New Mexico

New Mexico’s Chaparral High School football team is making history

Published

2 months ago

November 20, 2025

New Mexico’s Chaparral High School football team is making history

The Chaparral High School football program in Southern New Mexico is making a name for itself these days.

And for the first time, the state of New Mexico is taking notice of the Lobos program. Chaparral High School is located less than 30 miles from Northeast El Paso.

The Lobos are 8-3 overall and seeded No. 3 in the Class 4A playoffs. The eight wins are the most in school history and the No. 3 seed in the playoffs is the highest seed the Lobos have ever had in the playoffs.

The Lobos defeated No. 6 seed Moriarty, 42-41, in the state quarterfinals on Nov. 14 when Lobos quarterback Israel Nieto scored with a rushing touchdown and it was followed by a successful extra point to advance the Lobos. Twelve teams made the state playoffs.

There are multiple classifications in New Mexico, ranging from Class 2A to Class 6A, as well as six-man and eight-man football divisions.

Chaparral football history

The Lobos played their first varsity game in 2007 and went 1-9 that season. The Lobos have had seven seasons with no wins,

The Lobos had winning seasons in 2015 and 2017, both times going 6-4.

Chaparral breaks through in 2024

Chaparral made the postseason in 2024 and defeated Portales in the first round on the road, securing the program’s first-ever playoff win.

Fast forward to 2025

The Lobos have won 8 of their last 10 games after losing their season opener to Gadsden. They went 4-2 in District 2-4A, which placed them second behind Albuquerque St. Pius.

The Lobos defeated strong teams from Albuquerque (Academy and Manzano), the state’s largest city, and another team from Los Lunas (Valencia HS), which is near Albuquerque.

Chaparral players to watch

Israel Nieto, QB. He has 1,786 yards passing, 634 yards rushing, 19 touchdown passes and 15 rushing touchdown runs.
Raul Lopez, RB. Lopez has rushed for 1,092 yards and has 470 yards rushing.
Aaron Eliserio, WR. He has caught eight touchdown passes.

Chaparral’s coaching staff

Joseph Frias, who played quarterback at El Paso’s Franklin High School and graduated in 2003, is the second-year head coach.

His staff includes defensive coordinator Stephen White, offensive coordinator Esai Ontiveros and defensive backs and wide receiver coach David Butler.

What’s next for Chaparral

The Lobos will play No. 2 St. Pius at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Nusenda Community Stadium in Albuquerque in the state semifinals. The winner will play either No. 1 Bloomfield or No. 4 Taos in the state finals.

What Chaparral head coach Joseph Frias said

“The kids have worked hard and bought into what we want to do,” Frias said. “Making the playoffs last year and winning a playoff game meant so much to the program. It gave us momentum.”

What Chaparral player Israel Nieto said

“We’ve had great support from the community, we’ve played with confidence and determination,” Nieto said.

Felix F. Chavez can be reached at fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on X

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

Published

3 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

15 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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