Perennial basketball coach Ben Trujillo was named the new head coach of the Mayfield Boys Basketball program after spending 11 seasons at Hatch Valley High School as the girls’ basketball head coach.
Trujillo takes over the historic array after previous head coach Keith Roberts stepped down at the end of the 2023-24 season. He will be Mayfield’s fifth head basketball coach since 2014 — the previous coaches being Roberts, Juan Rocky Gonzales, Brad Bailey and William Keys.
With Mayfield looking for some consistency, Trujillo said he’s in it for the long haul but knows that type of journey only comes with success.
“I have no plans of doing anything else,” Trujillo said. “My plan is to be here as long as they’ll have me and I think, if we can start winning, they’ll have me.”
The man at helm said leaving Hatch was a tough decision — his late wife, former Las Cruces Public Schools Superintendent Karen Trujillo, used to announce games and give tremendous support while her husband coached the Bears. Trujillo said he was ready for a change, even making the hard choice of deciding not to coach at all before the Trojans’ head coach position opened up.
“I originally said ‘No, I’m not going to do it,’ and I missed the deadline and then they reopened it and I was like ‘You know what, that’s a sign’, somehow God got that in front of me.” Trujillo said.
The Trojans’ boys’ team hasn’t had a winning season since the Covid-19 season of 2020-21 where they went 7-5. Before that, they hadn’t been above .500 since the 2013-14 season, finishing the year at 16-12 and were then coached by Tommy Morrow.
Trujillo has 37 years of being a basketball coach under his belt. He started coaching right out of high school at the age of 18, starting at Cobre High School as an assistant coach. Since then, he’s left his mark at various programs in New Mexico, both girls’ and boys’ teams, totaling 17 years as a head coach and the rest of the 37 years as an assistant.
In his 17 years of being a head coach, Trujillo has only missed the state playoffs three times:
“My first year and then the last two at Hatch, where we were super young,” Trujillo said.
All of that experience amounts to 267 wins as a head coach, with Trujillo aiming to get his 300th win during his time at Mayfield.
In terms of X’s and O’s, Trujillo wants his team’s offense to run the “Loyola Marymount Break,” a fast-paced type of offense where players push the ball and take quick open-look shots. On the defensive side, Trujillo’s teams run a base defense of a one-three-one zone. He said they will adjust their defense to whoever they play, but for the most part they will be in that zone defense.
“Overall number one, we’ve got to be solid defensively, we don’t want to give up easy baskets,” Trujillo said. “Secondly, I think my teams over the years have shot the ball really, really well. I think you’ll see a lot of three-pointers. It should be a fun, exciting style of basketball.”
Mayfield is ready for the Trojan winning tradition to return. Trujillo believes he will bring that tradition back in due time but said it’s not about him, it’s about the student athletes’ journey — wanting to help them have fun and have a special joy for the game while developing life skills that will help outside of the basketball world.
“I say this to my players all the time: If somebody walks into the gym in the fourth quarter and it’s a 20-point spread in the game, they should not be able to tell by looking at you whether you’re up or down,” Trujillo said. “I think that’s a great life skill too … stuff happens in life, but if you let it get you down — the cool thing is we get to control our emotions.”
Trujillo is still planning out his staff, with one assistant coach from last season staying on board. He said his full staff most likely will not be filled up until the beginning of the next school year.
Trujillo has a tough job on his hands, with District 3-5A being highly competitive, including teams like Las Cruces, Organ Mountain and Alamogordo.
“I hope they (the community) … come out and support the kids. We’re going to compete,” Trujillo said.
