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The Cleveland High School girls’ basketball program is seeking a new head coach. Susan Kubala submitted her coaching resignation on March 22, CHS Athletic Director Matt Martinez said.
Kubala’s Storm teams were 131-140 in her 10 seasons (2012-24) at the helm, including a 14-16 overall record and a 4-4 mark in District 1-5A in 2023-24. Seven times the Storm girls qualified for the postseason, with five first-round road losses and two losses in the quarterfinals.
“Would I love to win some more games? Absolutely, every coach does,” she said.
“We thank her for her years of service to the Cleveland High girls’ basketball program,” Rio Rancho Public Schools Executive Director of Athletics Todd Resch said. Coincidentally, Resch and Kubala were the varsity boys’ and girls’ coaches, respectively, at Del Norte High School in 2001-02 and 2002-03.
Kubala was the second girls’ coach at CHS; Felicia Boatman led the Storm from their origins at Rio Rancho Mid-High to Cleveland when it opened in 2009, and compiled a 66-76 record with the Storm, including the team’s only season as district champs (2010-11) and lone semifinal appearance.
Kubala, an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico and at Sandia High School between her stints at Del Norte and Cleveland, won the state championship with the Matadors (28-3) in 2010.
“It’s been 30 years that I coached high school basketball, and overall, probably right at 38 (years),” she said. “I decided to kinda make a move and see what retirement is like … People that I’ve known in the past few years, some of them absolutely love retirement; some of them are absolutely bored to death and want to get back into it.”
Those who know Kubala probably don’t expect her to stay out of the gym long.
“(Basketball) is a big part of my life,” she said. “I’m not going to rule it out, because, again, I’ve learned from a lot of people, never say never. If something phenomenal showed up, you know, I’d think about it. But the way (the N.M. Public Education Department) is, once you retire you have to sit out a number of months before you can return back, unless you go private school. … Who knows?
“I love working with the kids. Thirty years of working with high school kids, you’ve got to love it to do it for that long,” Kubala said. “(I) love, love, love that group of kids I had this year – we just had a crazy amount of injuries and illnesses, and I challenge any team in the state to lose three of their top six kids from the court and be the same team."
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“We will be running the ad soon, with hopes of having the position filled before the end of April,” Resch said.
Applicants can apply at the RRPS website (rrps.net).
