DEMING WILDCATS BUILDING ON STATE SEMIFINAL APPEARANCE
Down south, the Deming Wildcats are building on last year’s 8-5 season where they won five of their last six games. “We’re going to be young, so they have to learn in a hurry,” said head coach Richard Pereles. “They have to learn fast because we have a tough schedule early on and it just builds up from there.” That pre-district schedule includes games against Goddard, Artesia, Silver, and Mayfield.
Senior Aiden Jaquez will get most of the carries at the tailback position. “I like running the ball and I like hitting people, so it’s going to be fun,” said Jaquez. “I have a lot of responsibility this year.”
The Wildcats are traditionally a run-heavy team, but this year their coach added a few more passing plays to the game plan for junior quarterback Ryan Alfaro. “I’m actually excited that we are going to be airing it out a little bit more this year,” said Alfaro. “It will give me a break on running a little bit too.”
“Last year we were probably 90-something percent running the ball, this year I’d like to get it to around 80 percent,” said their head coach. “We’re still going to run the ball. I expect big things from him running the ball and throwing the ball.”
“We are going to pass the ball a lot, a little Air Raid,” joked Isaiah Pizarro. “But we’re a defensive team, we always have been. We’ll rely on our defense a lot.”
After a long dry spell in the southwestern desert, Deming reached the state semifinals last season. It was their second trip to the semis in the last four years. “It gave us that confidence to see what we need to do to get back to there and realize we could gain more experience by playing in those bigger games,” said senior receiver AJ Flores.
“They want that next step and understand what it takes,” said Pereles. “They’ve been in some big games, but we’re due to win one of those.”
“We all have the talent and potential, we have the coaching, we all know we can do it, we just have to replicate it,” said junior offensive lineman Ezra Hensley.
The last time Deming reached the state final was 1974.
