Los Alamos fires Maestas, promotes Bustos
Administrators said change related to 6 players quitting
Benito Maestas is perplexed at his dismissal as the head boys basketball coach at Los Alamos.
Meanwhile, D.J. Bustos is excited to get his first chance to run a program.
Los Alamos fired Maestas on Wednesday midway through his fifth year with the program after a 3-9 record, along with junior varsity coach Paul Herrera. Maestas said administrators told him and Herrera the decision was based on six players quitting the program since the season began and it couldn’t afford to lose more.
Maestas added he felt he should have been given the chance to finish the season instead of being dismissed before it ended.
Maestas guided the Hilltoppers to a 46-64 record and the Class 4A State Tournament in 2022.
“I’m still wrapping my head around it,” Maestas said.
Taking over the program is Bustos, a 2017 West Las Vegas graduate and the son of longtime coach David Bustos. It is his first head-coaching job after spending the past two years under Maestas.
Bustos said, while he always wanted to be a head coach, he did not want to do it at the cost of Maestas’ job.
However, he felt it was necessary to help the players and maintain some continuity.
“I have a great respect for Benito,” Bustos said. “I didn’t know this was going to happen. He gave me a great opportunity to be on his staff as a volunteer. I hate what happened, but I did this for the kids and I want them to succeed.”
Los Alamos athletic director Ann Stewart did not respond to phone messages left by The New Mexican.
This marks the third time the school replaced a head coach in the middle of the season during the 2023-24 school year. The volleyball program saw Joe Palmer and five assistant coaches placed on leave amid allegations of drinking alcohol during an overnight team event at the school.
Palmer and his coaches eventually resigned, but the program went through another head coach before finishing the season with former head coach Diana Stokes.
In December, Satguru Khalsa abruptly resigned as head girls basketball coach three games into the season, and Todd Zollinger was named his replacement.
Maestas defended his program, saying he felt like he built something students wanted to be a part of, rather than feeling obligated to play for the Hilltoppers. It showed in the shortened
2021 pandemic season, as Los Alamos went 8-4 and posted its first winning record since 2009-10.
The following year, the Hilltoppers made their first postseason appearance in a decade.
“To build a program, you need about four to five years, I think,” Maestas said. “A lot of people think that when they name a head coach, it is going to happen overnight. Sometimes, if you have the athletes, you get lucky. In Los Alamos, it’s not a basketball town and we tried to change that.”
“We were moving in the right direction but it’s hard to move in that direction if I don’t have the support from the administration.”
Maestas said of the six players who left the program, four or five of them missed several practices and a few games. He said that necessitated them sitting out one half of one game as punishment, and he had players, parents and himself sign an athletic code of conduct contract explaining his expectations to play in the program.
None of the players wanted to miss half a game, Maestas said, and he felt that was being lenient.
“Other coaches, I think, would have sat them out a game or two,” Maestas said. “They were only going to sit out one half of one game. I don’t think they liked our decision as coaches.”
He said one player who left early in the season sat down with him and talked about why he didn’t want to continue playing for the program, which he appreciated.
As for Bustos, he talked with the players and parents Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of moving forward and not focusing on what happened. His first games as head coach are Friday and Saturday, as Los Alamos will spend the weekend on the road at Aztec and Gallup’s Miyamura.
His first home game will be the Hilltoppers’ District 2-4A opener against Moriarty on Tuesday — the first of three straight days of games.
“I think everyone does get a little nervous [for the first game],” Bustos said. “Once you get the ball up in the air, it’s going to go away and you just start coaching.”
Maestas said he will explore other options around Northern New Mexico and has already received one offer just down the road from his old digs. Pojoaque Valley head boys coach Ryan Cordova offered him a job as an assistant, he said, and he will spend the next few days mulling the offer.
“Who knows what else is going to open up?” Maestas said. “There are a bunch of schools in Northern New Mexico. If something opens up that catches my eye, I’ll throw my hat in the ring and see what happens.”