Valencia County is well represented on this year’s All-State and All-Metro basketball teams, which were released over the course of the last week.
On the girls’ team, Natalie Jojola was the only county athlete to earn first-team recognition. She was joined by teammates Mia Guest and Feleena Candelaria, who made the second team on both the All-Metro and All-State teams. Guest, who was named the district player of the year, was also named to the All-Academic team alongside Belen’s Marissa Blair.
Dani Ross of Los Lunas also earned honorable mention alongside Belen’s Olivia King on the All-Metro team.
Kylee Trujillo from Los Lunas was named as the All-Metro Defensive Player of the year, and Marty Zeller earned All-Metro coach of the year.
Bryce Santana of Los Lunas and Jacob Mattox of Valencia earned second-team All-Metro recognition and VHS’ Garrett LaLonde was named as an honorable mention.
Jacob Sanchez of the Tigers was named All-Metro Defensive Player of the Year.
Santana also appeared on the All-Academic team alongside Jace McNabb of Belen and Luis Ramos of Valencia.
Mattox was the only Valencia County male athlete selected to the All-State team voted on by the coaches, earning himself a spot on the second team for his efforts this season.
The teams are determined by the coaches, who vote within their respective classes.
MaxPreps also publishes an All-State team that spans every classification in the state.
Jojola was named to the first team by the site, and Guest was again named to the second team.
No local boys were selected to the MaxPreps All-State team.
Jojola earned a clean sweep of first-team selections, as she was also selected to the first-team by the Albuquerque Journal.
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April 11, 2024
