, I’ve gained a new respect for the jobs of the high school coaches. Make no mistake about it, prep sports or no, they are all under tremendous pressure to win. That’s particularly true of Rio Rancho where the athletics programs are so respected, and the expectations and standards are so high.

But the coaches are also tasked with doing what’s best for the future of the children under their care. Jim Harbaugh, Steve Kerr, all these revered professional league head coaches have no such requirement.

So how does one balance everything? How does a coach build a winning program and still navigate the heartbreak that comes with kids finally hitting a level of competition that involves “cuts” from the team? What happens when what’s best for the student is they get noticed by college athletics recruiters, but what’s best for the team and program is to give someone else the starter’s role?

How exactly do you teach a kid to take adult-sized emotional hits?

It’s anti-climactic, but I have no idea.

My heart breaks every time I see a kid get benched or I get a letter from a desperate parent. At the younger level of sport, these problems don’t (or shouldn’t) exist. At the older levels, the mantra “they are adults and that’s just how it works” can rationalize away any bad feelings. But right here in the middle? I admit it’s something I didn’t foresee affecting me so much.

I’ve received a lot of solid advice from the coaches and athletic directors in terms of dealing with the heartache of kids coming up short on the field. They know these kids are a lot stronger than I’m giving them credit for.

And don’t get me wrong; controversy, petty squabbles, fishy dealings, legal trouble... if there is a benching for any of those reasons, I’ll certainly cover it. I’ll cover every benching, if necessary. But the ones that happen because a kid just had a bad night... those are tough.

Luckily, I’m not the head coach of one of the major teams at one of the major programs in New Mexico. I’m not sure my poor, little heart could take it.