KIRTLAND CENTRAL GIRLS HAVE PICKED UP WHERE THEY LEFT OFF
The Kirtland Central girls basketball program has more state titles than any other basketball team in New Mexico. The Lady Broncos have 21 championships overall, including winning another one last season. “I think we can be a lot faster than we were last year if we get the pieces going all the ways we want it to go,” said head coach Devon Manning. “We’re going to be a little inexperienced, but I think we’ll be there when it’s all said and done.”
Devon Manning is in his 7th season in charge at Kirtland Central with five state championship game appearances. “We don’t walk around thinking everyone wants to beat Kirtland Central, we don’t have that mentality,” said the head coach. “We just take it one game at a time and just try to be 1-0 at the end of the night.”
The Lady Broncos have played in tournaments this year in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho against Class 5A competition. “We really wanted to challenge the girls with the fact that we’re pretty young, we wanted to see where we’re at and where they’re at as individual basketball players,” Manning explained. “It’s a test for the newer girls we have on the team to see where they’re at when it comes to that style and that play of basketball.”
Kirtland Central has been a postseason fixture at the Pit for decades. “We get a lot of support from not just our Kirtland community, but once it’s the playoffs we get support from the entire county and the entire Navajo Nation reservation,” he said. “Walking do the Pit is nothing these girls are ever going to get tired of. That’s our goal when we get there and then we’ll take our shot when we get there.”
Gallup is currently undefeated and blowing out opponents and those two teams have built an intense and competitive rivalry. One of the two has played in the 4A final each of the last six years. “I think they make us better and we make them better,” he said about the rivalry. “We don’t try to think about Gallup too much, but we do try to get ready for them right now. We are trying to fix the things we know they are going to try and expose when we play them. It’s a fun rivalry, it’s a nerve-racking rivalry, and pretty stressful rivalry as a coach , but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Manning feels like Gallup is the team to beat right now, but the Lady Broncos are the defending state champs. “We said the word ‘repeat’ is a cuss word,” Manning explained. “We don’t talk about that, we don’t talk about trying to go back-to-back. That’s going to take care of itself in the end. We talk about what we want to do each day to try and get better. What do you, as individuals, want? We had a meeting with the girls to find out what they want to be better at this year, what are their goals, what are we trying to achieve, and I think we are on the same level. We are trying to be better as individuals, we’re trying to be great teammates, we’re trying to just have fun.”
Mark the calendar for January 25th. That’s when Kirtland Central will meet Gallup for the first time this season.