 | The growth of basketball in the southwest region of New Mexico can be due to the dedication Coach Shock had during his 40 years of coaching at Cliff High School. Coach Shock retired in 1974. He coached track for 30 years and baseball for 17 years at Cliff. He missed one year when he enlisted in the Army in 1945-46. While many of the school’s sports records were destroyed in a fire in 1953, we know that for 30 years, his teams won 422 basketball games. Until 1954, all teams played in one division in basketball and all schools competed for a berth to the state tournament regardless of school size. Coach took his team six times the state tournament and had 5 district championship teams. He attended Western New Mexico and played basketball, football, baseball and track for four years, graduating in 1933. He was a player-coach in the 1932-1933 season. He was voted the state’s top college player in 1931 and 1932. He stayed at WNMU to coach as an assistant for one year before heading to Cliff. For several years, he coached the varsity and junior varsity teams. In these early years, there were only 7 or 8 players basketball. There were virtually no school facilities and to use his car to transport the players. Many of his players of gone on to play college basketball and some became coaches. Bill Stailey at Aztec, Jerry Lee at Weed, Chuck Dinwiddle at Reserve and finally his son, Pete, who took over the Cliff program in 1975. All four took their teams to the state tournament in 1976. He was inducted to the Western New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. He was inducted to the New Mexico Coaches Associations Hall of Honor in 1988 and NMAA Hall of Fame in 1977. |