Former NMAA staffer Pappas, ex-coach Chambers to be inducted

Dana Pappas spent nearly half her life walking into the offices of the New Mexico Activities Association for a career she wasn’t sure was right for her.

But all those days were leading to this one, when Pappas, 50, on Thursday was announced as one of the two new inductees into the NMAA Hall of Fame.

“Crazy. Humbling. Surreal,” Pappas said.

Pappas and Mike Chambers, 70, are the 120th and 121st NMAA Hall of Famers. They will formally be inducted March 12, at a luncheon at the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid hotel during the state basketball tournament.

Pappas worked for the NMAA from 1997-2021 when she became the Director of Officiating Services for the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFHS.

She was the longtime Commissioner of Officials at the NMAA, and also a former Deputy Director. She was inducted into the New Mexico Officials Association Hall of Fame in 2022, and currently co-hosts The From A to Zebra Podcast from Indiana.

“I was shocked (when I heard), and anyone who knows me knows that speechless is not something I normally am,” said Pappas, a Highland High and University of New Mexico graduate. “I started working here (at the NMAA) not even knowing what I was getting into. But finding your passion when you’re 21, 22 years old and sticking with it, it is a calling. What an honor it’s been. It’s the best privilege I’ve had in my life.”

Pappas oversaw about 1,700 officials with the NMAA. From her current office at NFHS headquarters in Indianapolis, she oversees about 300,000 officials. She was visibly emotional Thursday as she spoke of her NMAA Hall of Fame induction.

“I don’t know that I’m deserving,” she said. “It’s still a little surreal.”

But, she added, working on behalf of officials became her passion, and she describes her current NFHS duties as her dream job, “advocating for officials at the national level.”

Many of her former co-workers at the NMAA were on hand to celebrate her induction announcement Thursday.

“Just to do a job, and love a job, you don’t ever think about being recognized for doing something you love,” she said. “It is full circle, and that’s why I got so emotional. I spent more than half my life working at the NMAA.”

Chambers spent more than four decades in education in New Mexico and Arizona, but is now retired. He is a Los Lunas High graduate, and later attended Western New Mexico.

He started his career as an educator in Arizona before returning to Los Lunas, where he was a former athletic director and assistant principal. He was an administrator in some capacity or another at San Jon, Magdalena, Kirtland Central, Zuni, Laguna and Grants. He currently lives in Grants.

He was a longtime coach, in volleyball, boys basketball and track and field, both in Arizona and at Los Lunas.

Chambers also was a basketball and track official for almost 15 years. Related to the NMAA, he served on numerous important committees over the years.

“As a kid, coaching my brother’s Little League team, I was 13, and I was thinking, this is what I wanted to do,” Chambers said. “This is like a crowning achievement for all the time that you put in.”

Like Pappas, love of career was a sustaining force, Chambers said.

“You don’t do it for the money,” he said. “You do it for the love of the game.”