Even during virtual classes, athletes must still make the grade
Anyone with a high school kid at home (or any other age, for that matter) knows all too well, remote learning is a major drag. It’s hard for kids to stay engaged and even harder for them to feel motivated like they would if sitting in a room with peers and a teacher staring at them.
Staring at a pinhole camera while sitting at home is not nearly as challenging when the fridge is just a few steps away or the dog is gnawing on a bone just out of view.
“Our students are having a difficult time with remote learning,” said New Mexico Activities Association Executive Director Sally Marquez, referring to a poll she conducted with cross-country and volleyball coaches around the state. “It was [a] minimal amount that was passing and doing really well.”
With fall seasons for volleyball, cross-country, golf and powerlifting set to start in one week, Marquez reminded everyone that NMAA guidelines require a minimum 2.0 grade point average with no F’s to maintain eligibility.
“We need to remember that we’re education-based athletics,” Marquez said. “We need to make sure that right now that they are looking at the classroom, whether it’s remote learning — and that’s difficult and it’s different than it always has been — but they have grades and they’re going to have a six-week period and nine-week grades coming up.”
If you’re scoring at home, teams can start competing on Oct. 5. Most teams will have participated in their first events within a week from that date, including Santa Fe High’s volleyball opener on Oct. 10.
Going to the movies isn’t as easy as it used to be. Thanks for that, coronavirus.
Now the New Mexico United is here to help. The professional soccer franchise is inviting you, the Northern New Mexico futbol fan, to head to the Motorama at the Downs Santa Fe to watch the team’s next game on Wednesday night.
You can do it all from the safety of your car, the COVIDsafe environment you need to feel safe while watching something on the big screen. While it’s not quite the Top Gun sequel we’ve been waiting for, it’s a live event with enough excitement to make you and everyone else around you feel as though it’s the next best thing to actually sitting in the cheap seats cheering on the team.
The United travel to Salt Lake City to play Real Monarchs SLC at 7:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live and accompany the team’s FM radio broadcast.
“We are thrilled to offer this exciting new way for fans to take part in the New Mexico United experience while we are unable to host home matches,” said United President Peter Trevisani.
Double parking spots are available for those who wish to grill and get outside and breathe fresh air. COVID-safe practices, such as social distancing and mask wearing must be adhered to throughout the match.
But don’t get any ideas about turning your rig into a clown car. It’s $32 to $65 per car and everyone inside must have a seat, so don’t even think of trying to cram 15 of your buddies into your Yugo.
For more information, visit the team’s website. Tickets will not be sold at the Downs; they must be purchased in advance.
An interesting side note to all the hoopla over the Mountain West deciding to launch an eight-game football season next month involves the whereabouts of San Diego State.
Anyone who has visited San Diego probably wishes they’d never left. The climate is perfect, the scenery is unbeatable and the laid-back feel of the beaches — oh, wow, the beaches.
For largely financial reasons the city hasn’t been able to hold onto its professional sports teams thanks to the allure of the hustle and bustle of nearby Los Angeles. The NBA’s Clippers and NFL’s Chargers broke up with San Diego for L.A. Now SDSU is doing the same, albeit temporarily.
The Aztecs will play the next two seasons in, gulp, the Los Angeles suburb of Carson (the same Carson the Chargers moved to while waiting out the construction of SoFi Stadium) while construction of their new on-campus stadium contiunues until 2022. That’s roughly 111 miles from home.
The school recently completed a purchase of the old San Diego Credit Union Stadium (Qualcomm or Jack Murphy to older readers) with the plan to tear it down and turn its massive asphalt parking lot into an extension of campus. The centerpiece will be a 35,000-seat stadium that will be the latest new venue in the Mountain West; Colorado State opened a 41,000-seat on-campus stadium in 2017.
So, adios San Diego. The Aztecs are now an L.A. team for the next two years.
Imagine UNM having the same problem, playing the next two years in Santa Rosa or Las Vegas, N.M.
Esports has become a thing both locally and globally. Its distant cousin appears to be virtual sports. That, too, is becoming a thing.
New Mexico Highlands launched its cross-country season over the weekend, hosting the Virtual HU CX Jam Friday at the Gene Torres Golf Course in Las Vegas, N.M.
The Cliffs Notes version: It was a giant Zoom meeting in which the University of the Southwest, Oklahoma Panhandle State, New Mexico Junior College, Antelope Valley Community College and Midwestern State remotely participated in a 6-kilometer men’s race and 4K women’s.
And, yes, the entire thing was literally streamed on Zoom.
Each school went to its local golf course and mapped out a course, then let the runners go. Each participant was timed and, voila, you had a virtual race run in half a dozen locations on half a dozen different courses, simultaneously.
Given the nature of the pandemic, this could become an easy, cost-effective and safe way to host sporting events until a vaccine is developed.
Thing is, it might not be so simple with, say, football or other contact sports. Hard to tackle someone virtually.