Longhorns, Lady Longhorns basketball teams' new head coaches announced

A new face will be heading up boys basketball at Logan Municipal Schools next school year.

Logan High School graduate Kyle Griffiths will be joining the school district from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where he currently teaches elementary school physical education and coaches high school football. He coached basketball his previous nine years in Oklahoma.

Coach Randy Robertson recently left the school district.

Griffiths grew up in Deming but spent his junior and senior years in high school at Logan schools where he played basketball, baseball and football, as well as ran track.

He played in all-state basketball, baseball, football and track with his track team winning all-state in his senior year. He was also named the player of the year in basketball in his senior year.

“I’ve always thought it was a great school. It has always been a place I wanted to come back to if I could. I made a lot of memories there and made a lot of memories playing sports there,” Griffiths said of Logan schools, adding that he hopes to have made the move back to New Mexico sometime in June.

“I know Logan has a proud tradition in academics and athletics ... just being able to come back to a place that had a big impact on my life is something I look forward to,” Griffiths said. “That and being closer to family I still have there and being able to reconnect with people I haven’t seen in a long time.”

Griffiths said his uncle, Jerry Franklin, was one of his high school coaches and had a big impact on him.

Billy Burns, the current athletic director in Logan schools, was also one of his coaches and was “the main reason I got into teaching and coaching.”

Griffiths will be the elementary school physical education teacher along with being the high school boys basketball coach.

“I just love to impact young people and the challenge of getting them to perform at a high level,” he said. “Whatever we can do to build a great program. Impacting kids lives through sports is something that I’ve always enjoyed.”

Logan schools Superintendent Dennis Roch said he was excited to be able to announce Griffiths as the new head coach.

“His legacy in Logan as a student and student athlete and his experience teaching athletics in other states are really going to be an asset in building our boys program, and I look forward to a lot of successes to come,” Roch said of Griffith.

Griffiths replaces Robertson, who coached the Longhorns for three years with a record of 43-40, two 2A state tournament appearances including a 2015 sate runner-up title.

A familiar face will be serving as the new girls head basketball coach with former assistant coach Glynna Strand replacing former head coach Rhyan Daugherty.

Daugherty was in his second year as head coach of the Lady Longhorns. He had a record of 45-15, a District 6-2A championship (2016) and two 2A state basketball tournament appearances including a 2016 state runner-up title.