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NM School for the Deaf's Elias Montoya: Self-made player
As an eighth-grader, Elias Montoya could barely catch a football; now he’s a starting receiver and a backup quarterback
In a word, Elias Montoya was worthless.
Robert Huizar, the head football coach at New Mexico School for the Deaf, didn’t mean to be so harsh, but there were few adjectives to choose from to describe Montoya, then an eighth-grader, as a football player.
“I know I shouldn’t say that,” Huizar says.
Yet, he does because the truth couldn’t be disputed. When he joined the football team in 2002, Montoya was 5-foot-8 and a scrawny 120 pounds, the kind of requirements that might make a wide receiver.
But there was a problem with that. Montoya didn’t know how to run a simple route. He didn’t know how to catch a ball.
The routine went like this:
Thwack! Thud!
The football would hit Montoya’s shoulder pads. Then it would bounce off the grass. There was no place for a receiver who couldn’t catch on the football field, but it didn’t stop Montoya from trying.
“I kept telling coach, ‘Let me play,’ ” Montoya says through his interpreter, Huizar. “He told me I had to show it in practice. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be scared.”
Montoya didn’t show much promise in his eighth-grade year, one in which he quit before the season ended.
He didn’t show much as a freshman, either. Slowly, but surely, that changed.
He was a defensive back as a sophomore. By his junior year, he was a receiver again. Now, as a 5-10, 160-pound senior, Huizar calls Montoya his best receiver. He’s also the backup quarterback to fellow senior A.J. Williams on NMSD’s six-man football team, which is 5-0 before its game against Evangel Christian on Thursday. The score was not reported at press time.
All it took was a little perseverance. And a whole lot of work.
“He’s great,” Huizar says. “He’s a great player and a great kid. He can be a starter on any team in the state. I’m serious.”
Montoya is the team’s leading receiver, with 12 catches for 243 yards, and is second on the team in touchdowns with seven. The player ahead of Montoya in touchdowns — junior Dustin Moulder — provided him the inspiration he needed when he was an underclassman.
Montoya returned to the Roadrunners as a freshman to make amends for quitting the season before. While the game came to Montoya slowly — at a slug’s pace — Moulder picked it up almost seamlessly as an eighth grader.
“I saw Dustin, and his skill level and he was already starting (as a receiver),” Montoya says. “I wanted to be Dustin.”
But that was going to take a while.
Patience is required for players like Montoya, because they either know little about football or simply aren’t endowed with the natural talent to pick up the sport right away. Montoya watched Taos High games with his father growing up, but that didn’t equal experience.
Huizar admits there is no place to hide inexperienced players when the roster is about 15 players, and every one of them is needed.
“I get kids who don’t know how to play,” Huizar says. “I get what the school has. It’s not like I can have tryouts. So I have to get them and try to develop them. I have to find their skills in an area and teach them. I don’t think a big 11-man school would take a chance on him (Montoya). They don’t have the time. They have more players available.”
Montoya’s development came on the practice squads, playing a part on scout defense and offense. The games became study time, as he watched Moulder, then-quarterback/running back Robert Salas and then-wide receiver Dwayne Johnson and learned from their play.
“He watched and watched, and it helped a little bit,” Huizar says. “He learned how to play by visual and he understood better. But he was always bugging me, ‘I wanna play. I wanna play. I wanna play.’ When we’d run up the score on somebody, he’d finally get a chance to play.”
Montoya didn’t need blowouts to play as a sophomore, starting on a team that went 7-3 and reached the six-man football playoffs for the third time in the school’s history.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Montoya says. “Maybe the interceptions helped my hand skills. When you play on defense, all the players have to have their hands up.”
The development didn’t end there. He added 35 pounds of muscle and a couple of inches over time. He is no longer the runt of the group. In fact, he progressed so much that he has earned all-camp honors at The University of New Mexico’s 7-on-7 passing camp the past two summers.
“I was shocked and very happy,” Montoya says. “It gave me confidence to play at the next level, which is to play tough football.”
There are plenty of adjectives Huizar can use to describe Montoya now.
