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Prep basketball: Academy searching for boys and girls coaches; Cleveland hires girls coach

james yodice, albuquerque journal, n.m.
·2 min read

Apr. 24—Albuquerque Academy was already in the process of looking for a new girls basketball coach.

Now the Chargers are going to be conducting a dual search.

The private school's boys basketball coach, Marcos CdeBaca, has also resigned.

CdeBaca led the Chargers to the 2023 Class 4A state championship. But he has a new day job, which will include much more travel, so he had to resign at Academy. The team was informed on Tuesday, Athletic Director Taryn Bachis said.

Bachis herself resigned as the Chargers' girls coach after the season, although she is remaining as Academy's athletic director. She has twice been the girls basketball coach; the last stint lasted 13 seasons and the Chargers are coming off an excellent season.

"I guess since COVID, everything has gotten a little more complicated," Bachis said. "But we had such a good season, and they're so young. I want to give it to someone who can finish them out."

Plus, she added, "As a coach, it's 24 hours a day on your brain, all the time."

STORM HIRES POKORSKI: Cleveland has hired 41-year-old Stacy Pokorski to be the Storm's new girls basketball coach.

"I feel like they do have a lot of talented athletes in that school," said Pokorski, who played for La Cueva. "I know they suffered some injuries last year, but they do have a lot of talent coming back."

Pokorski for the last three seasons has been the top assistant to Marisa Cogan at La Cueva. For the last nine years, she also has been the head boys coach at Desert Ridge Middle School.

Pokorski replaces Susan Kubala, who resigned after the season. The only other time Pokorski applied to be a head coach, she said, was at Sandia after Kubala left there before landing at Cleveland.

"I hope to build a program that wants to develop players from the middle school up, and get more athletes from other schools involved," Pokorski said. "I also want to bring over from La Cueva the defensive intensity I've been learning from Marisa."

She'll be teaching physical education at Cleveland.

Pokorski's father, Rich, is a former Eldorado High boys coach and a former player at UNM.