Top 50 Countdown: Rankings 15-19
About The Tour: During the months of June, July, and August NMPreps.com's Publisher Kyle Henderson will travel the state to preview over 40 high school football programs on their home campus. Hendo's Summer Tour Home Here
Over the next few weeks we'll be releasing our summer New Mexico High School Football Rankings. The Rankings are based off incoming seniors, rising juniors and sophomores, and losses to graduation.
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The Farmington Scorpions won the 2013 Class 4A State Title with less than 30 guys on their roster under Head Coach Gary Bradley beating Goddard 7-0. This year you would think that Farmington has to take a step back losing so many seniors, but that might not be the case with guys like Avery Rasher, Kyle Flower, and Trevor Cahoon returning. Gary Bradley has built a program at Farmington, one of the more difficult places to have real football success because of the baseball dominated region. Farmington is still the 2014 district favorite.
17
5A
Head Coach: Sam Jernigan
Last year Goddard went 9-3 reaching the 2013 Class 4A State Title Game and lost 7-0 against Farmington. Over the off-season, longtime coach Sam Jernigan (most successful coach in Goddard Rocket history) resigned in a shocker. Things won't change much as Jernigan's longtime assistant Mike Whalen was named the Head Coach. Goddard returns a ton of talent this year: Chandler Lessard, Cameron Neff, Luke Gutierrez, Dean McDaniel, and Justin Martinez should all be impact players. Expect the same old Goddard to line up Friday Night.
18
5A
Head Coach: John Lerma
One Head Coach in New Mexico that doesn't get highlighted enough is John Lerma. Since taking over in the mid 2000's Lerma has take the Eagles to new heights and are a playoff regular. Last year they went 9-3 coming up short losing 14-7 against Farmington in the semifinals. Returning into this season is three year starter at quarterback Chris Peralta who will be one of the top players in the District this season. They return a ton on both sides of the ball and while Valencia is getting some preseason hype, the District road still runs through Belen.
19
5A
Head Coach: Terrell Trantham
Last year's Los Lunas Tigers team was one of the best 4A teams we've seen in a while, they just could not put it together late in the year losing against Goddard 35-28 in the Wool Bowl. Los Lunas will again enter the 2014 season with a new Head Coach as Terrell Trantham takes over in his first head coaching gig. The former defensive coordinator at Belen is young, but has proved him in some big time games over the last few years. The Tigers are going to be very young, but return a junior quarterback Anthony Sanchez and watch for rising prospect O'Maury Samuels to make his first big splash on varsity this year.
Kyle Henderson is the New Mexico recruiting director for NMPreps.com. You can click here to follow him on Twitter.