Lobos sign Zach Vigil, third straight Gatorade New Mexico POY
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BVM) — The New Mexico Lobos are doing their part to make sure the best in-state football recruits stay close to home for college. UNM officially secured its third straight Gatorade New Mexico Player of the Year on Dec. 15 when Rio Rancho senior running back Zach Vigil put pen to paper during early national signing day.
“The relationship I have built with the coaching staff and some of the players over the past years was a key point in committing to UNM,” Vigil said in an official signing day press release. “Not only is it close to home, but the process is something that I trust in Coach (Danny) Gonzales.”
Vigil joins his former high school teammate Isaiah Chavez, a redshirt freshman quarterback for the Lobos who earned the state’s top honor in 2019, and UNM freshman wide receiver Luke Wysong, who won a pair of Gatorade awards last year as a star athlete for Cleveland High School’s football and track and field programs.
In his final season with the Rams, the 5-foot-10, 190-pound Vigil rushed for 1,553 yards and 26 touchdowns as he led Rio Rancho to the Class 6A state championship game and earned District 1-6A Player of the Year honors. A member of the National Honor Society and the 2021 Mr. New Mexico Football award winner, Vigil finished his Rams career with 3,005 rushing yards and 55 touchdowns.
“Zach is always willing and committed to putting the team first,” Rio Rancho head coach Gerry Pannoni said in a Gatorade press release. “Weekly, we challenged him and added to his responsibilities, both as a player and a leader, and he continually rose to every challenge.”
Vigil was one of 25 Class of 2022 signees announced by Gonzales and his coaching staff and he’s one of four in-state signees, including former three-star defensive lineman Tyler Kiehne, a 2021 Los Lunas grad who transferred from UCLA. The recruiting class includes 19 high school seniors, four junior college transfers, and two Division I transfers, all of whom will try to help the Lobos build toward more success after they went 3-9 in the first season of the Gonzalez regime.
“This was our first time as a staff where we really got to meet kids and parents and showcase our facilities and all of the great things about Lobo Football,” Gonzales said. “We have great facilities and we have a vision of where our program is going, and this is a great class because these are young men that want to be here and want to be Lobos.”
