The Alamo boys basketball team defeated Pine Hill 74-64 last week, but the girls team lost. The Alamo basketball teams were scheduled to play at To'Hajiilee Thursday night.

Photo by Nathalie Nance

Lady Warriors Win 2

By Nicky Romero
For the Mountain Mail

The fourth-ranked Socorro girls basketball team (14-5) is priming its play for Tuesday’s first district game against rival Hot Springs. But the Lady Warriors had some other business to take care of first.
On Jan. 22, Socorro traveled to Albuquerque and beat Sandia Prep 67-29. The Lady Warriors dominated from the start, leading 13-6 after the first quarter and 30-14 at halftime.
“Sandia Prep has no seniors,” Socorro coach Joseph Garcia said. “They’re a relatively young team. We played real well. All the girls got to play and that was good. We had three girls in double figures – Roxanne Silva (27 points), Jaden Jones (11 points) and Kianna Gonzales (10 points).”
Socorro continued its good shooting and defense in the second half, leading 49-24 after three quarters and it held Sandia Prep to one field goal in the final quarter.
“We had good balance in scoring and shot 49 percent from the field,” Garcia said. “Another good thing is that we only had 14 turnovers. But the only bad thing is that we missed 16 free throws. It was another game to get us ready for district.”
Jones got the first double-double of her career, as she also grabbed 10 rebounds. Socorro also had six players score five points or more, a rarity for the Lady Warriors.
On Jan. 25, Socorro played a rare home game and defeated St. Michael’s 56-43. It was only the fourth home game of the season for the Lady Warriors.
Socorro got off to a fast start, leading 12-5 after the first quarter.
“Samantha Sedillo did well and got off to a fast start tonight,” Garcia said. “She had a bunch of steals at the beginning.”
Silva got into foul trouble in the second half, but the rest of the Socorro players picked up the slack, scoring 10 of the 12 points as the Lady Warriors led 24-19 at halftime.
In the third quarter, Socorro extended its lead as Silva scored six points and the Lady Warriors led 44-27.
In the final quarter, the Lady Horsemen resorted to the outside shot and fouling Socorro. St. Michael’s outscored Socorro 15-12 in the quarter but the Lady Warriors were sharp from the free throw line, converting 6 of 8 free throws in the final stanza and 20 of 26 for the game.
Silva led the Lady Warriors with 25 points. Gonzales added nine points and Brittany McDaniel had eight points and was 6 of 6 from the free throw line.
Socorro will travel to Valencia High School on Jan. 29 and to Hot Springs on Feb. 2.

