Same place, new start

PORTALES - Ruth Chavez knew when it was time to come home.

Chavez, a Fort Sumner native, had been living in Portales since her college days spent at Eastern New Mexico University. She had taught at Portales, coached in the Lady Rams volleyball program for 29 years, was head coach for 15. She raised a family in Portales.

For the past three years, though, Chavez had been head coach of Clovis' volleyball team, a change she knew would do her good.

But this spring came the opportunity to come home to Portales when Lady Rams head coach Charity Gomez accepted a job at Cleveland High School. It was an opportunity for Chavez to step back in, and she accepted the offer from Portales Athletic Director Mark Gallegos to be Gomez's replacement.

It's both a return to the familiar and a fresh start for Chavez. Something old, something new.

"I prayed about it a lot," Chavez said, "and I just felt it was time to come on back home. It just felt right. I gave it a lot of thought. ... It just seemed like the right time for me."

"We're excited," Gallegos said. "Ruth was here for many, many years, and we're excited. I think it's great for our kids and our program."

Most situations with an upside usually have a downside too. In this case the downside was leaving Clovis after three years of coaching and teaching.

"It was hard for me to leave the girls," Chavez said. "I love the kids - not just the volleyball players, but the kids I taught in school. I loved everything about them. ... You get attached to them. It's hard, just like I'm sure here in Portales it was hard on the kids when Charity left."

Chavez is in full-circle mode, having begun her Portales coaching career in the 1980s under Rams volleyball pioneer Brenda Stockton.

"She was my mentor," Chavez said. "Her life and my life were there. We've given our lives to that program. I was just a little kid at 21 years old, and she was the head coach at that time. And I learned a lot."

Chavez took over the Lady Rams program from Stockton in 2001, beginning a successful stretch along with assistant coach Garrick Matthews. "We won three (state) titles together and three runners-up," Chavez said. "So we had a heck of a run."

Chavez retired as Portales head coach in 2016, but got the itch a year later and headed up to Clovis, assuming head-coaching duties for the Lady Wildcats program.

Now she's back in Portales. Matthews will be back on the staff too.

"The band's getting back together," Chavez said. "He's coming back and we're going to coach this team together, and that's really special. ... So it's an old friend, a good friend. ... It's kind of neat, it's kind of a reunion."

Sandy Shillings and Ann-Marie Bucksath will coach the program's younger players. Chavez will also get a chance to work with her son Nate, who after earning his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Oklahoma will teach at Portales and serve as a strength and conditioning coach for the Rams' athletic programs.

It has all fallen into place for Chavez, who's walking into a highly successful program.

"It's a very good situation," she said, "good volleyball players, good athletes. ... I think it's going to be great. I've known most of them; they've been at my camps when they were little, so it will be fun to see who they've grown up into."

It will be up to Chavez now to guide those players, to keep the success going. She's certain she can handle it. "I love to work," she said. "I'm a worker and dreamer. You tell me I can't do something, I'll try my best to prove you wrong. I just can't sit still. And it's a time in my life where for some reason I'm supposed to be here, and I will give it everything I have."