Wake up, Lobo fans — the next couple months aren’t only about football.
With fall just around the corner, sports radio and local news stations are talking about the UNM football’s shortcomings, how the arrest of Deshon Marman will affect him on the field, and by what margin Boise State will beat the Lobos.
Even though this year’s football team looks much better than those of the last two seasons, it bothers me that the spotlight is focused squarely on football when it should be on all fall sports.
In 2010, five of the six fall Lobo sports made it to their respective NCAA tournaments. Yes, five. The only one to miss out was the 1-11 football team.
CROSS COUNTRY
The UNM women’s cross country team dominated last season. Led by 2010 MWC female athlete of the year Natalie Gray, the ladies won the Mountain West Cross Country Championships, the NCAA Mountain Region, and took fifth in the NCAA championships.
The men’s cross country squad also won the conference championship and Mountain Region. It finished 16th in the NCAA’s championship thanks in large part to Keith Gerrard and Rory Fraser, who were both named to the 2010-11 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District Cross Country Team.
The idea of watching people run sounds boring, but when you’re at the meet, the smell of competition mixes with the taste of success to form a delicious combination, and head coach Joe Franklin has built what’s sure to be a solid program for years to come.
SOCCER
Lobo Soccer’s recent success also deserves praise.
The men have been to the NCAA tournament consistently for the last decade; they were nationally ranked multiple times and even made it to the championship game in 2005. Last season ended with a first round NCAA tourney loss to Creighton, but with a solid recruiting class coming in and with the veteran leadership of Michael Green and Devon Sandoval, the Lobos should be in contention to keep the ball rolling.
Not to be outdone, the women had a pleasantly surprising 2010 season. Although they, too, were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tourney against national champion Notre Dame, it was the first time the program had been there.
The women’s team also won its first-ever Mountain West Conference regular season title. The women have a great defense and have the Mountain West offensive and defensive players of the year Jennifer Williams and Kelli Cornell coming back in. Kit Vela’s squad looks like it willl have another solid season, with 21 players returning.
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VOLLEYBALL
Lastly, UNM Volleyball is back on the map. For the second season running, the Lobos made it to the postseason after a successful 20-9 regular season, which included a win against the No.13-ranked Colorado State Rams at Johnson Center. In what seemed to be a trend last fall, they too were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA tournament tour with their loss to USC. Look out for sophomore Mariah Agre and seniors Allison Buck and Ashley Rhoades to lead the Lobos to the top of the Mountain West Conference.
UNM’s Johnson Center will host the first-ever MWC volleyball tournament this fall. This is a great opportunity for the Lobos to win the conference title.
Unfortunately the success of these sports has not yet produced a national championship, but Lobo fans need to wake up and start supporting the programs that are at the cusp of greatness. With greater support comes greater notoriety, and greater notoriety makes it easier to recruit top-level athletes. The Lobos are bound to get that national title, but the fans need to help make it happen.
So do yourself a favor. Stop with the “our football team sucks” nonsense, and go enjoy the high-quality athletics that UNM has to offer.
