Demons football will adopt winning mentality in 5A
The Santa Fe High Demons are 12 days into the football offseason, and it should prove to be fruitful. That’s not just because they have a full offseason with head coach Andrew Martinez ahead of them.
Come Nov. 30, the New Mexico Activities Association should bring a much-welcomed gift for the much-maligned program — a step down in classification. Thanks to the organization’s intent to continue with the six-classification system for football, the Demons should find themselves in 5A, a step below their current 6A designation. Their three-year total ought to bring Santa Fe High under the 1,450-student threshold for 6A, thanks in part to its 1,440 40-day enrollment total for the 2017-18 school year.
It will be a chance to hit the “reset” button for a team that is struggling to wiggle out of the pain a 33-game losing streak inflicts. So long, Albuquerque schools La Cueva, Eldorado and Manzano, along with Clovis. In 2018, the district opponents likely will be Capital, Albuquerque Del Norte and possibly Highland or Valley (if one or both schools decide not to play in 6A).
Those teams aren’t at the level of Santa Fe High’s current district foes, and that will only help the Demons regain a semblance of competitiveness. Heck, it could happen as soon as next year. More than likely, the target date will be 2019, when many of the sophomores on the current team will be seniors.
The thing is, this is only a Band-Aid to a larger problem for the program.
Santa Fe High will surely rise to the challenge in 5A, but don’t expect the move to last more than two years. It’s very likely six classes in football won’t last, just because it will lead to watered-down playoffs in which the majority of teams in a class will advance if the 12-team format remains.
Six classes is not sustainable in New Mexico football, and the best way to bring about competitive balance in the sport is by going back to five classes. It will mean the largest of the 5A
teams play with the “big boys,” and Santa Fe High should relish the challenge of competing with them when it arises again.
Part of the problem when the school went up to 6A in 2014 was that it coddled the mentality that the football team couldn’t compete against the likes of Rio Rancho, Rio Rancho Cleveland and Volcano Vista, its district foes at the time. The result was players stopped showing up, stopped trying to compete and, quite honestly, stopped trying.
Martinez did a commendable job getting the Demons to compete this past season, but his biggest obstacle to winning was that oft-held mentality of “We can’t compete.”
That will change, and in a hurry. Martinez was a part of a championship program at St. Michael’s that didn’t bother with noticing all the “A’s” attached to an opponent’s name. Heck, the Horsemen once beat Las Cruces Centennial, which was a 5A program (then the highest level in the state) masquerading in 4A, in 2013.
Chances are, these younger Demons will adopt that mentality. They’ll have to because 6A — or 5A — will beckon them again.