Lobos Sign Two On Day 1 of Early Signing Period
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Head coach Bronco Mendenhall has announced two high school seniors, John Sierra of Las Cruces and Sa’Kylee Woodard of Tucson, a pair of All-State student-athletes from Las Cruces and Tucson, respectively.
Their additions will be the only ones expected to be announced in the early signing by Mendenhall and his new staff, which was officially announced today. The small class to start shouldn’t sound any alarms, and as Lobo fans will soon learn, things are a little different with Coach Mendenhall leading the way.
“We have a lot of momentum in our program right now, and we are very excited for the future of Lobo Football, but the early signing period isn’t something that is on our timetable, but the NCAAs,” said Mendenhall. “Our goal is to have our roster set and ready when we arrive at Fall Camp in July, so everything we do is to work to maximize what we are doing for the roster. We are being very intentional in our timelines and how we will build this program so that we can have sustained success.”
The Lobos have more student-athletes committed, particularly from the transfer portal, but those announcements for now will wait. That gives the day to Sierra and Woodard, two players that Mendenhall was excited to sign and have become Lobos.
“I feel like we have some really good players coming in, and we are happy to get John and Sa’Kylee signed. They both will have bright futures with our program.”
Sierra played at Centennial in Las Cruces, and he beomes UNM’s first high school signee from the city of Las Cruces since Kameron Miller back in 2016. Sierra played in nine games for Centennial with 65 tackles on the season along with 3.5 sacks as an outside linebacker. He led Centennial to a 7-3 record and a perfect 5-0 district mark. Centennial advanced to the 6A quarterfinals. He forced a fumble and recovered three as well as registering an interception. He was named First Team All-District as well as First Team All-State 6A by the NMAA.
Woodard played both offensive and defensive line at Canyon Del Oro High School in Tucson, but he will be on the O-Line with UNM. He led a unit known as the “Trench Mob” that helped lead the way to an undefeated season and a 4A state title. He was named First Team All-Conference and he was an honorable mention All-State selection by the Arizona Republic.
