Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Tucumcari’s head football coach said his players still were coping with the death of a teammate, which prompted the cancellation of a non-district home game Friday against McCurdy.
Javion Martinez, a freshman running back and linebacker on the Rattlers squad, died unexpectedly at his home on Aug. 26. Funeral arrangements were pending; a service at Rattler Gymnasium tentatively was planned.
In addition to the football game, several other Tucumcari Public Schools sports events were canceled or postponed.
The Rattlers’ next football game is a non-district matchup against Raton at Rattler Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday. Raton (1-2) earned its first win of the season Saturday with a 49-7 pasting of Trinidad, Colorado.
Rattlers football coach Tarik Embrack said last week was “not easy” for his players. He said Friday he held abbreviated practices on Wednesday and Thursday to work on special teams and conditioning.
“We’re trying to keep them busy, keep their minds off it onto something else,” he said.
Embrack said he graded his players’ frame of mind, on a scale from one to 10, at four.
“We can’t tell them how to feel. They’re (teenagers); they’re going to deal with it a lot differently than I do,” he said. “We’ve talked to them every day, trying to tell them it’s OK to grieve, to hurt. As coaches, we’re trying to be there every day for them.”
Embrack offered his recollections of Javion.
“He was a great kid,” he said. “I never had to correct him too much. He always was eager to learn, to do his best.”
Embrack, in his first season at Tucumcari, said he never dealt with the death of teammate during his playing days in high school and college.
Logan, San Jon, Santa Rosa and Melrose schools wore Tucumcari’s school colors of purple and gold or made other gestures in support of THS students in the wake of Javion’s death.
“I appreciate they took the time to acknowledge us,” Embrack said. “All we can do is pray and hope for the best for everybody involved.”
San Jon superintendent Alan Umholtz stated in an email that his pupils in particular felt the loss, as Javion was a student at San Jon through sixth grade.
A GoFundMe.com campaign launched by Javion’s mother to help with the family’s funeral expenses had generated more than 110 donations and raised more than $8,800 of its goal of $10,000 on Monday morning.
Other Tucumcari residents also organized benefits. Classmates and family members also held a candlelight vigil last Monday night.
The Tucumcari Invitational volleyball tournament on Friday and Saturday also served as a fundraiser for the Martinez family, raising more than $3,100.
Tucumcari Public Schools brought in several counselors for grieving students last week, and THS principal Nicole Bright-Lesly said Friday it would keep at least two of them around for at least this week.
“We’re doing the best we can to keep them in a simple routine,” she said. “We’re not real heavy on lessons right now, just trying to focus on healing. Their mental health is going to be a priority for a while.”
She said she and the other THS staff would have an “open door” policy for students.
Bright-Lesly also offered her memories of Javion.
“I’ve never met a kinder human … a hold-the-door kind of kid,” she said. “He’s going to be missed, for sure.”
It was the second time in less than a year that Tucumcari High School students were dealing with the death of a student-athlete. Jayden Gloms, 15, a member of the football, baseball and basketball teams, died in a vehicle accident at Five Mile Park in January.