Prep: Demons hire coordinator to coach football team

James Barron | The New Mexican

6/25/2008 - 6/26/08

For a program in need of stability, Mike Mares seemed to be the logical choice to take over as the head football coach at Santa Fe High School.

Santa Fe Public Schools agreed with that assessment Wednesday and named Mares, the Demons' defensive coordinator for the past three years, to fill the opening left by Mike Ulibarri earlier this month.

Ulibarri resigned June 6 after three seasons when he learned he probably would be moved from the physical education department to special education.

Mares, who was the program's head coach from 1981-82, was chosen over former St. Michael's assistant Manuel Gonzales and Santa Fe resident Chris Fitzpatrick.

Mares will keep Ulibarri's coaching staff intact, but he added that the program will not be staying pat because of it.

"A good football coach has got to be always changing," Mares said. "If you don't, well, somebody else is changing and keeping up with the evolution of football. It's why me and (assistant coaches) Bob Galano and (Rick) Saxon attend a lot of coaching clinics — to make sure we're on the right page."

There will be tweaks on both sides of the ball — new formations on offense, more complex coverage schemes on defense, for starters — that he hopes will enhance what the program has already developed.

"We want to try to make the (opposing) defenses play left-handed, so there will be some changes on offense," Mares said. "We're starting, on defense, to do more complicated things because of the maturity of our players."

That development has helped the Demons improve from 0-10 in Ulibarri's first year in 2005 to 2-8 a year later to 4-6 in 2007.

Last season also marked a pair of watershed moments. In its season-ending 59-56 win over Albuquerque Valley, Santa Fe High recorded its first win over a playoff team in its classification since 1998 and its first win in Albuquerque since 2003.

The coaches have set the bar high for the team this season — with eyes on the Demons' first playoff berth since 1986 — and have upgraded the schedule, with AAAA powerhouse Aztec, AAAAA's Albuquerque Rio Grande plus city foes Capital and reigning AAA champion St. Michael's.

But Mares won't change one philosophy handed down by Ulibarri.

"We're saying, 'Let's play one play at a time, one quarter at a time,' " Mares said. "We're not looking that far down the road."