APS juggles opponents, dates, but gets everyone 10 games
Thanks to a massive juggling act, each of the 13 varsity football programs inside Albuquerque Public Schools will have a full 10-game schedule for the 2017 season.
Next year’s schedule is official and posted, and once more the New Mexico season opener will kick off from Nusenda Community Stadium.
The date is Wednesday, Aug. 23, with Atrisco Heritage facing Jordan Byrd and Manzano.
Community Stadium is hosting five games in Week 1, with Del Norte-West Mesa on Aug. 24, Sandia-Rio Grande and Volcano Vista-Valley on Aug. 25, and Cibola-La Cueva on Saturday, Aug. 26.
Other season openers have Albuquerque High at Centennial, Eldorado at Las Cruces and Highland facing defending Class 5A state champion St. Pius at Milne Stadium.
Defending state champion Rio Rancho opens at home on Aug. 25 against Mayfield. Cleveland will be at home on Aug. 25 against Oñate.
One of the major problems APS faced this year was trying to find a way to get the four Albuquerque schools from District 2-6A — Eldorado, La Cueva, Manzano and Sandia — a 10th game.
When Santa Fe dropped to independent earlier this year, all four head coaches expressed concern about having just a nine-game regular season.
Manzano had Del Norte added to its schedule. Eldorado added Cibola, Sandia added Atrisco Heritage and La Cueva added Albuquerque High.
Del Norte and Atrisco Heritage were supposed to play each other this year but won’t in order to accommodate the 2-6A schools. So were Cibola and AHS. Some bye weeks also had to be re-arranged for the Northeast Heights schools to make everything work.
Santa Fe made 2-6A a six-team league, with five consecutive weeks of district play and everyone playing. Now it’s a five-team district, so the remaining members, including Clovis, had to move their bye weeks in order that a full 10-game schedule could be accomplished.
If one team is hurt by the new schedule more than anyone from 2-6A, it’s Eldorado, which will play 10 straight games before getting its bye the week of Nov. 2-3.
Rio Rancho coach David Howes said his schedule was not yet finalized in terms of dates; the Rams’ 10 opponents this year are the same as last year, and Clovis is also among the teams scheduled to visit Rio Rancho next fall.
2017 highlights
Some of the key games during 2017 involving APS and Rio Rancho/Cleveland:
The Rams will host Cleveland on Friday, Oct. 6;
Artesia will be in the metro area to play the Storm on Friday, Sept. 22;
The annual La Cueva-Eldorado showdown is Friday, Oct. 27;
Former Manzano coach Aaron Ocampo will visit his former program with Centennial in Week 2 on Sept. 2;
Class 6A finalist Las Cruces is here to meet Cibola, also on Saturday, Sept. 2;
Mayfield, in addition to its Week 1 visit to Rio Rancho, will be at Eldorado in Week 3 on Sept. 8;
Centennial also has a second visit to the metro area, at Cleveland on Sept. 15.
The Journal will publish full schedules of all 24 metro-area programs later in the year.