Another Clovis Wildcat says he’ll be a Lobo
Linebacker Acuña to join two teammates
The Clovis-to-Albuquerque football pipeline keeps on flowing.
On Tuesday, Clovis High linebacker Ernesto Acuña became the third Wildcat off this year’s team to commit to the University of New Mexico.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior outside linebacker joins Jaden Phillips and Jeston Webskowski as future Lobos.
“I felt like it was the best fit for me,” Acuña said, adding that he’ll sign in the coming days with UNM. “(The Lobos) are going in the right direction, and I wanted to be a part of that.”
Acuña, a quick and hard-hitting linebacker, had offers from Eastern New Mexico, New Mexico Military Institute and Aurora University in Illinois.
Acuña was with Webskowski on Feb. 2 when Lobo coach Danny Gonzales called Webskowski, Clovis’ stellar running back. Gonzales asked Webskowski how to find Acuña.
“I’d like to give a call to your buddy,” Gonzales said.
He’s right here, Webskowski told Gonzales. UNM offered both players a scholarship that night.
At the very least, UNM figures to get some season-ticket buyers out of Clovis for future seasons as another Wildcat joins Gonzales’ program.
“It’s a dream come true to have people you’ve grown up with, playing with them at the next level,” Acuña said.
MORE CLARITY: The New Mexico Activities Association, which is handling the scheduling for its football teams this season, is still
working out how the season will end.
Executive director Sally Marquez said earlier this week that the NMAA is trying to figure out how the five-game schedules will play out.
It is possible there may be a championship game in all classes, but it is no guarantee.
“That’s still to be determined,” Marquez said. “If we were able to get the No. 1 vs. No. 2 … that would be very difficult with just four (regularseason) games.”
Having a four-team playoff bracket doesn’t seem a likely scenario at this point. Marquez said a “bowl-type” finale is definitely in the mix for schools to finish their abbreviated seasons.
As far as scheduling goes, that remains on hold as the NMAA waits to have a final determination as to which schools are going to play football this spring.
BLUE-GREY: Within the last few days, Cleveland’s Trevon Dennard, Clovis’ Phillips, La Cueva’s Ja’Shon Lowery, Artesia’s Braxton McDonald and Manzano’s Jaxon Powell have all been added to the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl watch list, according to the Blue-Grey Twitter account.
Phillips was the most recent addition to the list, on Tuesday afternoon. Dennard and Powell were added Monday.
Goddard’s Larry Luna, who has signed with UNM, plus Albuquerque High’s Carlos Lovato (who is walking on with the Lobos) and St. Pius’ Aaron Deller already have been selected to play in the spring edition (May 24) of the Blue-Grey game.
THIS AND THAT: Rio Rancho’s boys and Silver’s girls are the inaugural big-school state powerlifting champions in New Mexico. It was added as an official activity during the pandemic. Logan’s boys and Jal’s girls were the small-school champions. … Five members from Rio Rancho High’s baseball team are going to the next level: Tyler Sunstrom (Luna Community College in Las Vegas, New Mexico); Eric Romero (Feather River College in Quincy, California); Stuart Smith (Fort Scott Community College in Kansas); Tyler Murphy (Texas A&M University-Texarkana); and Garrett Rede (Arizona Western College in Yuma).