Winning Centennial High School

The Centennial High School Softball Head Coach Fernie Valles finishes off his coaching career with a dominant season after going 30-0 and winning the state championship.

Valles retires this summer.

The team secured a resounding win over La Cueva High School in the final game with a 10-1 victory making them just the 8^th team in New Mexico history to go undefeated in a season and ranked as the 22^nd best team nationally by MaxPreps, a source for high school sports.

This continues the success of the previous seasons where they went 90-5 over the last three years.

Valles said he had some concerns before the season started.

“I had a lot of youngsters coming in because I lost seven players from the previous year,” Valles said. “We played some summer games that we didn’t think we were going to make it.”

After some practice and a couple of close games with Mayfield and Organ Mountain High Schools, Valles said that “We started playing good after the first tournament. We went to Albuquerque and that’s when I said, ‘Wow, we really have a chance here.’”

This season wraps up Valles’ softball coaching career as he is retiring with plans of coaching his grandsons.

“I just enjoyed coaching these girls for a lot of years,” Valles said. “It is rewarding to see them head to college and graduate from school.”

This state championship marks the third in Valles’ more than 40 year-long coaching career.