New Los Lunas football coach embraces high expectations

Of all the new head football coaches in New Mexico’s high school ranks, no one is going to be under closer scrutiny this year than Stephen Johnston.

Which, for a former Artesia Bulldog player and coach, is routine.

Johnston, 39, changed jobs in the offseason, leaving Manzano for Los Lunas. And this is the highest profile new hire among the state’s coaching ranks for the 2026 season.

His two predecessors, Jeremy Maupin and Greg Henington, combined to take Los Lunas to three state championship games, all in Class 5A.

After a handful of seasons in 6A, the Tigers have returned to 5A, and Johnston will make his Los Lunas debut Aug. 21 at Mayfield.

“I think there are certainly high expectations,” Johnston said. “It’s been expressed by a lot of folks around here. And I actually kind of appreciate that.”

Los Lunas went to three straight title games, 2018-19 and 2021 (there was no 2020 season). The Tigers were undefeated in 2021 under Henington, whose contract was not renewed following last season, when Los Lunas fell in the state quarterfinals to Las Cruces.

And this change atop the program has lingered a bit around the village during the offseason.

“He’s in a little different place than I was when I went over there,” said Maupin, now Artesia’s head coach. He and Johnston were teammates at Artesia. “I don’t think everyone wanted Henington gone; a lot of kids and parents really liked Greg.”

Henington landed a plum role as an assistant coach with defending Class 6A champion Cleveland following the messy split with Los Lunas.

All of which adds up to a job for Johnston that will have many eyeballs squarely focused on it during the next several months.

“At Manzano, expectations were very low,” Johnston said candidly of the early time at Manzano when he first got that job and the Monarch program was struggling. “Expectations here … I think that’s what makes it fun a little bit, that the community has high expectations.”

Los Lunas (62-22 over the last seven full seasons) most definitely should be a major piece in the 5A puzzle this year, as the Tigers look to challenge the two strongholds in this division, Artesia and Roswell. Those two fierce rivals have met in each of the the last three 5A title contests.

Johnston said Los Lunas is equipped to challenge anyone and everyone.

“Players coming up have high expectations,” he said. “We get to hold them to a high level of accountability. … We can compete with anybody in our class and we can beat anybody in our class.”

Class 5A is once again divided into two large districts, but Los Lunas’ northern league looks different than it did a year ago.

Cibola, Piedra Vista, Los Alamos, Miyamura, Highland, Capital and Santa Fe are the other seven teams in District 1-5A. Cibola, PV and Santa Fe, like Los Lunas, were 6A members the last few years.

And even if the Tigers, whose numbers are robust with about 125 players out for football, have left the likes of La Cueva, Cleveland and Las Cruces behind, the elite 5A programs present their own mountainous challenges. Los Lunas, after facing Mayfield, visits Rio Rancho and then plays host to Goddard before it segues into league play.

Johnston knows plenty about the demands of wearing Artesia orange, where he played from 2002-04, and where he later coached from 2010-21. Then he headed north to coach Manzano, which had been in some tumult but Johnston had them in the 4A playoffs in each of the last two seasons.

Los Lunas dropped a 20-point decision to Las Cruces last November, a game that was far closer than the final score would lead you to believe.

And after having a few months in Los Lunas, Johnston said the Tigers will surely be a major part of the 5A conversation.

“It is as legit of a group as I can think of to compete for a state championship,” he said. “I don’t see a situation where we couldn’t be in that (final) game or shouldn’t be in that game.”

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at [email protected] or via X at @JamesDYodice.

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