Lady Warriors Win 2

Warriors Scare Top Teams In State But Fall To 6-11 On Year

By Michael Olguin
For the Mountain Mail

As the Socorro boys basketball team winds down the month of January, it finds itself on a four-game losing streak.
Socorro coach Lawrence Baca said the Warriors have some of the top teams in the state from 2A-5A. Last week’s matchups were no different. The Warriors battled top ranked and undefeated 2A Mesilla Valley and second ranked 3A Sandia Prep. Socorro fell to both teams 62-50 and 57-43 respectively.
Even with a 6-11 record, the Warriors are still respected among the other coaches in the state as they are ranked 10th in the latest KOB TV coaches poll.
Socorro will take on the Valencia Jaguars and former Warrior coach Dominic Romero on Friday night in the Warrior dome. The following day, the Warriors will battle I-25 rival Belen Eagles at home. On Feb. 2, Socorro will open up the “second” season as it takes on the Hot Springs Tigers in its first district game.
“Going into these two games, we are starting to play our best basketball and these two games are going to be a good indication that we are going to start to peak at the right time and we will start getting some wins,” Baca said.
Last Thursday, the Warriors looked to give the Son Blazers of Mesilla Valley their first loss of the season. In the first quarter, the Blazers (18-0) showed why they are undefeated, outscoring the Warriors 19-10.
The second quarter was a different story. Socorro began clicked on all cylinders and outscored the Blazers 21-7 to take a 31-26 halftime lead.
“At that time the kids realized that they can play with these guys,” Baca said bout his team leading at halftime. “We felt a little confident and realized we can play with anyone.”
The game remained close throughout the third quarter and the Warriors had a 44-38 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That was before the Blazers caught fire outscoring the Warriors 24-10 in the fourth quarter to take the victory.
“We were a little frustrated because we were in these close games and weren’t coming out with any W’s,” Baca said after the game.
Zach Esquivel led the Warriors with 13 points and 7 rebounds. Jared Marquez followed with 11 points.
The following night, the Sun Devils from Sandia Prep came to town. According to the last KOB TV coaches poll, the Sundevils (11-6) were ranked second behind Hope Christian.
“Those guys looked like a college team didn’t they?” Baca told KMXQ after the game. Those in attendance would agree. Eight of the Sundevils players are listed as 6 feet tall or higher.
The Sundevils’ height and experience was just too much for the young and undersized Warriors. Sandia Prep took full advantage of the mismatches presented to them.
Even though the Warriors trailed 33-21 at halftime, they battled back. They outscored the Sundevils 14-13 in the third quarter to stay in the hunt. But Sandia Prep pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Erik Garcia led all Warriors with 11 points. Esquivel added eight points and seven rebounds.
“I think more and more when we are playing these close games against some of the top teams in the state and we are starting to realize what we need to do as we get closer to district and the state playoffs,” Baca said.

Warriors Scare Top Teams In State But Fall To 6-11 On Year

San Antonio Woman Re-Elected To American Farm Bureau Post

Mountain Mail reports

SAN ANTONIO - Margene Harris, a long-time agricultural leader from San Antonio, has been re-elected to the American Farm Bureau Federation Women’s Leadership Committee at the organization’s 91st annual meeting in Seattle.
Harris has served on the AFBF women’s committee for 18 years and is past chair of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau’s statewide women’s committee. She also served for many years on the New mexico Farm Bureau’s state board of directors in addition to her involvement in the Socorro County Farm and Livestock Bureau.
Harris says the national women’s committee serves a vital function in the structure of the nation’s largest agricultural organization.
“It’s so important for our committee members at all levels to speak out on behalf of Farm Bureau, their operations and agriculture as a whole.
“We’re charged with promoting Farm Bureau at all levels,” Harris said.
The national AFBF Women’s Leadership Committee consists of 10 members including a chair, vice-chair and two representatives from each of the four AFBF national regions.

San Antonio Woman Re-Elected To American Farm Bureau Post

Residents Show Off Their Resourcefulness

Luna News
By Kaye Mindar

Luna and surrounding areas just lived through a historical event (as the national news reported it.) It was the most consecutive days of snow in recorded history and Luna itself saw about three and one-half feet. It was absolutely beautiful.
It caught many a little under prepared and off guard. Three days of no electricity and Navopache Electric Co-op working frantically, showed many how resourceful they could be. The crises caught a few relying on neighbors, and knowing they were just ill prepared for the event.
But that’s Luna, there’s always a neighbor you can call and an arm you can lean on.
Now the skies are clear for a moment, the weather man’s predicting more and we’re facing our next challenges of broken pipes in many homes. Again, there is always a neighbor to count on, and an arm to lean on. If only all communities were that way and all neighbors were truly caring for their family first and then had enough to want to share with those in need. It was almost miraculous, Luna had entered the third day without power and Sunday afternoon it was back on.

Carol Laney’s services went on without a hitch and it was a lovely funeral that was attended by many. In fact, standing room only. Many could not make it up to the cemetery for final prayer and dedicatory events because of the snow, but all were able to pay their respects; either at Burnham Mortuary Sunday evening or at the Luna Ward house on Monday.

Old material that has been taken out of circulation at the Luna Ward Library; such as old Church magazines, Primary items and Church conference videos can be picked up at the library and are available for anyone interested until the end of February. Contact Joyce Laney for more information.

