Home grown: A chat with Rio Rancho's Sal Gonzales

I recall from a conversation on a run we had one January morning at a coaches' clinic a few years back that you grew up in New Mexico. Tell us a little about the high school experience for you and what got you started with the sport of distance running.

 

I grew up in Pecos and, like most boys in northern New Mexico, my dream was to be a basketball player. I started running in 6th grade because participating on the cross country team was mandatory to play basketball. In middle school I was not a very good runner. I struggled to score on my 7th and 8th grade teams. But in the summer between 8th and 9th grade, I trained on my own, made a huge improvement and made the varsity. 

 

Running for Pecos in the 90s was very isolated experience. All of our meets were in northern New Mexico and the only time we saw the big schools (4A back then) was at the state meet. We ran a low mileage program but, at the time, I thought that I was running a lot. We ran three to five miles a day and once a week we ran some type of fartlek workout. It felt like every day was a race and that we were proving ourselves everyday. I don’t remember any "easy" days. By my sophomore year, I was good locally and could usually finish in the top 10 at meets. 

 

I didn’t really enjoy running in the same way that I enjoyed playing baseball or basketball but I enjoyed the attention it brought. There was a big thrill in getting your name in the paper. I probably ran my fastest on Sunday mornings when I raced down the hill at my home to pick up the Santa Fe New Mexican to see if Pancho Morris mentioned my name in his article. My biggest accomplishments as a high school runner were winning the Taos Invite and finishing 7th at the state meet. Both were accomplished my senior year. My PRs in track were 10:32, 4:46 and 2:07. I was far from a "blue chipper."

 

What are the biggest differences between high school running when you were an athlete and what you see now as a coach?

 

One big difference is the internet. The internet has turned local stars into regional and national heroes.  When I was in high school, I believed that the fastest people in the world were the fastest people in northern New Mexico. I also thought that my 25 miles a week were a lot of miles because I was the only kid on my team who ran on Sundays. Now every kid in the nation logs onto sites and gets inspired to run faster and further so that they can be like their heroes. Last year at NXR the kids on my team were more excited about meeting Bernie Montoya than they were about meeting Abdi! 

 

Cross country seems to have become more serious and extensive. At Rio Rancho our warm-up lasts 30-45 minutes. Our cool down and recovery lasts 30-60 minutes if we get into the ice bath and elevate. 

 

When I was in school we stretched for five minutes. The coach told us what route we were running, we ran, and then practice was over. Some days practice only lasted about 40 minutes total. It was barely long enough to get us tired. After practice we usually sneaked off and played basketball for the rest of the afternoon and told our parents that practice lasted over two hours. 

 

I believe you went from high school to New Mexico Highlands University. Would that have been before or after the beginning of the Bob DeVries era at NMHU? What were some of the highlights of your collegiate career?

 

I started running for NMHU in 1993. I was one of three freshmen that year. One of those other freshmen was Brian Paredes, father of Devin Paredes. Devin’s mother Sandra Sanchez was also a runner at NMHU. I had a difficult transition to running in college. In high school the longest I had ever run was six miles (my weekly Sunday run), and on the first day practice we ran eight miles. In my freshman year I suffered from overuse injuries and had an unproductive season. But by my sophomore year I learned to love training and became a solid scorer for the Cowboys. I finished in the top 10 twice (UNLV and NMHU invites both in my junior year) and I finished in the top 30 at RMAC two times (sophomore and junior years). 

 

Coach DeVries was an excellent mentor. I spent most of our bus trips in the front of the bus asking him about our training. When he tired of my questions he gave me reading assignments. I read issues of Running Research News and then Coach would ask me to design workouts that simulated the ideas in the articles. Running for Coach DeVries was a blast. It seemed like we never did the same workout twice and every interval workout required an extensive explanation because they were so complex. It seemed like we never ran straight intervals like 5x Mile. We would run workouts like 3x(800m-400m-200m-1000m) where each interval was run at a different pace. He liked to simulate racing in workouts and he wanted us to switch gears. Even our aerobic runs were run at varied paces. Sometimes he would assign different paces to individuals to lead our pack for a mile at a time. And this was before GPS watches. We would have to keep the pack together and follow the leader. 

 

How long have you been at your current position at Rio Rancho, and how did you get there?

 

This is my sixth year at Rio Rancho. After college I accepted a teaching and coaching position at Pecos High School. When I arrived at Pecos, my high school coach, the late Ron Valdez, retired and I was offered the head cross country coaching position. Three years later I became the head track coach. I spent nine years in Pecos as a teacher of History, coach, referee, scoreboard operator and I even sponsored student council one year. I taught all of the history subjects! We only had two history teachers at Pecos. At a small school teachers have to wear many hats. 

 

I was hired on at Rio Rancho in 2008.  I currently teach four sections of New Mexico History and one section of AP Human Geography. 

 

If you had to pick a couple of highlights of your coaching career, which ones would make the cut?

 

1a. Winning Boys 5A State Championship this year! We were undefeated against 5A teams and we only lost to Academy in New Mexico at UNM and Metro. 

1b. Winning Boys 2A State Championship in 1999. We were underdogs all season and the kids raced their best when it counted most. That was my first team at Pecos.

2. Coaching individual state champions at Pecos: Ashley Quintana and Mario Armijo.

3. Coaching the 2002-03 girls’ teams at Pecos that finished second and third respectively.

4. The boys at Pecos finished second several times, usually to Navajo Pine coached by Tim Host and Gavin Sosa. We had some good teams at Pecos that had the unfortunate luck of running into some of the best small school teams in New Mexico History. 

5. The Rio Rancho boys have been on the podium at state from 2009-2013.

 

What dreams keep the coaching fires burning?

 

The dream of next season has me up most nights. I have a hard time not thinking about cross country and track. As soon as the season is over, I get started working on ways to improve the team for the next season. I am especially excited for track and field.  We have a balanced distance crew, some top level sprinters, and an excellent thrower. We have some good balance, and I think that we can score well at state. 

 

I believe that I am at my “dream job.” I love teaching and coaching at Rio Rancho High School. Everyone at the school is supportive of our team, and the school recognizes good teams, good effort, and good morals. 

 

Your handle on the New Mexico coaches forum is GangGreen, but Rio Rancho doesn't seem to wear much green any longer. What happened?

 

Green has always been my favorite color. We wore green uniforms at Pecos, and when I arrived at Rio Rancho I quickly changed the uniforms to green. In 2012 we purchased blue uniforms for state XC.  When we didn’t perform well in those uniforms I contemplated burning them and returning to running in green. I changed my mind and decided that we needed to "run" the bad vibes out of those uniforms. I guess it worked. The track team still runs in green and most of the sub-varsity cross country team runs in green. 

 

When you're not busy coaching or teaching, what makes Sal Gonzales tick?

 

When not coaching or teaching I am spending time with my family. During the school year that usually results in more running and more school work because both of my children run, and academics is a really important part of our lives. Family time usually starts with a run and then we go out and do something else. When we do get a break from school and running we enjoy traveling, watching movies, and visiting relatives. I personally enjoy watching sports--especially baseball, Go Mets!!!--playing fantasy football, and reading. I read a lot of non-fiction books. My favorite authors are Dorris Kearns Goodwin, Malcolm Gladwell, Jared Diamond and Howard Zinn.