Volcano Vista boys at national tournament in Phoenix

Time for the Volcano Vista Hawks to shoot their shot.

This one will be long distance.

Class 5A’s top-ranked boys basketball team, the champions of the last three New Mexico state tournaments, will for the first time test its mettle outside New Mexico's borders.

They are likely to be tested like never before.

The Hawks, off to a 7-0 start this season, open play Thursday at the Nike Tournament of Champions featuring Hoophall West, to be conducted the next three days at schools all across the vast Phoenix metro area.

Volcano Vista is in the Saguaro bracket of the event at Skyline High in Mesa. The Hawks open play against Williams Field High from Gilbert, Arizona. Williams Field is ranked No. 9 in the Class 6A division in Arizona.

Also from Arizona’s 6A division, Basha, ranked No. 7, and Brophy College Prep, ranked No. 12, are in the Saguaro bracket. But both are in the bottom half of the bracket, away from the Hawks.

Redondo Union High, a highly ranked team from Redondo Beach, California, is in Volcano’s top half of that draw.

How large is this tournament?

Well, there are no fewer than 14 divisions, and 13 of them feature eight teams apiece. Some of the nation’s top programs are entered, including teams from New York, Missouri and Arizona, and numerous powerhouse teams from California.

Volcano Vista will be merely a worker bee at a tournament like this, but the Hawks nevertheless get a chance to measure themselves against out-of-state competition.

In the Saguaro bracket, there are four schools from Arizona and three from California.

Gilbert Perry High, the top-ranked team in Arizona and ranked in the top five nationally, and like Volcano a three-time defending state champion, headlines the most elite of the brackets.

“We know these opportunities haven’t been afforded to us before, and we’re excited to get an opportunity to play competition that will be really good for us to see,” Hawks coach Greg Brown said previously about Volcano Vista making this trip.

The Hawks have lost only two games over roughly the last three-and-a-half seasons, both of them to district rival Cleveland. Volcano Vista has won 29 straight, dating to Dec. 29, 2023, when the Hawks lost to the Storm in the semifinals of the Hobbs holiday tournament.

For Volcano Vista, this kicks off its busiest stretch of the season. The Hawks will play seven games in the next 10 days, including a four-games-in-five-days stretch next week at the Albuquerque Metro Championships.

WRESTLING: The best prep tournament of the 2024-25 school year can be found at the Rio Rancho Events Center.

But it’s not February’s New Mexico’s state tournament.

The 2025 Conflict at Cleveland, which features over 70 teams from New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Texas and California, begins on Friday at the RREC. It is an event for boys and girls.

All of New Mexico’s top programs, led by defending Class 5A state champion Volcano Vista, is entered. There are three rounds scheduled on Friday, and the final three rounds, including the finals, are Saturday.

The championship finals are expected to begin at approximately 1 p.m. Saturday, but that time is not definite as the tournament will be running fairly continuously on both days. Action begins at 10 a.m. Friday and 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

CHANGE IN LOS LUNAS: Wilson Holland is retiring as the Los Lunas district athletic director after 15 years.

William “Bill” Hays will take over on an interim basis, the Valencia County News-Bulletin reports. Hays has been a teacher, administrator and coach, among other jobs, in the district for the last decade-plus.