The recent death of Wagon Mound’s admired and beloved basketball coach, Alfred Romero, 93, has caused many folks — especially sports fanatics in New Mexico — to ponder many of his teams’ accomplishments.

This is not intended to duplicate the obituary that appeared in the Optic and other newspapers, nor does it pretend to be an insider’s view of the man’s coaching career.

I never knew — merely knew of — Romero; my job, while still in high school, was to cover high school sports for the Las Vegas Daily Optic, which in those days published every day except Sunday.

That said, as an avid and long-time follower of sports in this part of the state, I marvel at how consistently Romero was able to field hoops teams that went far into tournament play each month of March.

Ben Moffett and Chuck Ferris, who have compiled volumes of information about high school sports in New Mexico, provided some facts for this column.

Obviously, my admiration of Romero started early in life. He’d bring his hard-fighting crew of Wagon Mound Trojans to Las Vegas to battle our local teams, the West Las Vegas Dons, the Las Vegas High School Cardinals and the Immaculate Conception Colts.

What many people forget is that in the olden days there was only one division, a way of classifying schools according to enrollment. So, if a team from Kiowa, Mosquero, Farley or Roy advanced in district, regional and state tournaments, the athletic association didn’t really care whether a school with a dozen boys in the upper grades locked horns with some of Albuquerque’s big schools.

That arrangement changed some 60 years ago with the instituting of an A and a B division, to separate the big schools from the small. With New Mexico’s growing population, there are now several divisions, to accommodate the larger schools. Meanwhile, a number of smaller schools have shut down, and some have combined facilities and personnel with other small schools in order to field a team.

Mathematically, there is no way for a mere five points to separate the teams’ margins over three games, without at least one of the final games being decided by a single point. There could even have been two one-point games.

Nevertheless, the 1954 season — plus many others — helped cement Coach Romero’s reputation as a winner.

My favorite recollection of the Trojans’ prowess came in the mid-50s, when three powerhouses set out to grab the state B crown. They were the top-seeded I.C. Colts, the Wagon Mound Trojans and the Maxwell Bears. They crowded into the almost-new Stu Clark Gym in the district tournament to meet with teams like Mosquero, Dawson, St. Gertrude’s of Mora, Des Moines, Capitan, Maxwell and Clayton.

Teams that many of us haven’t ever even heard of came from pin-dot communities along what was then U.S. Highway 85, long before Interstate 25.

I.C., the only small school from Las Vegas, a town of some 15,000 denizens, had the biggest cheering section; it erupted when Leland Abreu, Alfonso Barbero, Tony Hidalgo, Mingo Alarcon, Robert Gonzales, George Fram and the Pino brothers, Ray and Mariano, took the court against Maxwell’s Bears.

But the Colts’ first-round opponent had other plans. They beat the Colts, largely because of a much taller center, Tony Reales, who continually picked off rebounds, limiting I.C. to one shot each time down the court. The Bears’ center was about 6-foot-4, three inches taller than the Colts’ center, Leland Abreu.

Ferris, who along with Moffett, has kept copious notes on sports, attended Capitan High School and wrote this about the tall Bear player: “Maxwell . . . had a player named Tony Reales that I estimated to be 8’ tall.” Reales’ height — real or imagined — helped keep Maxwell competitive. Often, a wayward shot by one of Reales’ teammates got scooped for a second or third attempt.

Meanwhile, Wagon Mound prepared for its first of three meetings with the Bears. Team members for the Trojans were Albert Valdez, Frank Aragon, Sam Martinez, Isaac Romero, Joe Chavez, Harold Daniels, Lawrence Martinez, Donald Isbell, Gilbert Montoya and Amadeo Gallegos. Their managers were Frank Baca and Fritz Thompson. Isaac Romero and Joe Chavez provided most of the Trojans’ height.

Wagon Mound beat the Bears in the district finals, edged them a week later in regional competition and did it again in the state finals, 46-44.

Has it ever happened that two teams would meet three times in a span of 16 days, with the margin of victory a total of five points?

While fans were reserving motel rooms to attend regional and state tournament games away from Las Vegas, fans here shed lots of tears over the fact that the I.C. Colts never made it out of district. Remember, everybody just knew that Nick DiDomenico’s Colts would win it all. They settled for third place by beating the Mora Rangers.

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Alfred Romero influenced a great number of basketball players (because of the small enrollment there, the school didn’t field a football team). Four Clouthier brothers, Adrian, Henry, Sammy and Bobby all played under Coach Romero.

Adrian, who played guard under Romero from 1969 through 1972, said that even though the Trojans failed to win state during his years as a player, Romero always found a way to get the most out of his players. Adrian, by the way, helped verify much of my foggy recollections about Trojan basketball in 1954.

That year, Adrian was a starting guard, with teammates Donald LeFebre, Anthony Montoya, Enos Fernandez and Gilbert Grant on the first five.

This crew, while earning a winning record, didn’t quite match the glory days of the ‘50s, yet they performed well under Romero.

Many Wagon Mounders still agree that there were few things more enjoyable in 1954 than cheering for the Trojans — and their legendary Coach Alfred Romero.