Santa Fe Kia: Northern New Mexico Basketball
Santa Fe Kia is a locally owned, family-run business in northern New Mexico, but did you know high school sports are extremely important to both our family and our business?
Growing up as an athlete in school and then being lucky enough to play professionally for a short time, I was able to excel further than most. With that being said, I had the privilege of playing with some great athletes when I was in school that weren’t able to make it to the professional ranks. These teammates deserved as much recognition as I received, and in some cases more! Back when I was in school there was no Sports Primo and very little recognition if any if you weren’t a stand out.
The competitive nature of high school sports fosters ambition in young adults as well as promotes physical fitness and mental toughness. Santa Fe Kia takes pride in supporting high school sports, and, in particular, northern New Mexico high school basketball for these reasons.
Santa Fe Kia is passionate about northern New Mexico basketball
The enthusiasm for the sport in New Mexico brings our communities together, and its impact extends well beyond the court. Ball players learn important life skills such as teamwork, discipline, perseverance, and hard work. Basketball teaches players to work together, rely on each other, and to handle both successes and failures with grace.
For many players, high school basketball is a stepping stone to college and professional basketball.
“High schoolers are our leaders of tomorrow and all high school sports shape these leaders of tomorrow to be the best players, people, and mentors.” – Morley Fletcher, Owner of Santa Fe Kia
Santa Fe KIA is proud to be the main sponsor of Sports Primo, a local live-streaming sports network. Its goal is to promote student athletes in all athletics across northern New Mexico. Sports Primo provides online streaming of high school sports, event highlights and archiving of sports events from Rio Rancho to Española and throughout Northern New Mexico.
Morley is quite excited about this benefit to the youth of our communities: “This means high school athletes get the recognition they deserve on a much larger scale than from just their school or their immediate family now and thanks to archiving into the future. Recognition for all of the extracurricular hard work means as much to a young adult’s psyche as the physical work itself.”
Recent high school sports developments
One of the biggest news stories of the 2022-2023 basketball season is the pending retirement of renowned sports radio broadcaster, Carl Twibell. Carl has been the voice of Santa Fe high school sports for 43 years, mostly for Santa Fe High, Capital and St. Michael’s.
Regarding the 2021 expansion of the ESPN Santa Fe 1400 AM listening audience to frequency, 93.7 FM, Carl heralded the increased broadcast access for local high school sports:
“This is huge for high school sports in Santa Fe. Now you can hear Santa Fe High, Capital High School, St. Mike’s and numerous other schools on Friday nights and Saturdays throughout the fall with football and into the winter with high school basketball.” – Carl Twibell, ESPN radio lands on the FM dial, Santa Fe.com magazine, 10/14/21
Of other pending basketball developments, Santa Fe Kia is excited about sports historian Marty Saiz’s upcoming book on New Mexico high school basketball history since the early 1900s.
Who is Marty Saiz? Just ask, “Anybody ever heard of a bb player named so-and-so?” Without a doubt, Marty will be able to tell you their story. From the best Lobo PIT games, to “who’s that player that won two NM State Tourneys in a row with last second game winning shots?” to the best single-game scoring performances – Marty knows it!
Marty aims to finish most of his research for his history of northern New Mexico high school basketball and begin writing the highly anticipated book by the end of May 2023.
Northern New Mexico basketball for a better tomorrow
High school sports promote physical fitness and healthy lifestyles – lifestyles which align with our Santa Fe Kia business values.
What makes supporting high school sports so exciting to me is that I get a firsthand view and maybe even a hand in helping to mold our future leaders of our great state and our great country. No matter if a team is state champions or last in their respective league, a super star or a supporting teammate, a hall of famer or a face in a team picture.
The true excitement and why I am so interested in High School Sports is that I get to help, just a little, develop young people I can rely on in the future, when I am old. High School Sports molds the minds and competitive values of our young adults. This is exciting.
From supporting Sports Primo and promoting the broadcast, recording and collections of our basketball players’ performances, you’ll find enthusiasm at Santa Fe Kia for high school sports and northern New Mexico basketball!
Enjoy these high school basketball links of interest:
- Marty Saiz’s New Mexico Hoops Facebook page
- Marty Saiz documenting New Mexico basketball history
- Recently updated Boys Basketball Record Book with over 18 pages of accomplishments in over 100 years of New Mexico basketball – New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) website
- Read more seasoned broadcaster Carl Twibell’s play-by-play career since 1975: Santa Fe prep broadcasters legacy will echo with those he befriended and mentored in the Santa Fe New Mexican, 11/27/2022