NM governor says order will not be updated, NMAA cancels fall sports

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Oct 9, 2020 | CORONAVIRUS, Sports |

WINDOW ROCK

The fate of New Mexico fall prep sports for cross-country, golf and volleyball was answered on Thursday.

Due to the recent trend of new coronavirus cases, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said, “the state is not updating its public health orders” at this time.

The New Mexico Activities Association as well as coaches and high school athletes across the state were hoping the governor would amend the public health orders, which would have allowed the NMAA to resume prep sports next week.

The current statute allows teams to do workouts with 10 or fewer athletes within a single pod, while limiting use of equipment and wearing facemasks at all times.

“The state is not updating its public health order,” Lujan Grisham said, while adding that it was never their intention to update the order to permit games or competitions to be played this fall for both the youth and K-through-12 groups.

“We were very clear about that,” she said. “We didn’t amend the order to do that and that includes club sports. Our priority is to get our kiddos back into the classroom and we’ve been very clear about that.”

With the cancellation, the NMAA is looking to amend the sports calendar once again, shifting volleyball and cross-country to the spring semester.

“This is an extremely sad day for students across New Mexico,” said NMAA executive director Sally Marquez in a statement. “We were planning and hoping to begin competition this month as our member schools are eager to safely integrate sports and activities back in to our students’ lives.

“At this point, however, we cannot stage any competitive events without an update to the current public health order,” she said. “Thus, the NMAA’s fall sports seasons have been (postponed) strictly based on the orders set forth by the Office of the Governor.”