N.M. prep football, soccer to be postponed

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Jul 10, 2020 | Sports |

File photo
Navajo Prep’s Kyler Clitso (2) chases after Newcomb Skyhawk Deondre Begay (22) during a non district game last season. The New Mexico Activities Association announced that football and soccer will be delayed until the next year following the basketball season.

WINDOW ROCK

With the recent uptick in coronavirus cases, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced on Thursday the suspension of all contact sports at the high school level.

In response to the governor’s executive order, the New Mexico Activities Association has pushed back the start time for the 2020 season for football and soccer until the spring semester of 2021.

“We kind of saw this coming so I’m in favor of the decision,” Newcomb athletic director Bill McLaughlin said, adding that volleyball, golf and cross-country are still being offered but that could change.

The governor’s executive order does not affect college football but Lujan Grisham is pressing each institution to consider postponing their season as well.

And while the NMAA was hoping to start the season as scheduled in August, the state’s high school sports governing body has been working on contingency plans to ensure that its student-athletes will be able to play this season.

Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
In this file photo, Gallup Bengal Luis Alvarez (8) and Bloomfield Bobcat Tristen Dobbs (9) leap into the air as they go after the ball during a District 1-4A matchup. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the New Mexico Activities Association announced on Thursday that football and soccer will not be played this fall..

“Interscholastic athletics are an important part of the overall educational process. The NMAA will work tirelessly to ensure students have the opportunity to participate in all sports and activities of their choosing during the 2020-2021 school year,” NMAA Executive Director Sally Marquez said in a statement.

McLaughlin praised the NMAA for being proactive, as the association has been considering alternatives in the event that the pandemic would alter the upcoming high school sports season.

“Sally Marquez has a couple of different options in mind in how we’re going to proceed,” he said.

In the press release, the NMAA said they should have a tentative plan set to be released on or around July 15.

McLaughlin said one option that has been discussed in recent weeks is truncating each sports season into two months with winter sports taking place in January, followed by fall sports in March and spring sports in late April.

“We’re looking to start football, soccer and any fall sports right after the basketball season is finishing up,” McLaughlin said. “We already know that we’re going to reduce all the schedules across the board. There is going to be a reduced season.”

Before the governor made her decision, the NMAA had allowed schools to start Phase One in reopening of high school sports in which athletes were permitted to work on their individual skills with their respective high school programs under strict safety protocols.

And while some of them got an early start to the prep season, McLaughlin said the athletes at Newcomb stayed idle.

“We’ve been following the Navajo Nation stay-at-home orders,” McLaughlin said. “I took the approach that if the Navajo Nation is still under at-home-orders and restricting groups and gatherings we weren’t going to start any of the fall sports stuff.

“We just have been real hesitant in wanting to start anything out of safety of our community because a lot of our kids have large extended families, and they live within a close proximity,” he added. “I don’t want any of kids to get the virus and carry it back home and get their families sick. It’s not a risk that we were willing to take.”