By Glen Rosales
Special to the SUN

After Ryan Cordova was not retained as head boys basketball coach at Pojoaque Valley High School earlier in the month, the Elks wasted little time in bringing in his replacement.

Pojoaque alum Dominic Roybal was hired last week after spending several years as an assistant coach with the Los Alamos and Mayfield boys programs, where he was also the head coach for the JV and C teams.

Roybal was chosen from nine applicants, six of whom were brought in for interviews, Elks Athletic Director Sean Jimenez said. Roybal takes over a team that went 14-15 last season and lost in the first round of the Class 4A state tournament to Hope Christian.

“Dominic hit on all the points that the nine-person committee wanted to see in the next coach,” Jimenez said of the group that included players, parents, staff and administrators. “He talked about building the culture and holding our student athletes accountable.”

Roybal was a four-year member of the Pojoaque program before graduating in 2017. He spent two years at New Mexico Tech before transferring to New Mexico State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and later completed a master’s degree in industrial engineering.

While at NMSU, Roybal also earned an advanced degree in basketball, serving as an Aggies practice player, learning the offenses and defenses of opposing teams, then running those systems on the practice court for the New Mexico State players to practice against.

What’s more, he got to work with the coaching staff of then-head coach Chris Jans to break down film, produce scouting reports and develop game plans for upcoming opponents.

It all was an invaluable opportunity for a hoops junkie with designs on coaching.

“It was a great learning experience,” Roybal said. “It was a unique role. During the day, I was practicing with the team. Outside of practice, working directly with the assistant coaches, working with scout teams. I was picking up a ton. I was able to learn how to game plan and how coaches develop a game plan. And I was fortunate enough to watch film and break down film with them and I got to work out players, two-on-one with another coach, or one-on-one with the player.”

Roybal said he’s already tapped that background in previous stops and plans to bring it to his coaching of the Elks.

“It was such a great experience and I was able to learn a lot,” he said. “I was able to bring some of the experience I had and share it with my programs so that the boys know what it feels like to play at a high level.”

Taking on the job as Pojoaque head coach is more than being the high school coach and Roybal understands the obligation to create a bottom-up program that begins long before the students reach high school, Jimenez said.

“He also talked about building the program from the middle school through the high school up,” he said. “He is very well organized and he understands the high profile of being the head boys basketball coach at Pojoaque.”

“It’s going to be exciting,” Roybal said. “I’m going to have a very creative coaching staff to show the athletes. We’ll start in the summer and focus on the high school program and then slowly work down with the program so it goes from elementary all the way up to high school.”

The idea is to have the players on the same page and learning the fundamentals the same way from an early age so by the time the Elks-in-training reach high school, they already know and understand all of the systems so the coaches can then concentrate on building success.

“My philosophy and my coaching emphasis will be echoed throughout the whole program and they start learning at an early age,” Roybal said. “We’ll get the high school program up to my standards and that will trickle down and we’ll teach everybody, so everything is built into the program And then we can just develop the players.”

Roybal, who also runs an AAU program in the area, already knows some of the players and families from being in the area as someone who is ingrained in the local basketball scene.

“It feels amazing,” he said of returning to coach the program in which he grew up. “I’m super thrilled and excited to just get the opportunity, but also having the opportunity to build on the program that is there. Bring more wins and tradition to the valley. Words can’t describe the feeling to get this opportunity.”