NMAA: ‘We will play again, New Mexico’
The New Mexico Activities Association on Friday said it will release details of its plans to move high school football and soccer to the spring semester for the coming school year as well as for all other sports that may be affected by alterations to their normal schedules due to ongoing coronavirus health orders.
In a video statement posted on the social media accounts for the NMAA, the state’s governing body of high school athletics and other extracurricular activities, Executive Director Sally Marquez encouraged parents, coaches and players to stay patient, stay positive and remember that no sports are canceled — just postponed for now.
“I come to you with a message of hope,” Marquez said in the video. “As you have heard, (high school) football and soccer will not be played in the fall. However, that does not mean we are not going to play football and soccer during the ’20-21 school year. Superintendents, athletic directors and coaches are working tirelessly to make sure that our student athletes get to play the games that they love. “Next week, we will release a plan that we have for football and soccer but also for all the other sports. And until then, I ask: Stay positive, get your chin up, we are going to play again, New Mexico.”
Thursday, in concert with a COVID-19 news conference held weekly by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham outlining new public health orders in the wake of discouraging in-state virus trends, the NMAA announced the move of contact sports (football and soccer) to the spring.
The governor also alluded to a possibility of non-contact sports like volleyball, cross country and even golf, which starts in the fall and ends in spring, seeing some alterations to their schedules, but for now they are supposed to go on in the fall like normal. The NMAA’s video message on Friday ended with showing the social media hashtag #WeWillPlayAgainNM.