Jul. 17—The New Mexico High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor is growing by four members this weekend, including the man who ran the association for 16 years before his death.
The NMHSCA's annual convention gets going in earnest on Friday at the Albuquerque Convention Center, with the weekend concluding with a formal induction of the group's Hall of Honor Class of 2025 on Saturday night.
Current Eldorado football coach Charlie Dotson is one of the four inductees; he's had a lengthy and successful career coaching both wrestling and football in Albuquerque Public Schools.
The late Marilyn Sepulveda, one of the state's track and field/cross country coaching giants, is at last getting recognition into this particular Hall.
The former executive director of the NMHSCA, Buster Mabrey, who died last December, is being inducted, and this surely will make for an emotional scene Saturday night given Mabrey's longtime commitment to the NMHSCA and his popularity with the New Mexico coaching fraternities he served so faithfully.
The fourth inductee is Tommy Standefer, a former Clovis High athlete who went on to coach football both in college and in Alamogordo, and also has enjoyed stellar results as Alamo's longtime golf coach.
Dotson, 56, has three state championships as a wrestling coach — two at Del Norte, where Diego Sanchez, a prominent MMA fighter, was one of his athletes, and a third at Eldorado.
Dotson also has coached the Eagles to two state championship football games, in 2008 and 2015.
"Selected by your peers … it's special," Dotson said. "And it means a lot."
Many track and cross country coaches have for years wanted to see Sepulveda gain entry into the NMHSCA Hall of Honor. But the association had a stipulation that no one could be inducted without 20 years service in New Mexico. Sepulveda died of cancer in…
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Publish date : 2025-07-18 03:06:00
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