Prep sports: No fans, for now

No spectators are going to be allowed at high school sporting events, based on the Public Education Department’s guidelines. The PED also has set the standards for return to participation, allowing for full practices and competitions, for schools or districts who have been in a hybrid learning model and monitored for COVID-19 spread for two weeks.

Although the New Mexico Activities Association asked for fans to be allowed, and it hopes that mandate will change soon, for now not even athletes’ parents are permitted to watch. For Saturday’s varsity cross country race at Bosque School, it is limited to 100 people, including athletes, coaches and officials.

The state’s public health order and the “color” of a particular county is governing conditions under which fans can return to root on the state’s college teams, professional teams. But the PED has its own guidelines regarding fan attendance at prep games/ matches/meets.