Prep notes: Metro basketball brackets are announced

The prep basketball season is underway and the Albuquerque Metro Championship brackets are already available.

The boys and girls tournaments run Jan. 6-10 around the city.

The Hobbs boys are the only non-metro team in the field, and the Eagles have been given a daunting first-round matchup with La Cueva.

The first-round games on the top half of the bracket are Cleveland-Hope Christian, Eldorado-Highland, Sandia-Valley and Atrisco Heritage-Cibola.

In the bottom half, it is Albuquerque High vs. Del Norte, Volcano Vista facing Rio Grande, La Cueva-Hobbs and Rio Rancho taking on West Mesa.

Quarterfinal games are Jan. 7.

Albuquerque High has both semifinal games, on Friday, Jan. 9.

Both Kirtland Central and Hobbs return to compete in the girls metro event.

The Broncos open with Eldorado, the Eagles open against Atrisco Heritage. Both those games are in the top half of the bracket. West Mesa-Volcano Vista and Highland-La Cueva also are in the top half.

Rio Rancho-Rio Grande, Sandia-Hope Christian, Cleveland-Del Norte and Cibola-Albuquerque High are the games in the first round on the bottom half of the bracket.

As with the boys, the quarterfinals are the following day, Jan. 7.

Del Norte is hosting the semifinals on Jan. 9.

Del Norte is also hosting both finals. The girls final is 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10, followed by the boys at 6 p.m.

Season openers for a large number of the bigger schools in the metro area occur early next week.

BRADLEY RETIRES: The Bradley family comprises one of the most robust prep football coaching trees in New Mexico history.

Gary Bradley — who was a head coach at Farmington, Carlsbad and most recently at Mayfield — has announced his retirement. He has been coaching for 37 years.

His father, Jim, was a Hall of Fame coach during many decades coaching prep football in the state. His brother Mike retired from coaching several years ago. And another brother, Jim, was a former head coach in New Mexico.

The elder Bradley, plus Mike and Gary, combined to coach Mayfield football for over 30 consecutive years.

Gary Bradley once won a state championship with Farmington, in 2013. His head coaching stint at Mayfield began in 2023, when he took over from his brother Mike.

RUNNING ARIZONA: Gianna Rahmer of Eldorado and Carmen Dorsey-Spitz of Moriarty — recent state cross country champions — are both headed to Arizona this weekend.

They are competing in the Nike Cross Southwest Regionals in the Phoenix area (the suburb of Mesa) on Saturday morning, with the chance to qualify for Nike Cross Nationals early next month.

The top qualifiers from each of the eight regional qualifying meets advance to the NXN in Portland on Saturday, Dec. 6.

Meanwhile, Rahmer, a sophomore and three-time Class 5A state champion, has also been invited to run at the 2025 Brooks XC Championships on Dec. 13 in San Diego.

ACADEMY COACHING: The Albuquerque Academy girls basketball team has added a coach with an impressive pedigree to serve as an assistant this season.

CJ Vaifanua-Pace is going to serve in that capacity for the Chargers; she is a former assistant coach at Utah State (last season), she is a former head coach at Division II CSU Monterey Bay, and she is a former head coach at East Georgia State College.

Her playing career saw her spend her final two seasons at South Carolina, where she played for Dawn Staley, and the Georgia native also played a pair of professional seasons in Portugal and Peru.

THIS AND THAT: In conjunction with the start of prep basketball, MaxPreps has put out some lists with its choices for top boys and girls teams in each state. Sandia’s boys were tapped as the state’s top team, as were the La Cueva girls.