Protests as governor’s decision sidelines state sports
The peaceful protests against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s decision not to change a public health order that in part sidelined all live sports through 2020 continued Sunday (Oct. 11) in Santa Fe and Las Cruces.
The demonstrations followed a Friday event that drew more than 300 people to a church near Albuquerque Academy. Sunday’s protest in Santa Fe had about 30 people when it started at noon at the Roundhouse.
The governor’s stance amid a spike in coronavirus cases eliminated any chance of seeing orga
nized youth and prep sports taking place for the remainder of 2020.
It didn’t cancel the cross-country, golf and volleyball seasons that were scheduled to begin Saturday;
it merely postponed them until spring when the 13 sports in each gender and all size classifications
under the New Mexico Activities Association’s umbrella potentially begin play in a five-month window.
If anything, it means the spring will be a wild and exceptionally busy time, assuming the health order is changed and kids are allowed to play.
Until then, expect the protests, the Facebook posts, chatroom debates and finger-pointing to continue.
Lobos ranked low
Not much is expected of the University of New Mexico football team this season. That’s not exactly earth-shattering news.
The Lobos are coming off three straight miserable years,
with a new coaching staff that inherits a roster that will rely on a number of unproven freshmen and underclassmen this fall.
It comes as no surprise, then, that New Mexico has been picked to finish 11th out of 12 teams in a preseason tabulation compiled by Mountain West Wire. The only team lower is UNLV.
Boise State and San Diego State are the top two teams, followed closely by Air Force. The Falcons, of course, are currently tied for the longest active winning streak in the country at nine.
NMJC honors Birmingham
You can’t talk about baseball in New Mexico without mentioning Ray Birmingham..
The in-state native has won more than 1,200 games as a college head coach, building a national powerhouse at New Mexico Junior College before arriving at UNM in 2008. In his 13 seasons with the Lobos, he has engineered a solid program that has won 398 games and made multiple trips to the NCAA Tournament.
He’s already in the state’s hall of fame and is a living legend in Hobbs, where he coached NMJC to a national championship and 765 wins in 18 years.
This month, NMJC paid its latest tribute to Birmingham by erecting a sign over the outfield wall at the aptly named Ray Birmingham Thunderbird Field. The white sign has his name in block lettering scrawled across the top with his retired No. 1 jersey number printed below it.
A popular blog post ranked his latest junior college recruiting class No. 12 in the country.