Behind team effort, Rio Rancho Spartans head to Pop Warner Nationals

RIO RANCHO — A Rio Rancho football team is headed to the national stage.

Not the Storm, not the Rams, but the Spartans.

The Rio Rancho Spartans, a 13U Pop Warner program, have won the New Mexico Championship and the Southwest Regional Championship this season to punch their ticket to nationals for the second straight year.

The program will look to top last year’s national performance, a performance that never got the chance to take place.

“Last year, we made it to Nationals. We were 11-1, but we fell short,” Spartans Head Coach Nate Davis said. “We fell short because of money. That’s it. That’s the only reason why we fell short. We had a great team, but it’s an eight-day trip for our kids, and it was tough for all of our kids to get off for eight days and then for us to raise enough money for flights and to stay.”

Now in 2025, the Spartan staff and supporters ensured that money off the field won’t keep their players from getting on it.

“We really sat down as a coaching staff, our team mom and my wife, we really sat down and went over things. If we’re going to do it, we’ve got to go all out,” Davis said.

In the offseason, the team raised money by working concerts, helping at Albuquerque Isotopes games and hosting different fundraisers.

Now, finishing the season 6-3 with two titles to their name, the Spartans will be taking 24 of their 31 players to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Pop Warner National Championships.

The cross-country trip may seem daunting for a group of 13-year-olds, but Davis and Co. pride themselves on this type of football experience.

“We play a lot of out-of-state games. We played three in-state games this year. That’s all we played. We play a lot out of state, so we’re preparing our boys for this situation,” Davis said.

The Spartans took road trips to sites such as Arizona and Texas this past regular season before playing for the Southwest title against a team from Colorado. That game was hosted at Bernalillo High School, a usual site when the Spartans play “home” games.

This traveling schedule isn’t just preparation for one trip to Charlotte but to get more experience under their belts before entering the high school level.

“When you play these out-of-state games, there’s bigger and better talent out there,” Davis said. “Some of these kids are the best kids in New Mexico. So that’s why we do this, so they can see what it’s like outside of New Mexico, see what the talent’s like, so when they get into high school and they play those out-of-state games, they’ll know what it’s like.”

The high school preparation is especially important this year, with this being the final year of the Spartans, at least under this current staff. These Spartans will soon become Rams and Storm, with the coaching staff looking at making the jump as well.

“We’re still looking to see, as a coaching staff, where we’re gonna go,” Davis said. “But this is our last year coaching Pop Warner. I’ve been coaching since 10U. So it’s been a long journey with these boys.”

Nationals, being the swan song of their long Pop Warner journey, gave the program all the more reason to go all in on this North Carolina-bound trip. The 2025 Pop Warner Super Bowl will take place from Dec. 6-13.

It is an exciting milestone and opportunity for this young group, but don’t get Davis and the Spartans wrong: They still have their eyes on the prize.

“It’s not a vacation, right?” Davis said. “It’s a business trip.”