Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The New Mexico Activities Association board members during an emergency meeting Monday adopted an adjusted sports calendar where the condensed fall sports seasons of football, cross country and volleyball would begin on Feb. 22.
Practices for those traditionally fall sports also would officially begin Feb. 22.
If those dates hold, it would be the first time prep sports would be played in New Mexico in nearly a year because of disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Football season would be limited to five games, volleyball season to 12 matches and cross country to four meets.
The end of the football and volleyball seasons would be April 3, with cross country season ending March 27.
Volleyball’s state tournaments would be March 29 to April 3. The cross country state championships would be March 26-27. Dates for football state championships will be determined later.
School districts have until Feb. 15 to opt out of fall sports.
Previously announced schedules for winter and spring sports would be unchanged.
The board also voted to allow football helmets and pads to be used but no full contact during offseason workouts. The NMAA stipulates football players first must work out a minimum of two days in helmets before working out with helmets and shoulder pads to help athletes acclimate.
Yet to be decided are the formats for the state football championships. The next NMAA board meeting will be Feb. 17.
NMAA is considering having many of the quarterfinals and semifinals in one of the teams’ home venues, with the possibility of using neutral sites at the University of New Mexico facilities.
During an emergency meeting last Wednesday, the NMAA board temporarily tabled the adoption of a spring sports calendar until it received clarification from the New Mexico Public Education Department about the resumption of in-person learning — set for Feb. 8 — and how those policies may affect each school district’s ability to participate in NMAA-sanctioned sports.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the PED announced last week prep sports could resume on Feb. 22 if the return of in-person classes for middle-schoolers and high-schoolers on Feb. 8 didn’t cause a large spike in COVID-19 cases.
Tucumcari athletic director Wayne Ferguson said he would not begin revising his district’s high-school schedules until after NMAA’s meeting Monday.
Also during last week’s meeting:
• The board voted that out-of-state transfer students can be allowed to transfer back to the New Mexico school they came from without penalty. NMAA members recognized a few student-athletes chose to transfer to other states without knowing whether New Mexico prep sports would resume this school year. However, those student-athletes who return to New Mexico cannot play in the same sport in the same school year as they did at their out-of-state school.
• A motion by the board to alter scholastic eligibility this year failed by a 6-6 vote. Proposed was an option for districts to allow students in a nine-week scholastic schedule to participate in sports if they maintained a 2.0 grade-point average with no failing grades during the first six weeks. At least one board member who opposed the measure said such a proposal would set a bad precedent in future years.