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Basketball season was scheduled to tip off on Tuesday, Nov. 25, for the Magdalena Steers varsity basketball teams. Standing at 6 feet 5 inches, multi-sport senior Ky Stephens was an easy choice to be one of the team captains. Not just for his height though.
“There’s not a coach in the state that wouldn’t want a kid like Ky. He’s every coach’s dream, in every aspect.” Magdalena Athletic Director and Head Coach for the boys varsity basketball team, Jory Mirabal, said.
In addition to basketball, Stephens played football in the fall and will compete in track in the spring.
“I do both the hurdles, triple jump, and then usually some relays.” Stephens said.
Among these sports, Stephens was quick to say that football was his favorite sport though. He was a captain for the Steers team that had an excellent 7-1 regular season and earned a district championship. They beat Mountainair in the quarterfinals before falling to Logan in the semifinals.
“Didn’t go quite as I wanted it to, but we did good stuff.” Stephens said of the football season.
Stephens’ performance and leadership was recognized by being named to the All-District team as well as Offensive MVP for District 2 of six man football.
The stats posted for nine of his games show that Stephens rushed for 480 yards and 12 TDs. Although he wasn’t typically in the quarterback role, he completed 4 out of 6 passes for 3 passing TDs and 89 passing yards. Along with 241 receiving yards and a couple of TDs, Stephens had 17 total touchdowns and 810 total yards, for an average of 90 yards per game. Defensively, he averaged 7.7 tackles per game.
Academically, Stephens is doing really well in school despite shying away from talk about core classes.
“I have a 4.0, I know that.” Stephens said. “I was [taking advanced classes], but not currently. I like welding and team sports.”
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His next step after graduation is to serve a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I’ll probably start my papers in January, and then it should be like two months after that I’ll get a location.” Stephens said.
He isn’t sure what he will want to do after that, trade school or college or other, but he said that he would focus on the mission first and figure that out along the way.
Beyond school, sports, and church, he has a few other activities that keep him busy.
“I like hiking and hunting.” Stephens said.
Stephens also has musical talents and plays piano.
“Usually I just keep it to myself, but sometimes we have a Christmas recital or something just with our family.” Stephens said of his piano playing.
Returning to his favored topic, sports, Stephens is optimistic about the upcoming basketball season.
“I think it’s gonna be a lot like football. There’s gonna be a lot of people not expecting us to really show up, but I think we have a good chance.” Stephens said.
Stephens and the Steers smoothed out some of the kinks during the weekend’s scrimmage in Magdalena, and they were feeling ready for the regular season.
