New Mexico prep football: Top 25 players of the first 25 years of the 21st century (one version, anyway)

Here they are. New Mexico’s top 25 prep football players of the first 25 years of the 21st century.

Well, one iteration of a top 25, anyway.

No metric exists in which the top 25 could be definitively identified. If 100 individuals set out to tackle this, it’s a guarantee that while many of the names would be similar, no two lists would look exactly alike.

The Journal set out to create a top 25 from the first 25, and this project is a task I would generously describe as complex and frustrating, but equally stimulating and enjoyable. (Side note: 2025 was the 25th full season in this century; there was no 2020 fall season and I excluded the abbreviated spring 2021 season.)

Naturally, my list is not the be-all, end-all top 25. No way it could be. Surely, it won’t be accepted by everyone, and many of you may push back on one of these choices, arguing the merits of a player who was excluded over another who made the list. That’s only natural, and is key to the entertainment quotient of this endeavor. Keep the discourse spirited but polite. That is my only request.

There are, I would estimate, probably 50 or 60 players who played between the years 2000 and 2025 who could have made it into our top 25. And oh, were there some excruciating omissions! To qualify, they had to play at least one varsity season in the 2000s.

The original plan was to not just select them but rank them 1 through 25, an idea I wish I had not floated and one that was quickly scrapped. Just finding 25 was arduous enough, ranking them would have been an invitation to disaster.

So who made the list? (The full list, arranged alphabetically, can be found in conjunction with this column.) We’ll discuss them in no particular order. What they accomplished post-high school was not relevant to this assignment, though the attention many of them garnered from colleges was factored into my efforts.

Chris Williams from Rio Rancho, who rates as one of my all-time favorites in this job, is here. Chris is the single greatest improv skill-position athlete I’ve ever seen while at the Journal. He could play receiver or running back, and was a kick returner, and always found a way to electrify crowds.

Zach Gentry from Eldorado is naturally one of the choices. The lethal dual-threat quarterback was so frequently thrilling and more often than not unstoppable. Very unicorn-ish.

Cam Dyer of La Cueva is in that same conversation as Gentry, a genius dual-threat QB that could take over any game and someone who usually excelled on the biggest stages. Cam always delivered.

Ronnie Daniels from La Cueva, who competed for the Bears a decade and a half ago, is probably the greatest combination of speed and power I’ve ever witnessed in a running back. He once rushed for over 3,000 yards in a single season. A fierce competitor.

Skill-position athletes occupy the majority of the 25, as you'd imagine.

Roswell’s DonTrell Moore is a bit of an outlier on this list, since his senior season was the fall of 2000 and he played just one season in this century. But he was a Parade All-American, a heavily recruited athlete, and he belongs.

A couple of superb quarterbacks from the southeast quadrant are here.

The first is Landry Jones of Artesia, who during his career was, like Moore, a Parade All-American. The other is Gavin Hardison of Hobbs, one of the state’s most underrated superstar QBs, who in two full varsity seasons threw for 8,500 yards and a staggering 92 TDs, including 59 in 2017.

Moving a bit to the west, I included two Las Cruces High quarterbacks: Dante Caro and Kam Miller, both of whom were highly-skilled dual-threat QBs over multiple seasons, and both championship-winning signal callers for the Bulldawgs.

This top 25 would not have been complete, not to me, without adding Manzano’s Jordan Byrd, whose 2017 season was a marvel and the chief reason the Monarchs won a state championship that year. And he could play many positions. Byrd is much like Chris Williams, insomuch as he had the ability to create and freelance from anywhere on the field, and was someone with blinding open-field speed. Byrd played QB, RB and receiver.

At a school that has produced so many memorable tailbacks, Kamal Cass of Clovis was phenomenal, and actually rushed for over 2,000 yards twice in his career with the Wildcats. A top 25er, to be sure.

As I think about the 2000-25 timespan, I can’t think of anyone who was more of an effective two-way threat than Alan Branch of Cibola, a mountain of a guy who was a disruptive presence along the D-line, but also could be plugged into multiple offensive positions, including quarterback, and be hugely effective anywhere he lined up.

Frankie Baca of La Cueva could be described similarly with his impact on both sides of the ball, and he was a key member of the unbeaten 2003 and 2004 Bear squads; he was over 2,000 rushing yards as a senior, and was an all-stater on both sides of the ball.

Cleveland’s Cole Gautsche was the quarterback who led the Storm to the school’s first state championship, in 2011, and his senior season was one of the best I’ve ever seen; he combined for 62 passing and rushing touchdowns and combined for 4,300 pass and rush yards. A stupendous performance.

Artesia has a second QB on our list in Kole McKamey, who during his playing days was considered one of the top 100 in the country at that position.

There are quite a few defensive standouts among the top 25, too.

La Cueva linebacker Mason Posa, of course, is a selectee. He was, one could argue, the most ferocious defensive talent in Albuquerque since Aaron Lewis of La Cueva, a one-time Parade All-American who also played in a national All-Star event. Both were beasts and both clearly are top 25 worthy. One of Lewis’ teammates on those dynamic 2003 and 2004 defenses, linebacker Zach Arnett, joins Lewis on our top 25.

Keshawn Banks of Rio Rancho had the ability to take over games as a defensive end, and he often did. I chose him, as well. Artesia linebacker Dallas Bollema, who dominated in multiple seasons for the Bulldogs, was also included.

Strat Shufelt from Cleveland was, like Posa, a four-year starter on defense and someone who contributed every step of his four seasons. What a tremendous talent Shufelt proved to be at the linebacker position.

You’ll find a couple of offensive linemen on this list, although this was probably the one position group that proved the most difficult. Massive Henry Hattis from Cleveland was among my selections, as was Bryce Cabeldue of Clovis.

While the majority of the top 25 played for larger schools, that doesn’t mean the smaller schools are not represented.

There are two, small-school athletes on this Top 25 list. Raton’s prolific running back, Cayden Walton, who had three seasons with at least 1,900 yards, and one over 3,000 yards, and is the state’s all-time leader in career yards, is a worthy choice.

Hatch Valley quarterback Brett Henson (2002-04) still is New Mexico’s career leader in yards with over 12,000 and touchdowns (166), and is the single-season leader in TD passes, with 70 his senior season. He was a state champion with the Bears.

So there they are. Twenty-five spectacular high school football players. THE most spectacular from the first 25 years of the 21st century in New Mexico? Let the feedback begin. Find me on X @JamesDYodice, or email me your thoughts at jyodice@abqjournal.com.