Worthless isn’t one of them.
As an eighth-grader, Elias Montoya could barely catch a football; now he’s a starting receiver and a backup quarterback
In a word, Elias Montoya was worthless.
Robert Huizar, the head football coach at New Mexico School for the Deaf, didn’t mean to be so harsh, but there were few adjectives to choose from to describe Montoya, then an eighth-grader, as a football player.
“I know I shouldn’t say that,” Huizar says.
Yet, he does because the truth couldn’t be disputed. When he joined the football team in 2002, Montoya was 5-foot-8 and a scrawny 120 pounds, the kind of requirements that might make a wide receiver.
But there was a problem with that. Montoya didn’t know how to run a simple route. He didn’t know how to catch a ball.
The routine went like this:
Thwack! Thud!
The football would hit Montoya’s shoulder pads. Then it would bounce off the grass. There was no place for a receiver who couldn’t catch on the football field, but it didn’t stop Montoya from trying.
“I kept telling coach, ‘Let me play,’ ” Montoya says through his interpreter, Huizar. “He told me I had to show it in practice. Don’t be lazy. Don’t be scared.”
Montoya didn’t show much promise in his eighth-grade year, one in which he quit before the season ended.
He didn’t show much as a freshman, either. Slowly, but surely, that changed.
He was a defensive back as a sophomore. By his junior year, he was a receiver again. Now, as a 5-10, 160-pound senior, Huizar calls Montoya his best receiver. He’s also the backup quarterback to fellow senior A.J. Williams on NMSD’s six-man football team, which is 5-0 before its game against Evangel Christian on Thursday. The score was not reported at press time.
All it took was a little perseverance. And a whole lot of work.
“He’s great,” Huizar says. “He’s a great player and a great kid. He can be a starter on any team in the state. I’m serious.”
Montoya is the team’s leading receiver, with 12 catches for 243 yards, and is second on the team in touchdowns with seven. The player ahead of Montoya in touchdowns — junior Dustin Moulder — provided him the inspiration he needed when he was an underclassman.
Montoya returned to the Roadrunners as a freshman to make amends for quitting the season before. While the game came to Montoya slowly — at a slug’s pace — Moulder picked it up almost seamlessly as an eighth grader.
“I saw Dustin, and his skill level and he was already starting (as a receiver),” Montoya says. “I wanted to be Dustin.”
But that was going to take a while.
Patience is required for players like Montoya, because they either know little about football or simply aren’t endowed with the natural talent to pick up the sport right away. Montoya watched Taos High games with his father growing up, but that didn’t equal experience.
Huizar admits there is no place to hide inexperienced players when the roster is about 15 players, and every one of them is needed.
“I get kids who don’t know how to play,” Huizar says. “I get what the school has. It’s not like I can have tryouts. So I have to get them and try to develop them. I have to find their skills in an area and teach them. I don’t think a big 11-man school would take a chance on him (Montoya). They don’t have the time. They have more players available.”
Montoya’s development came on the practice squads, playing a part on scout defense and offense. The games became study time, as he watched Moulder, then-quarterback/running back Robert Salas and then-wide receiver Dwayne Johnson and learned from their play.
“He watched and watched, and it helped a little bit,” Huizar says. “He learned how to play by visual and he understood better. But he was always bugging me, ‘I wanna play. I wanna play. I wanna play.’ When we’d run up the score on somebody, he’d finally get a chance to play.”
Montoya didn’t need blowouts to play as a sophomore, starting on a team that went 7-3 and reached the six-man football playoffs for the third time in the school’s history.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Montoya says. “Maybe the interceptions helped my hand skills. When you play on defense, all the players have to have their hands up.”
The development didn’t end there. He added 35 pounds of muscle and a couple of inches over time. He is no longer the runt of the group. In fact, he progressed so much that he has earned all-camp honors at The University of New Mexico’s 7-on-7 passing camp the past two summers.
“I was shocked and very happy,” Montoya says. “It gave me confidence to play at the next level, which is to play tough football.”
There are plenty of adjectives Huizar can use to describe Montoya now.
Worthless isn’t one of them.