DAVID HOWES RETURNS TO HIS ALMA MATER
Cibola football is under new leadership this year. David Howes takes over the program. He is back where it all started. Howes is a graduate of Cibola High School and was an assistant coach with the program in the early 2000’s. “It’s pretty surreal, not only getting back as a head coach, but getting back to my alma mater,” said Howes who graduated from Cibola High School and was an assistant coach with the program in the early 2000’s. “It’s walking the hallways where I did in high school, where I met my wife, it’s pretty surreal every single day.”
Howes coached high school football in New Mexico for 25 years, including 11 seasons as head coach at Rio Rancho High School, leading the Rams to a pair of state championships and undefeated seasons in 2014 and 2016. Howes spent the past couple years as an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico. “It’s kind of nice to get my whistle back,” Howes joked. “I didn’t have it for four years, Coach G (UNM head coach Danny Gonzales) took it from me. I wasn’t allowed to use a whistle. It’s nice to get my whistle back and get my groove back and I think it’s a great fit.”
“He’s an amazing coach and one of the smartest minds I’ve ever been around in the game of football and he’s taught me so much,” said senior linebacker Hayes Baum. “We go at it every day in practice, but it’s all about the little things. Every time he’s on me I know he sees something that I’m able to be better at and I take it all in.”
The Cougars are anchored by Hayes Baum, a 6-foot, 215 pound linebacker who committed to the University of New Mexico. “He’s special, his work ethic is unmatched,” Howes said about Hayes. “I’ve been doing this 30 years and there’s not a lot of kids to put in the hours and individual hours and film hours and coming out here in the dark, he’s kind of old school and I love that about him. He loves the game of football and it’s infectious. It makes coaching the game a whole lot easier.”
“The IQ of the game is so much slower now and I’m making plays a whole lot faster,” said Baum. “Being a linebacker, you have to be violent, that’s key. You have to go make plays out there. It’s as simple as that.”
Cibola only won two games over the past two seasons and they’re in a district going against opponents their head coach is very familiar with, including defending state champ Cleveland. “I’ve been in this district a long time and we’ve built this district into something special,” said Howes. “I think it’s the toughest district in the state of New Mexico. When everybody else has 2000 kids in the school and we’ve got 1300, we’ve got to play tougher, we have to be stronger, and we’ve got to hang. I think it’s a wonderful challenge. It’s a lesson of life. You can’t let your circumstances dictate the reality, so we’ve got to do a really good job of making our own reality and playing good football.”
The Cougars will open the season August 22nd against Albuquerque High.
