Prep teams looking forward to full practices this week

CLOVIS — Finally, with some improvement in the coronavirus pandemic situation across the state, New Mexico High School sports, circa 2020-21, is ready to make its belated debut this week.

Full-team practice sessions for football, volleyball and cross country are slated to begin on Monday, with boys and girls soccer to follow later in the week.

The New Mexico Activities Association and its member schools have been waiting patiently through a myriad of changes and delays authored by the state through Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office, which has steadily pushed activities back further.

A document released by the state’s Public Education Department this week said that schools which began hybrid classes on the Feb. 8 start date are eligible to start full practices, the Albuquerque Journal reported on Thursday.

Those which haven’t, the Journal noted, will have to wait until “transitioning into hybrid and completing the 14-day observation period,” according to the PED’s guidelines. That raised eyebrows among coaches around the state, some of whom thought they could begin once hybrid learning started.

All nine area New Mexico schools went to hybrid on Feb. 8, and thus are eligible to begin full workouts this week.

“There are going to be some staggered starts in some districts,” Clovis High athletic director Lonnie Baca said. “Some schools are going to come in late.”

The first football games are slated for the weekend of March 5-6, while volleyball matches can be played starting March 1.

“It’s about time,” Portales High football coach Jaime Ramirez said. “It was exciting for our kids to put on the helmets and shoulder pads.”

Meantime, cross country meets, limited to three teams in most cases, can commence this Saturday. Portales has a home meet on Saturday against New Mexico Military and Lovington, scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

The late start forces an already tight schedule into an even tighter format. Possible postseason competitions haven’t been determined, although the NMAA is looking at a “bowl-type” scenario for each team in football after it completes a regular season of no more than four games.

“It’s going to be tough, but the kids are going to get to play,” Portales High AD Mark Gallegos said. “We’ll follow the state’s protocols because we want our kids to play.”

Clovis High football coach Cal Fullerton said the Wildcats practiced in helmets for the first time on Wednesday, and in helmets and shoulder pads on Friday in anticipation of Monday’s first full-fledged workout.

“This week was a blast; the kids were excited,” Fullerton said. “We’d been in pods (of four or five players to one coach) since June, then they shut us down in August for a while and we’ve been in pods since then.

“To put a helmet on, the kids were excited. I think it’ll be a great experience on Monday.”

The NMAA is setting up football schedules, with schools arranging the rest of the sports slates. The NMAA expects to have its football schedule out by midweek.

Even though the delays had many wondering if the state would allow athletic competition at any point during this school year, Ramirez said he tried to encourage his squad to keep the faith.

“We try to keep the kids real positive about what’s going on, and I think they really appreciate that,” he said. “For sure, especially for the seniors, I’m praying we get to play as many games as possible.”

Gallegos said among the regulations are having coaches and players wear masks at all time and social distancing as much as possible, adding that the state will allow only a certain number of people in a locker room after games.

The NMAA is hoping the state will allow a 25 percent spectator capacity at games, although that has not been determined. Many schools will try to stream games on the internet, especially if fans aren’t allowed into venues.

Some schools have already opted out of competition this year, and others remain undecided. Gallegos said he anticipates perhaps two-thirds of the state’s 150-plus schools to eventually field teams this spring.

“All my coaches are like, ‘Our concern is for the kids, and they’re excited for Monday,’” he said. “I never thought we’d get to this day, but we’ll make the best of it and follow all of the regulations.”

Spring sports, which missed virtually all of last season due to the start of the pandemic, is scheduled to wrap up around the last weekend in June — about six weeks later than normal.

That could be tough, particularly for some of the smaller schools. While hopeful, some in the area aren’t sure they’ll have spring sports at all, and Melrose athletic director Dickie Roybal said on Friday that the Buffaloes will not participate in baseball this year — largely because of the problems of overlapping seasons with a limited number of athletes.

It’s all far from ideal, of course, but it’s still better than nothing.

“I don’t care what hoops we have to jump through,” Baca said. “It’s all about giving our kids an opportunity to play.”