NMAA to make plans for 2018 state soccer tourney next week
RRPS AD Carver to retire in June
A special meeting of the New Mexico Activities Association’s board of directors on April 4 will determine the fate of the 2018 state soccer tournament.
With another organization having booked the soccer complex on the Santa Ana Pueblo for Nov. 10 — championship Saturday — the NMAA was stuck.
So, it surveyed the state’s coaches, with three options for this year:
Play the second week of the tournament Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 7-9, on the Santa Ana Pueblo complex;
Move the entire second week to the refurbished Field of Dreams complex in Las Cruces;
Play on the grass at the Santa Ana complex Nov. 8-9, and then play the finals on Nov. 10 at Cleveland High.
The Wednesday-Friday option seems to be the most favored at this point, but the NMAA board has final say. More than 100 responses have been registered from soccerplaying member schools, and survey voting closes this week.
CARVER RETIRES:
Rio Rancho Public Schools athletic director Bruce Carver will retire in June. The search to replace Carver had not yet begun as of late last week.
Carver was the Hobbs High AD for 13 years before he joined the RRPS staff in 2007. “It has been a 36-year journey with many more highs than lows and I have been honored to be a part of it,” he said.
Carver was inducted into the NMAA Hall of Fame in 2016.
He said he would likely be doing some color commentary for local prep basketball games on ProView Networks, among his other endeavors.
NUMBERS:
More than 80,000 fans attended the second week of the state basketball tournament earlier this month.
The Saturday attendance was superb, with over 20,000 tickets sold for the final seven title games at Dreamstyle Arena. That was the single best day for the NMAA since 2006, executive director Sally Marquez said.
The NMAA received a huge boost from the fans of Española on that day. The Sundevil boys played in the Class 5A final.
There were roughly 14,000 more tickets sold this year for Pit games than last year, Marquez added.
As for the secondary venues — the Santa Ana Star Center, high school gyms at Bernalillo, Rio Rancho and Cleveland — the attendance figures are roughly the same as last year.
TRACK AND FIELD: The APS Invitational will be Friday and Saturday at Nusenda Community Stadium.
All 13 of the city’s public high schools are in the field, plus Albuquerque Academy, Bosque School, the Rio Rancho girls, Sandia Prep, Santa Fe and Valencia.
Field events begin Friday, with start times at 4:45 p.m. and 7 p.m. The only running final is the 3,200. The remaining field events go off at 8:45 and 11 a.m. Saturday. Running finals begin at 10:45 a.m. Saturday.
SCHEDULE SHUFFLING:
Tuesday’s rain washed away a good chunk of the baseball and softball schedule in the metro area. That included the District 1-6A baseball openers between Cibola and Cleveland, and Rio Rancho and Volcano Vista.
Cibola-Cleveland was pushed back to today at 4 p.m. in Rio Rancho; the Rams and Hawks hope to play 3 p.m. Thursday at Volcano Vista.
Thursday is also opening day for the 4-6A calendar in both sports, with Atrisco Heritage at Valley, Albuquerque High at Rio Grande (under the lights for baseball only) and Highland at West Mesa. District 2-6A begins Saturday, with doubleheaders between La Cueva and Manzano, Clovis and Eldorado, and Sandia and Santa Fe.