APS preaches patience to winter, spring athletes
Meanwhile, their coaches are frustrated
Come June 29, athletes in Albuquerque Public Schools can make their official return. But it won’t apply to everyone. While football, soccer, volleyball and cross country teams — plus cheerleading and dance squads — can begin to reintegrate in 2½ weeks, the APS winter and spring athletes will not be joining them on that date.
For baseball and softball coaches in particular, this was a tough blow, since they already had the majority of their 2020 seasons erased by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s a big deal,” La Cueva High softball coach Ron Romero said. “We had no season and now, when (high school sports) come back, we don’t come back, either. … I have 11, 12 girls that are waiting on me.”
APS athletic director Kenny Barreras told the Journal on Wednesday that the district may add a second date, in July, to cover the winter and spring teams getting started with an abbreviated summer calendar. It is at the discussion level, he added.
“The conversation centered around the phase-in method,” Barreras said. “The No. 1 priority is the health, safety and welfare of the kids.”
Barreras said he understands the frustration coming from the spring coaches. And there certainly is no shortage of that.
“My concern is not about baseball development, it’s about my relationship with the kids and keeping (my kids) out of trouble, which is my No. 1 concern,” said longtime Rio Grande High baseball coach Orlando Griego. “If a kid is not hanging around his baseball guys, he’ll hang around another element that’s not healthy for them.”
Another of the metro area’s baseball coaching veterans, Ron Murphy of Rio Rancho — where the Rams and Cleveland can’t return until July 6 — summed it up this way:
“They just lost two seasons of high school baseball,” he said. “And a lot of times, your summer season is just as important as your high school season.”
Phase one of the NMAA’s return plan basically features individual drills and conditioning. There won’t be any contact or games or sharing of equipment.
The New Mexico Activities Association is allowing indoor workouts in gyms, and also now weight rooms (but without spotters, it was announced Wednesday), and each district around the state is tailoring its needs around the guidelines laid down by the NMAA, with an emphasis on sanitizing facilities and social distancing among coaches and athletes.
APS baseball and softball teams had played just a handful of games when their seasons were interrupted in midMarch. By the end of March, the seasons were canceled.
“The first question that came to my mind was, either it’s safe or it’s not safe,” Griego said, as he thought about baseball not getting back on the field June 29. “Why can some sports go but other sports can’t?”
Rio Rancho’s July 6 return date includes all sports, as does Las Cruces’ on June 22. Santa Fe’s June 15 date is a soft opening for all sports, with a priority toward the fall sports. Los Lunas is incorporating everyone into the return, with the fall sports going June 29, and other sports July 13.
Highland girls basketball coach Lonnie Neal was hoping to have some of his summer schedule. Several play club, most have virtually no options.
“It’s a huge, huge thing for my kids not to be able to not only use the facilities, but have a place that is safe for them,” Neal said.
Added Volcano Vista boys basketball coach Greg Brown: “My thought is, most coaches will manage this OK because we got to have a full (high school) season, unlike the spring sports. The hardest part is, we miss seeing our players.” This was heavy on Griego’s mind, too. “I’ll probably lose two or three kids to the streets,” he said, “and once you lose them to the streets, you won’t get them back. And my conscience won’t let me live with that.”