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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Waters the Coach Resigns

By Will Webber
Journal Staff Writer
       Larry Waters has always prided himself on giving 100 percent at all costs. Be it coaching, teaching or adminstrative work, he always answered the bell when it came to his commitments.
    When he realized last summer that he may have been stretched too thin, he decided an adjustment was in order. That's why the winningest high school soccer coach in state history officially stepped aside as the face of the La Cueva boys program last week to concentrate on his other duties at the school.
    He exits with a 421-113-18 record and seven state championships in stints with Highland and La Cueva. That includes the Class 5A title his Bears won less than two weeks ago.
    Waters said he will retain his dual role as La Cueva's athletic director and dean of students and devote the rest of his time to catching up on years of missed travel opportunities with his wife.
    "I felt I was only able to give 80 percent to everything. And when I'm not giving all I've got, I know something's got to change," he said. "With the commitments to coaching, the administration and summer camps, it was basically an 11-months-plus thing every year."
    Considering La Cueva's varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams went a combined 49-3-2 this season, Waters admits he's able to exit knowing his program is in outstanding shape.
    "When you have coaches and players in your program who understand the winning side of things, yes, it is easy to walk away," he said, adding that's it's the practices he'll miss the most. "The thrill you get from coaching in football, basketball or baseball is the game itself. The drudgery is the weeks and hours of practice. The thrill in soccer is really the practice because that's when you get to teach the sport. In games a coach has little or no control."
    A search for a new coach will begin immediately, although Waters said he will not serve on the committee to set up to interview prospective candidates.
    "I know so many people in the soccer community, not to mention the people on my own staff," he said. "I didn't want it coming down to a personal decision."
    Waters, 62, came to New Mexico from his native Minnesota more than 30 years ago. Not long after that, he found himself as the head coach at Highland.
    Of course, back then soccer was barely a blip on the local sports radar. It wasn't officially sanctioned as a sport by the New Mexico Activities Association until 1981, meaning those initial years with the Hornets were in the early stages of soccer's evolution in these parts.
    "At that time it was pretty much a club-type thing," Waters said. "It became an intramural league, then an NMAA thing. But, yeah, it was a slow start."
    Waters said the game is flourishing nowadays thanks to parity. Thirty years ago the only place soccer seemed to thrive was in Albuquerque and Los Alamos.
    "There's a lot more equity in the game throughout the entire state than there used to be," he said. "There's a lot more balance, especially in 5A." boys soccer
       

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