Your challenge is to check where three days without power and then clear skies and freezing temperatures left you. Were you fully prepared? Can you see need for improvement? Was your family warm and dry, your shelves adequately filled of the basics. Did your animals have what they needed? Were you bored or did you use the time to reconnect with your family, playing games and working side by side. Now that it’s for the most part behind us; do you have a shopping list to replenish what was used or items you could see you needed for next time. I have lived here 11 years and believe me there will be a next time. Project Noah flyers are available if you will send a self addressed envelope to Kaye Mindar P.O. Box 42 Luna, N.M., 87824.

Quote of the week:
“Life is like a blanket of snow. Be careful how you step on it. Every step will show!”
~Jennifer

Residents Show Off Their Resourcefulness

No January Thaw In Swingle Canyon For Sylvia

Sylvia
By Anne Sullivan

"Leave me alone,” I yelled at Sylvia who was pulling on my pajama leg. “I’m functioning. After all, I did Christmas.”
“Christmas is not done until Christmas is put away,” mumbled Sylvia through the pajama leg.
“It’s still January,” I said, pulling my pajama out of her mouth. “Our Christmas tree is so pretty. I need time to enjoy it. And I also need some down time.”
“Down time is one thing but sitting all day in your chair is OUT time. Look at the clock. It’s almost 10 a.m. The day is half done. You haven’t even had breakfast.”
I gave her a filthy look. “What are you complaining about? You got your breakfast, didn’t you?”
“Yes, both Gordo and I had a very tasty breakfast, thank you, but I can’t stand to see you stagnate this way.”
“Then sit. Heh heh. Get it? If you can’t stand, sit. Heh, heh.”
“I get it,” said Sylvia sitting down hard on my foot to show that she did.
“And, for your information, I’m not stagnating. I’m just catching up on my sleep.”
“Sleep is something you should do at night, not during the shank of the morning, whatever that is,” Sylvia argued.
“Look who’s talking. I notice you do a tremendous amount of sleeping during the day.”
“That’s not sleeping. I admit to enjoying a dog nap now and then during the day. I refuse to call them cat naps,” she continued crossly. “Cats get too much credit for doing nothing.”
“Speaking of cats,” I said, “Gordo must have a hot date tonight. Instead of sleeping, he’s been washing himself for two days. The white parts of him absolutely glow.”
“I wish you’d get him fixed,” Sylvia said. “As a feminist, I can’t stand the way he boasts about his conquests when he deigns to return from his outings.”
“I can’t get him fixed until I can catch him.”
“He’s not as dumb as he seems,” Sylvia observed. “He couldn’t be. I wonder what those lady cats he hangs around with see in him.”
“You have to admit he’s very pretty. Especially when he’s clean.”
“Handsome is as handsome does,” growled Sylvia.
“You’re as grouchy as I am,” I ventured to say.
No sooner had I completed the sentence than the lights glitched off – then on – then off. Like sheep following the bellwether, the furnace, TV and my heated throw all followed. Off. I followed with a few appropriate remarks.
“You shouldn’t talk like that,” Sylvia scolded.
“If you expect to eat again in the near future, you’ll button your lip.”
It was at least four minutes before her lip became unbuttoned. “Isn’t there supposed to be a January thaw?” she asked. “It’s been January forever and it seems like it’s been cold forever and ever.”
“It does seem that way,” I agreed. As I spoke the lights flashed on then off and then they came to rest at on. The furnace rumbled and came on again. My electric throw felt warm once more. I coaxed the TV to a waiting point for its signal before I said, “I don’t think there has to be a January thaw. It might come in February.”
“And then we’ll have mud. If there’s anything I hate worse than cold, it’s mud.” With that declaration Sylvia strode to her indoor bed beneath the TV set and turned around and around and around.
“Before you retire for the afternoon,” I asked her, “would a doggy biscuit cheer you up in any way?”
Sylvia’s eyes brightened. “It might. It just might. We could try. Are you going to bring it to me? I hesitate to disturb my bedtime routine.”
“I will,” I said rising and extricating myself from my heated throw. “I was just on my way to the kitchen to get an oatmeal cookie. That might cheer me up about having to shovel my way out of here before we get the promised January thaw.”

