Taking a quantitative look at RRPS athletics

RIO RANCHO—Although Rio Rancho High School had a 12-year head start on Cleveland High School, through the winter sports season of the 2023-24 school year, including the state powerlifting championships that concluded in April and the mid-May conclusion of the school year, RRHS teams had a narrow 50-49 edge over the Storm when it comes to state championships.

Cleveland would also have 50 if its baseball team had been able to douse a seventh-inning rally by La Cueva.

Rio Rancho Public Schools Executive Director of Athletics Todd Resch managed to find time to research all the titles the schools have won. His findings show RRHS won 21 state championships, with five each in volleyball and wrestling, before CHS opened in August 2009.

The Rams were up to 25 state championships before Cleveland won its first, in the 2011-12 school year, when it won six. That included the “big schools” football championship, which was remarkable in that it was just the Storm’s third season of that sport.

Cleveland has had some great years, winning six state titles in the 2011-12 school year, five in 2015-16 and then six again in 2020-21. Rio Rancho’s lone year of winning as many as five titles was back in 2006-07, when this year’s seniors and maybe some juniors were born.

The Rams have enjoyed their most success in wrestling, with a dozen state championships.

The Storm’s best success has been in boys track and field, with 11 — the last eight in a row.

There are a few voids — sports without championships for both high schools — in girls basketball, boys tennis, girls tennis, boys swimming, girls swimming and dance.

RRHS has yet to win a state title in girls golf and the relatively new sports of boys powerlifting and girls wrestling, plus — maybe surprisingly in light of Cleveland’s success — track and field, boys and girls.

CHS hasn’t won a baseball crown nor a championship in girls powerlifiting.

In this school year, the schools are tied with four titles apiece: RRHS has titles thus far in boy’ cross-country, girls cross-country, girls powerlifting and girls track and field; CHS has won championships in girls soccer, boys powerlifting, girls wrestling and boys track and field.

Resch also had participation numbers — they’re on his cellphone — showing that the four middle schools and two high schools have 3,256 student-athletes involved, with 27% of them playing more than one sport. Just over 37.1% of secondary students participate in athletics, he said.

CHS has 1,144 student-athletes; RRHS has 1,022. Both experienced increases of more than 100 since the 2022-23 school year.

Middle school students are offered most of the sports they’ll have an opportunity to play in high school.

“We’re doing our best to provide the middle schools an experience that they can remember,” he said, “as far as getting on the bus, traveling with the team, etc.

“There are some concerns that I have,” Resch said, “some unintended consequences.

“By adding girls wrestling and girls powerlifting; I wonder what that’s doing to our softball numbers,” he said. Neither school has a freshman team, although the sport is played at the middle school level, he noted. “I really want to support both of our hard-working coaches at both schools, as far as getting those numbers back.”

He took a look at moving eighth graders up to play at the C-team, or freshman, level, but didn’t want to destroy the eighth-grade teams.

Some facilities upgrades need to be done, “specifically softball at Rio Rancho (softball),” he said, planning a new pressbox and working scoreboard at what is known as Paul Kohman Field.

In the next two school years, with Farmington and Piedra Vista moving into the Rams' and Storm’s District 1-5A, Resch faces an increase in transportation costs.

“The transportation cost is going to be an additional challenge,” he said. “A round-trip bus to the Four Corners area is $2,301 … and multiply that by two schools.”

Here are some memorable “moments in time” from the current school year:

• Committed to play football at UTEP, Cleveland senior three-sport student-athlete Strat Shufelt is named to the All-State first team at linebacker for the fourth year in a row.
• Eighth grader Mia Martinez breaks the girls’ single-game scoring record for the Rio Rancho Rams with 41 points.
• Longtime RRHS baseball coach Ron Murphy is placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation. He’s the state’s winningest prep baseball coach.
• Cleveland junior pitcher Jarren Villa sets a school record by striking out 19 batters in a Storm baseball game.

Rams vs. Storm, 2023-24

In this year’s head-to-head contests, Cleveland had a big edge in the fall, winning the only meeting in football, winning twice each in boys and girls soccer soccer, and going 4-0 in volleyball.

In the winter, the Storm extended its lead with a win in wrestling and two wins in boys basketball, but the Rams girls basketball team was 4-0 vs. the Storm.

In the spring, the Storm boys tennis team beat the Rams, but the Rams girls squad beat the Storm. In baseball, the Rams won two of the first three meetings, but the Storm’s win in the fourth meeting of the season — in a Class 5A semifinal — sent them into the championship game. In softball, the Rams were 2-0 vs. the Storm.

Resch will be happier to see a New Mexico Activities Association Director’s Cup* be awarded to either school, with both running neck-and-neck this school year. Despite a dozen-year lag behind the Rams’ teams, Cleveland has won four Director’s Cups (2015-17 and ’19), the Rams have two (2007, ’21).

As of this writing, La Cueva (1,840 points) leads the 5A schools, with Cleveland (1,480) second and Rio Rancho (1,000) third.

Neither City of Vision school has been tagged with a “strike” by the NMAA, which means the schools’ coaches, players and fans have been behaving properly.

“That is clearly the expectation I have,” Resch said. “I think that we’ve got great fans, good athletes, good coaches. This is a wonderful community to work in and to participate in athletics in, and we’re going to work hard to keep it that way.”

* The Directors Cup is awarded annually to the top New Mexico Activities Association member schools in each classification based upon success in activities, athletics and sportsmanship. Points are awarded in each category based on criteria for athletics, activities, multi-sport athletes and how they fare in Compete with Class and Sportsmanship. See the breakdown at nmact.org.