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Milan Police Department vehicles help introduce the 2021-2022 Pirate football team for their first home game of the year against Capital High School. The defensive coach for this team is Officer Josh Pacheco of MPD who helped to organize the introduction, a display that MPD supports the community it works in and around. Courtesy photo
VILLAGE OF MILAN, N.M. – Officer Joshua Pacheco of the Milan Police Department is not only an officer, but also a coach at Grants High School for the Pirate football team. Pacheco, who grew up in the Village of Milan, decided that he needed to give back to his community and decided that he could best give back by helping the youth.
“It’s surreal man, it really is,” Pacheco said about his ability to give back. At a time where the GHS football team is young and ready to be molded, Pacheco is finding opportunities everywhere he looks. “I know Friday’s game wasn’t exactly the perfect picture everyone wanted to see, but a loss isn’t a loss unless you don’t learn from it. We’re going to learn from Friday, our program has a long way to go but we are a young team, I think we’re going to be strong – we’re going to be someone to be worried about.”
Wanting to showcase MPD’s support of the community, Pacheco and MPD Chief Carl Ustupski teamed up with Grants High School to have MPD help welcome the Grants Pirates for their first home game of the school year. The MPD cruiser’s lights were glowing and the sirens running as the Pirate teamed rushed onto the field against Capital High School on Aug. 20.
For himself, Pacheco played all four of his high school years on the Pirate team, playing with new Pirate Head Coach Brandon Hernandez the whole time. “Brandon and I are a team, he’s an insanely smart coach and we’re ready to make this team strong,” Pacheco said.
Before teaming up with GHS, Pacheco was a coach at West Mesa High School in Albuquerque. He said of his time, “I met with a lot of smart coaches who helped bring me up to speed from a coaching perspective, West Mesa was an incredible experience.”
“I grew up here, I saw what was going on,” Pacheco remarked when asked about why he decided to become a police officer, “I wanted to help people and get them to a spot where they can be taken care of and don’t go to prison.” When he learned that Milan Police Department was hiring, he felt it would be a good opportunity to give back to the community he was raised in. “I met with these guys [MPD administration], and they understood what I wanted to do in the community – helping people. Here, it’s a different environment, we want people to come up to us and know that we’re here for them.”
Upon graduating from Grants High, Pacheco spent time between Albuquerque and Grants, working with special education students before working in area prisons, eventually joining the Farmington Police Department. After a few months with FPD, Pacheco found an opportunity to come back home, serving with the Milan Police Department. The deal became even sweeter as Pacheco realized the new administration at MPD was looking to be community oriented. With the community in mind, MPD allows Pacheco to have a flexible schedule so he not only keeps the citizens of Milan safe, but he can teach the next generation life skills, and the all-American game of football.
Look to next week’s edition of the Cibola Citizen for a spotlight on new MPD Officer Ryan Salazar, who’s connection to MPD is so deep, it runs through his blood.