No January Thaw In Swingle Canyon For Sylvia

Quemado: Senior Center And Spelling Bee News

By Debbie Leschner
For the Mountain Mail

The Quemado Senior Center van will be going to Gallup on Wednesday, Feb. 3. The van leaves the center at 8 a.m. Please call the center at 773-4820 to make your reservations. Happy Birthday to all the February birthday folks: Tillie Chavez, Lucille Kozak, Placy Padilla, Harry Shawver, Betty Spencer, Judy Towner and Rose Weaber.

The Quemado schools recently held their spelling bee. Elementary school winners were Diana Hart, Oran Pierson and Samantha Larisch. Junior high winners were Sam Farr, Stefan Beauchamp and Monique Sisneros. Hart, Farr and Beauchamp will compete in the county spelling bee in Reserve next week.

The Reserve Sportsman Club will be having its winter gun show Saturday, Feb. 6 and Sunday, Feb. 7, at the Catron County Fair Building in Reserve. For information on table rentals and hours contact Stanley Radvillas at 575 533- 6387.

The Quemado district basketball games are well under way. The Boys Varsity, Junior Varsity and Girls Varsity, Junior Varsity Basketball Teams will play Animas at home on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 6, Quemado will play against Reserve at 2 p.m.

Note: Know of anything going on or a special event, please let me know. Good news can't be shared if it is unknown. Call 773-4119 or email at mmquemado@hotmail.com.

Quemado: Senior Center And Spelling Bee News

Hunters Learn Their Cues

By Nathalie Nance
For the Mountain Mail

ALAMO -- Twelve aspiring young hunters got their hunter education earlier this month.
Many of them have already tried hunting a little bit with their families, but in order to get a hunting license, if you are under 18, you have to take the 16-hour hunter education course.
In three sittings, with teacher John Apachito, the students learned how to hunt elk, deer and bear, as well as gun safety and proper hunting etiquette.
After taking a test, they were rewarded with patches to put on their hunting attire, and a combined whistle and compass.

Roger Apachito looked longingly in his textbook at the .22 rifle he would like to get, while cousins Remy Secatero and Lehmer Ganadonegro planned on hunting elk together.
“Now you have a big responsibility” John Apachito reminded them, before letting them out of the classroom, into the woods.

Photo: Some of the 12 newly educated hunters. From top left: Remy Secatero, Roger Apachito, Thomas Apachito, Lehmer Ganadonegro. Front row: Devia Apachito and Angelita Apachito.

Photo by Nathalie Nance

Hunters Learn Their Cues

Community Arts For All Ages

By John Larson

SOCORRO - Everyone is an artist when they attend the 14th Annual Community Arts party next Saturday, Feb. 6, at Finley Gym. Arts and crafts, ranging from corn husk dolls to wire art, from painted rocks to corn starch mush, will be demonstrated and created throughout the day.
All the arts projects are run by local volunteers, either professional artists or people who love doing arts and crafts projects that can be created by all members of the family.

The Arts Party was founded in 1996 by Ronna Kalish, Director of the New Mexico Tech Performing Arts Series, and former Socorro artist Becky Titus-Taylor.
“The idea is that hands-on arts and crafts workshops are not just for kids, but all ages,” Kalish said in an interview. “It became so well attended we added it to the PAS schedule. We wanted to provide meaningful arts activities that families can learn and do at home together; and to spend quality time together as a community engaged in the arts.”
Titus-Taylor, who has since moved to Jemez Springs, is the artist responsible for the Festival of the Crayons installation each year during Festival of the Cranes.
She and her husband Mark Taylor, participate each year with a center-piece project, always something big and fun.
“I do something different every year. Last year we did big silly faces on a stick,” Titus-Taylor said. “In the beginning we wanted to have the kids make one large thing together, like a show piece. But that became a problem with what to do with the thing afterward – who was going to he the one to take it home.
“Ronna and I started this because we thought that there should be an arts event in town that everybody could take part in; a place where artists could participate and bring in fun things to do,” Titus-Taylor said. “The City of Socorro supported the idea by letting us use Finley Gym. It’s the perfect venue.”
She said the first party was an immediate hit.
“It was well attended right off the bat, and pretty quickly it mushroomed,” Titus-Taylor said.
The first Community Arts Party drew about 600 people, and last year the event was attended by “well over one thousand,” filling the floor of Finley Gym, Kalish said.

