Taos ends tumultuous week with road game at Bernalillo

Sep. 24—BERNALILLO — By time Art Abreu Jr. jogged onto the field for Friday night's latest stop in what is proving to be the longest prep football season of his life, he had a chance to step back and take it all in.

The lights, the fans, the players hanging on his every word. Regardless of his team's record, it's the excitement of game night that always gets to him. He's been around football his entire life, and being a coach is what he was always meant to be.

"I love this team, I love this game," he said after leading Taos to a 21-6 win over Bernalillo in a nondistrict game that not only marked his return to the team, but also had more media coverage than he's used to.

The game was broadcast in Albuquerque on cable TV. It also had three newspapers, a radio station and a prep sports internet site all roaming the sidelines.

"We have more of you guys [media members] for this than we did for any of our playoff games when we won state," he joked. "But I do understand it. It's been a long couple of weeks. I just want to get back to things and put this behind us."

Abreu is only days removed from a brief administrative leave after allegations of wrongdoing proved to be unfounded. The Tigers had last weekend off, but in that brief window, he was not allowed to have any contact with his team as the investigation progressed.

He said the night of Sept. 16 was the longest of his life. It took the school just two days to clear him, formally announcing his return in a players-only meeting the following Monday.

"Me, my wife and my son, we went home that Friday [Sept. 16] and tried to make sense of all this," Abreu said. "I never want to go through that again."

The Tigers responded to his return in true Abreu fashion; by playing with focus and a house-sized chip on their shoulders. Taos (4-1) surrendered just 32 yards of offense in the first half and got three combined touchdowns from quarterback Dameon Ely to win its fourth straight game.

Ely passed for two scores and pushed across another on a 1-yard sneak to cap a solid night for the Tigers offense. Ely passed for 129 yards, connecting on 10 of 17 passes while getting sacked just once.

Taos led 14-6 at halftime and got a 23-yard Ely to Favian Cordova scoring pass in the third quarter to essentially put the game away.

Afterward, it was a collective sigh of relief for the players.

"Coach, that man has literally been a father figure to me since a long time ago," Cordova said. "My dad died when I was younger and then my mom died in a car accident a few years ago, so coach has been more than just a father to me. When they told us what was going on, I spent that whole weekend nervous wondering what was going on. I don't even want to think about him not being around."

Linebacker Jerome Martinez said Abreu is the emotional center for the program. The threat of losing him was almost too much.

"It's been an actual hell because we thought we were going to lose our coach for a bunch of stupid reasons," Martinez said. "Then they told us we weren't getting our field back at all this year, so now we're looking at every practice, every game on the road."

Taos officials told the team during Abreu's investigation that Anaya Field will not be repaired before the end of the season. That means the remaining five games and the Class 4A playoffs will be played on someone else's field. Taos' "home" games will be at Questa.

"I mean, they have us driving over a mile just to practice at the middle school, so not even practice feels like it's at home," Martinez said. "I feel like they're putting us through a lot, but you know what? It's only bringing us closer together."

That bond was clearly evident after Friday's game. After assembling his players near the Tigers' sideline, Abreu paused mid-sentence and ran over to a chainlink fence separating the field from the visitors bleachers. He greeted every set of parents and casual fans who stood along that fence, pausing to hug a few and shake hands with the rest.

When it was over he rejoined his team, flashing the smile of a man who just endured something he wouldn't wish upon anyone.

"Look, I'm just happy that whole thing is over," he said. "It felt like a whole off-season. Things were on a high note for a while, then all this. But thing about this program is it's self-sufficient. If I have to leave, it still goes. These boys believe in what we're doing here. These boys are changing our whole school, the community. They're fighting, they're checking in every morning and are the last ones to leave every day. If they're fighting for this, I'm fighting for them. They're my boys, this is my team."