State’s return to in-person teaching in schools means prep sports could finally resume in February. See story page
You know what? It looks like they will play again after all.
The New Mexico Activities Association doubled down on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s decision Tuesday (Jan. 26) to let New Mexico’s school districts welcome students for in-class learning as soon as Feb. 8. Following the governor’s State of the State address, the Public Education Department cleared the way to allow high school athletics to begin Feb. 22.
As long as students are in class and doing nothing less than a hybrid schedule without seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases, the state’s nearly yearlong drought without prep sports will finally end.
The NMAA was scheduled to hold an emergency board of directors meeting Wednesday (Jan. 27) morning to plan its next step and adopt a revised calendar for what remains of the 2020-21 athletic year. It will attempt to condense 13 team sports that typically unfold from August to May into a fourmonth window that will extend into late June.
The board will discuss the length of seasons, game limitations and take action on start dates for traditional fall and winter sports that have been delayed for months.
NMAA Executive Director Sally Marquez said she will meet with athletic directors from around the state as early as Wednesday afternoon to hammer out the finer points of anything that remains unanswered.
One of the sticking points is getting kids back into classrooms, a mandatory requirement the state is demanding if sports are to return. It’s a step that appears far more difficult in the bigger school district like Santa Fe and Albuquerque, districts with large numbers of student and teachers – and thus considerably more moving parts.
The Public Education Department made it clear that no district can put a team in action without in-class learning, and the earliest any school can start is Feb. 8. Some private schools, like Santa Fe Prep and Albuquerque’s Sandia Prep, have already begun in-class learning.
“We as a state believe that we need to prioritize getting students back into the classroom before we’re prioritizing sports and other extracurricular activities,” state Education Secretary Ryan Stewart said.
The Public Education Department will begin monitoring each district’s in-person learning services Feb. 8 and, in collaboration with the state Department of Health, if it finds that it is not leading to a spike in the spread of COVID19 cases, sports may resume two weeks later.
Santa Fe Public Schools Associate Superintendent for Athletics Larry Chavez said the sports-side of things leaves little doubt about how the city’s coaches and athletes feel. They’re ready.
“We’ve been planning all along for games to resume not knowing if they would or not,” Chavez said. “We would rather be prepared and act like they were going to happen rather than be unprepared and be caught off guard. For us, we laid out a very detailed plan about how we were going to reintroduce athletics, and right now we’re in a good position.”
He said SFPS athletic programs have strictly adhered to the state health guidelines that require masks, social distancing, proper sanitation and groups of no more than five. Those requirements remain in place until the state signs off on the next step and allows full-team workouts to resume.
No decision has been made on fans at games.
Marquez was hesitant to say she was surprised by Tuesday’s news, opting instead to say she felt grateful to finally get the thumbsup to let prep sports return.
“I am just thankful that we do have a go and we have a light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
The NMAA canceled spring sports in March when the pandemic hit New Mexico. The virus caused a mild panic in the middle of the 2019-20 state basketball tournament, forcing the NMAA to play the final three days without fans.
It’s been 10 months since the state has seen high school sports. Summer workouts were canceled, fall sports were repeatedly delayed and everyone involved was kept on a yo-yo not knowing if, or when, things might return to normal. Marquez and the NMAA board of directors initially set Feb. 1 as a deadline to start the oft-delayed fall sports calendar.
Further delays might have meant the cancelation of certain sports, namely football. There was a reason for optimism two weeks ago when the governor said professional soccer’s New Mexico United would be allowed to return to workouts under certain guidelines, optimism that grew with last week’s decision to allow the state’s colleges and universities to hold practices as long as COVID-19 protocols were followed.
“That’s one thing that I did not veer from, was optimism,” Marquez said. “Even when sometimes it looked bleak, I thought we were going to get something done.”