This year the projects will be as varied as the artists conducting them:

Paint-A-Tile - Liz Alvarez
Tye Die Bandanas – Nicole Beaudoin/Dancing Rainbows
Whimsical Wire Danglies - David Burleigh
Pottery - Vince Cardaga
Chinese Names –Chinese Assoc. of New Mexico Tech/Chinese Clubs of Socorro High and Sarracino Middle
Candle Dipping - Beth Schmidt Crowder
Flower Fairies – Karyn DeBont
Design-A-Quilt – Fiber Arts Guild of Socorro
Buttons – Mike Fort
Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest - Friends of the Bosque/Lisa Jackson
Sculpture – Sharon Fullingim
Heart Mounds –Interact Club of Socorro High
Woven Heart Pouches –Interact Club of Socorro High
Ojos - Stasia Kerkmans
Circular Weaving - Gerry Klinglesmith
Ribbon Roses - Linda Martinic
Candle Holders - Georgia Raymond
Silly Hats/Mr. Squiggly – Becky Titus-Taylor

Photo by Pat Kolbenschlag. Courtesy of Performing Arts Series

Community Arts For All Ages

Presidential Chamber Music Returns To Macey

SOCORRO – String trios by Beethoven and Mozart, as well as two trios by modern composer Mark O’Connor, are on the program for the Presidential Chamber Music concert scheduled for Feb. 1 at New Mexico Tech. The concert is on Monday, Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Macey Center. Thanks to support by Dr. Daniel H. López, president of New Mexico Tech, the concert series is free and open to the public.

The series is part of New Mexico Tech’s Performing Arts Series.
Before the concert, Tech Club – Club Macey (TCCM) holds a social in Macey from 5 to 7 p.m., with “Lite Bite” appetizers. TCCM is a social club for people 21 and over. There is a $5 cover charge if you are not a member of TCCM.
Willy Sucre, organizer and violist of the chamber music series, is joined by violinist Ray Sonne and cellist James Holland for the trios. Ray Sonne is a longtime member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and a prominent music educator in the Pittsburgh area. He is currently retired from the symphony and is on the faculty at the Carnegie Mellon University Preparatory Department. One of his interests is bridging the gap between classically trained violinists and jazz improvisation.
James Holland, who has appeared in the first Presidential Chamber Music concert of the season, is assistant principal cello of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. He was a longtime cellist and teacher in Charleston, S.C., until his relocation to New Mexico in 2007.
Beethoven’s String Trio in C Minor, Op. 9, No. 3 is one of the last string trios he published, dating from around 1797. Scholars speculate that when he began composing string quartets the next year, he found them more satisfying and did not return to composing trios.
Mark O’Connor, a living American composer, relates that he composed “Appalachia Waltz” in 1993, while sitting in a cabin in Santa Fe.
He was writing a portion of his second concerto, hoping to identify with some of the Native American culture in New Mexico. He recounts that this piece appeared in his head with all of the doublestops and drones, all at once! In 15 minutes it was written. It seemed much too intimate for his concerto, so he tucked it away and introduced it to Yo-Yo Ma a couple of years later. It turned out to be the impetus (and title inspiration) for the two projects they recorded together. It is one of his most liked pieces and he likes to think it is because folk musicians think it's classical music and classical musicians think it's folk music.
The trio will also perform O’Connor’s College Hornpipe.
The concert wraps up with Mozart’s Divermento in E flat Major, KV 563.

Willy Sucre. Courtesy photo

Presidential Chamber Music Returns To Macey