Elder: APS ‘working towards’ a plan to play
UNM announces it has signed Clovis RB
The principals of Albuquerque’s 13 public high schools still don’t know if any of their fall sports teams will have a season this spring.
Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Scott Elder met with them on Tuesday.
“As things stand currently, they might be told they can’t play fall sports,” Elder told the Journal in an interview. “As of today, we wouldn’t make it.”
The APS board meets next on Feb. 17. Elder said there is a qualifier to Tuesday’s meeting — “that we are working towards a plan that perhaps will be acceptable to allow kids to play.”
Details of the plan are unknown, but Elder did say it would be presented during the board meeting next week.
Schools and or districts at minimum have to be in a hybrid model in order to do NMAA-sanctioned sports or activities during the pandemic.
■ Rio Rancho Public Schools on Monday night voted for a phased-in hybrid plan for its students, with seniors and sixth-graders up first to be in classrooms starting on Feb. 22. This plan, at current, won’t permit either Cleveland or Rio Rancho to participate in athletics, as that would require all grades to get onto campus. Rio Rancho, as with many other districts, hopes the state will eliminate the mandatory hybrid model requirement in order to have high school sports.
WEBSKOWSKI COMMITS: Everything came together very quickly for Jeston Webskowski.
The Clovis High School running back was on the verge of signing his national letter of intent with the college down the road, Eastern New Mexico.
But last Tuesday, Webskowski
received a phone call from University of New Mexico head coach Danny Gonzales that altered his thinking and got him a scholarship offer.
“Right away,” Webskowski said, “I felt his energy. It was very straightforward, telling me he really wanted me there, telling me I could really help the program.”
Seven days later, on this Tuesday, one of the state’s most thrilling offensive talents announced on Twitter that he had verbally committed to the Lobos. Webskowski signed later in the day. All thanks to Gonzales. “Hearing that from him, especially since that’s the school I’ve been dead set on since the beginning of the recruiting process … I’ve just always wanted to play for (the Lobos), that’s what it came down to,” Webskowski said.
The 6-foot, 200-pound Webskowski, 18, rushed for 1,713 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Wildcats last season, including a spectacular 301-yard, 5-TD performance in a state semifinal loss to eventual Class 6A champion Cleveland.
NATIONAL PLATFORM: Sandia baseball coach Chris Eaton last week was afforded a uinique chance to address an audience of high school and college peers in a virtual presentation he made for USA Baseball.
“I talked a lot about New Mexico, who we are, our state,” said Eaton, in his fourth season as Matadors head coach. “I talked about our state and sharing information about our kids and our program, but just to represent the other coaches from New Mexico was the best part of this thing.”
Eaton said he maybe one day would like to land a part-time coaching gig with one of USA Baseball’s national teams.
SIGNINGS, CONTINUED: Catching up on some other metro-area athletes who signed their NLIs last week, the list includes Rio Rancho High offensive lineman Darrius Gregory (Eastern New Mexico) and Sophia Trejo of Albuquerque High, a second-team Class 5A All-State player in 2019 for the Bulldogs, who signed to play women’s soccer at ENMU.