HOBBS BOYS BASKETBALL IS MAKING A RESURGENCE
The Hobbs boys basketball program is making a resurgence. “It’s a good feeling, but we don’t get comfortable, we want to go and win it all,” said senior point guard Abraham Pena.
The Eagles have won 17 state titles, but none since 2015. “What the tradition was built on was community,” head coach Ronald Ross explained. “When Coach Tasker was there, I grew up with him. I was a 5th grader and he was rebounding my free throws, just having a conversation with me. You had the guy that worked down the street, he’d come in. You had a guy from the oil field. Hobbs is a community. I couldn’t take credit and say it’s just me, I’m back. Hobbs basketball is united off of a strong community.”
Former Hobbs High School standout Ronald Ross is in his first year as head coach. Ross helped the Eagles win back-to-back-to-back state titles as a player before his collegiate career at Texas Tech. “The guys get tired of hearing my stories, and I would get tired of hearing me if I was them,” Ross said. “I try to limit it and use it when it makes the most sense.”
“Coach Ross is a great coach,” said Turrubiates. “Coming in this first year he’s doing really well for himself. He’s been encouraging us to be better as a player and a person.”
“He gets us going and I like his motto to go 1-0 every day,” said Pena.
The Eagles started the year winning 11 of their first 12 games. “We have a very persistent team, no matter what, we keep on going,” said senior Jairus Turrubiates. “Even when we’re down, we keep looking on the bright side of things and wanting to get back into it.”
Last year, the Eagles failed to reach the postseason with a losing record. This season they are one of the top ranked teams in the state. “Growing up, watching all these expectations of Hobbs basketball, it kind of gets to you when you come out and you’re playing for them yourself,” said Turrubiates. “But it’s fun. Growing up you hear about all this stuff and now you’re in it. It feels amazing.”
“My style would definitely be defense,” said their head coach. “Defense is the core of everything. You can produce offense out of defense.”
And some of that offense comes from their size in the post. “It’s not every day in New Mexico that you have a 6’7” player and a 7-foot player, so we definitely want to utilize that to our advantage as much as we can and when we do have the chance to do it, we do it,” said Ross.
Ross says it’s about having fun again. “Just bringing the joy back,” Ross explained. “Hobbs has such a winning tradition, everybody feels like, ‘You have to win state this year.’ Yeah, that’s the goal, but we’re going to enjoy it. We’re going to go out and have some fun.”
The players have a goal of getting back to that title game. “It doesn’t matter who you put in front of us, I want to win it,” said Pena.
“We can go all the way,” said Turrubiates. “We just need that will to want to go and get it.”
“I strongly believe in our team, but obviously we have to earn that, though,” said Ross. “We have to earn that right, but this team is a special team and I believe we have all the potential in the world to make a run at the state title this year. I believe we have everything we need, I think we got the right mentality, we got the right guys. We just have to continue to work and let the work speak for itself.”
Volcano Vista is going for their 4th straight state title. The last school in the state’s largest classification to win four in a row is Hobbs High School.
