NMAA delays high school sports again

The New Mexico Activities Association again has delayed high-school sports — this time to at least February — because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tucumcari High School athletic director Wayne Ferguson passed along the news at the district’s school board meeting last week about another delay of prep sports amid skyrocketing cases of the coronavirus in New Mexico and many other states.

“Nothing will happen in January,” he said during a follow-up interview last week. “The earliest it will happen is February.”

The NMAA initially announced in October its revised calendar would have sport seasons begin with basketball on Jan. 4.

Ferguson said it’s now unknown when basketball and football seasons would begin.

Ferguson said NMAA Executive Director Sally Marquez “is working on two calendars and wants to get some type of initial approval on which calendar the governor’s office likes the most. Once she gets that, she’ll present that to her board of directors.”

Ferguson said the new schedule might be released in early to mid-December.

During a videotaped interview early last week, Marquez said she didn’t want to wait until the last minute as did earlier this fall whether to delay sports.

“I don’t want to wait until Jan. 4, Jan. 6, Jan. 8 to make that determination,” she said. “We should have something here by the beginning of December.”

Ferguson said even if sports resumes in February, an ongoing issue is the eligibility of prospective student-athletes. As much as 70% of students at some New Mexico school districts are failing at least one class amid remote-learning environments this fall.

At Tucumcari, Ferguson said the only sports practicing at this time is boys basketball, and they’re working out in 4-to-1 players-to-coach pods.