Healthy Again, Piedra Vista Looks to Make Its Mark in Class 5A
Story by Walter Dorman
Photos by Adrian Jacquez
A year ago, seemingly every time the Piedra Vista Panthers solved one problem, another one appeared.
Injuries piled up, especially at quarterback, and head coach Jared Howell and his staff spent much of the season adjusting on the fly.
Yet when the season ended, the Panthers were still right there.
Piedra Vista finished 5-6 and pushed Los Lunas to the final moments in the opening round of the playoffs before falling 28-24.
For Howell, that experience revealed something important about his program.
Adaptability.
“We didn’t have one healthy quarterback throughout the year,” Howell said. “We had a bad run.”
By the end of the season, the Panthers had turned to a converted player at quarterback and still managed to put themselves in position to win a playoff game.
“That was nice, knowing that the kids can handle adversity and the coaches are adaptable,” Howell said. “Every year, no one ever knows what’s going to happen. Every team has their own hurdles that are going to pop up and have to learn to get over.”
Now the Panthers enter 2026 with a healthier roster, a more experienced group and a new challenge.
Piedra Vista moves from Class 6A into Class 5A this season, where a new statewide alignment has created two large districts. The Panthers will compete in an eight-team district, giving them seven district games and only three opportunities outside district play.
But Howell doesn’t want his players believing the move to 5A means they can lower the standard they established while competing against 6A programs.
“We’re used to playing a certain level of talent, and we’ve got to maintain those standards and play at that level,” Howell said. “If we can play at that level, then we’re going to set ourselves up for some success.”
A New-Look Class 5A
The new district setup has already created challenges before Piedra Vista has played its first regular-season game.
Howell said one of the biggest issues has been scheduling.
Athletic directors from Bloomfield and Farmington worked to create schedules and balance the newly aligned classifications, but later changes and appeals forced additional adjustments.
Piedra Vista was originally scheduled to play Bloomfield in Week 3 before changes elsewhere in the alignment left the Panthers searching for another opponent.
“That was the biggest thing of those district changes, was in scheduling,” Howell said.
Despite the complications, Howell believes the end result could produce a more balanced Class 5A.
He has seen situations in previous years where one district was significantly stronger than another, sometimes leaving quality teams fighting for playoff spots while teams from weaker districts received favorable positions because of their records.
Howell believes the new alignment has a chance to change that.
“I think there’s a lot more parity and a lot more balance in the two districts, at least in 5A,” he said.
And with seven district games, there will be very few weeks that don’t carry postseason implications.
Healthy Panthers See the Difference
Perhaps the biggest improvement for Piedra Vista has nothing to do with schemes or strategy.
The Panthers are healthy again.
A large junior class that gained valuable experience last season returns as seniors, and many of the players who battled injuries late last year are back on the field.
“We have a lot of juniors that were playing last year that are seniors this year, so they’re obviously bigger, faster, stronger,” Howell said. “Biggest improvement is health — getting healthy.”
Howell said some of Piedra Vista’s key players have been available throughout the summer, and the difference is beginning to show.
“We’re more explosive offensively,” he said. “I think we’re pretty solid.”
There are still positions to fill after graduation took away several seniors, but Howell came away encouraged after the Panthers’ recent preseason scrimmage.
More importantly, he believes the problems he saw can be fixed.
“Everything I saw in the scrimmage is all correctable,” Howell said. “It’s all technique stuff, things that we can correct pretty quickly.”
That is much different from looking at a position and realizing there simply isn’t an answer available on the roster.
“I feel like we’ve got a lot of good problems that we can fix,” he said.
Being Different Is Part of the Plan
If there is one thing Howell doesn’t want Piedra Vista to lose, it is the Panthers’ identity.
During the offseason, Howell and members of his staff visited and talked football with other coaching staffs, including coaches from larger programs Piedra Vista had competed against.
They wanted an outside evaluation.
What did those opponents see when they prepared for Piedra Vista?
The response was consistent.
Don’t change who you are.
“Whatever you do, don’t lose who you are,” Howell recalled hearing from several programs.
And what opponents see in the Panthers is physical football.
“You guys are different than everybody else, and you’re physical,” Howell said of the feedback his staff received. “Those are qualities that, when we’re preparing for you, we know we’re going to have to get ready for.”
That physical style has become a deliberate part of the Piedra Vista program.
Howell knows there are people who would like to see the Panthers throw the football more.
But Piedra Vista’s offensive philosophy wasn’t created because Howell dislikes throwing the football.
In fact, the Panthers once operated out of a spread offense.
The change came because Howell and his staff evaluated what they could realistically develop within their program.
“If you’re going to be like everybody else, be better,” Howell said of the philosophy. “If you can’t be better than them at that thing that you’re trying to be like everybody else at, then be different.”
Piedra Vista chose different.
The Panthers built an offense around what they believed they could consistently develop and around the physical style they wanted opponents to prepare for every Friday night.
“Some people like it, some people don’t,” Howell said. “But we know why we are the way we are.”
Turning Expectations Into Results
There is optimism surrounding the Panthers as the season approaches, but Howell understands preseason expectations don’t win football games.
What matters is what Piedra Vista does once the season begins.
“There’s games we should win, and there’s games that are going to be the battle,” Howell said.
The question will be whether the Panthers can consistently perform at the standard they have established for themselves — and whether they can exceed it when the situation demands it.
“Do we do what we’re supposed to do when we’re doing it, and then do we actually outperform some of those standards on any given week?” Howell said. “Then we can really say, ‘Hey, we’ve done something good.’”
Last season showed Piedra Vista could survive adversity.
The Panthers lost quarterbacks, shuffled personnel and still came within four points of advancing in the playoffs.
This season starts from a much different place.
The Panthers are healthier. Their experienced juniors are now seniors. They return to Class 5A after competing against 6A competition, and they enter a newly balanced district knowing almost every game will matter.
But regardless of classification, Howell doesn’t want Piedra Vista trying to become something it isn’t.
The Panthers intend to be physical.
They intend to be different.
And after everything they learned a year ago, they intend to find out just how far that identity can take them.
