Longtime Albuquerque Academy AD to retire at end of school year

Taryn Bachis arrived on the campus of Albuquerque Academy in 1984.

Forty-two years later, she’s preparing for her exit.

The private school’s longtime athletic director, Bachis is set to retire, as soon as this flurry of state tournament activity ends over the next 10 days.

“I’m just tired,” Bachis said. “I’m going to be 67, and I want to leave while I’m healthy enough to do other things. I’ve been here since I was 25 years old; 42 years is a long time. … I love the kids and I love the coaches, but I want to stop when I still have produced some good results here at Academy.”

Bachis, 66, has served as the school’s AD since 2000, and her quiet presence has been a constant for all of Academy’s sports programs in what has been a quarter century of unparalleled achievement.

Since she became athletic director, the school has won a nearly unfathomable 140 state championships. With perhaps several more to come between now and May 16.

She began as a physical education teacher, and served as an assistant volleyball, basketball and softball coach in her early days with the school. Bachis later became the PE department chair, and moved into the AD role in 2000.

She twice was the Chargers’ head girls basketball coach. The second stint lasted from 2011 until two seasons ago when she stepped down.

“I gave up my basketball team knowing they were all eighth and ninth graders, because I don’t have that energy anymore to put out,” Bachis admitted in a candid moment.

Retirement has been on her mind for a couple of years, she said.

Bachis has been responsible for some notable athletic department upgrades during her tenure.

The Richard Harper Memorial track and field meet, for example, was a modestly-sized meet when she started, with about a dozen schools. It featured 27 schools last month and is now regarded as the state’s premier regular-season meet.

The Joe Armijo Classic basketball tournament for many years was an event that featured only boys teams. Bachis sparked the addition of a girls event which is run simultaneously with the boys.

She has overseen other additions like the Academy cross country Extravaganza, which is a mammoth meet held several weeks before the state meet which Academy reguarly hosts.

Cheer is a sport, Bachis said, that hadn’t existed at Academy for roughly four decades before it was introduced two years ago.

“That was big,” she said.

One of her lasting contributions is ushering in an era of outdoor night games on the sprawling Academy campus where there are no permanent lights at any of its fields or stadiums.

Football was the first, a handful of years ago, to stage a first-ever night game. Just this school year, Academy has hosted a night football game, a night game for both boys and girls soccer, and most recently, a track meet with the running events held under portable lights.