A DIFFICULT END
Final event for prep sports was strange finish to year cut short by pandemic
This was not how the moment was supposed to be for Seth Arroyos and the Capital Jaguars. That boyhood dream of running down The Pit ramp to a cacophony of sounds, colors and fans? It was gone, long gone.
All that remained on March 12 were empty stands and the sound of bouncing basketballs from the opposing team, the Rio Rancho Cleveland Storm, for the Class 5A semifinal. This was not at all how Arroyos imagined his prep basketball career would end — in relative silence, aside from the occasional outbursts from teammates.
This was the new world of the pandemic, as the first cases of the new coronavirus hit the state. The biggest high school event in New Mexico became another victim, as handshakes were exchanged for elbow bumps, starting-lineup announcements were rendered meaningless for a group of 100 people, and the voices from coaches,
players and referees carried to most corners of the arena.
It was not the stuff state tournament dreams were made of.
“It was awkward,” said Arroyos, Capital’s senior forward. “I was just speechless. It was like a scrimmage and it just felt really awkward, even though it was for [a spot in the state championship game].”
What Arroyos felt March 12 is what Las Cruces head coach Willie Benjamin has felt since his Bulldogs beat the Jaguars, 65-53, two days later to win their second big-school title in the past seven years. Instead of celebrating with the student body on the home side of The Pit, he and his players had to settle for a hero’s welcome from a handful of fans at the Buffalo Wild Wings just down the down street.
When the team bus arrived at the school the following day, only parents and a few administrators were present to celebrate the Bulldogs’ return home. There was no police escort from the city limits to the high school. The players and coaches never received a pep rally, because the state kept all schools closed for the remainder of the school year. In fact, the Bulldogs and Jaguars took part in the last prep athletic event of the 2019-20 season.
And forget about a banquet. The state’s stay-at-home orders prevent large gatherings. As great as it was to hoist the blue trophy, Benjamin feels the feat remains incomplete.
“The closure part of it is still wide open,” Benjamin said 2½ months later. “We haven’t been able to close this the right way, but that’s part of being in a pandemic.”
A day to remember
There are two worlds: the one before March 11 and the one after.
It was the day the first four cases of the coronavirus were reported in the state.
It was also the day the NHL and NBA suspended their seasons and the NCAA announced it would hold its basketball tournaments without fans (it canceled the tournaments the next day). The dominoes seemed to fall so rapidly, it was hard to keep track of what was happening.
All that people inside The Pit, the Santa Ana Star Center and Bernalillo High School knew was that they were in a cocoon of basketball heaven. Yet signs their protective sphere was about to burst was all around them.
Brandon Saiz, Capital’s senior guard, admitted he knew very little about the new coronavirus, other than what little he gleamed from newspaper stories and TV.
All of that changed after Capital beat Eldorado, 60-55, in the 5A quarterfinals on that fateful day. After the win, Jaguars head coach Ben Gomez cautioned his team that there might not be fans for the rest of the tournament.
Or that there might not be a rest of the tournament.
“A couple of hours after that, our coaches called a little meeting and said there weren’t going to be any fans, but not to let that get to us,” Saiz said.
None of that was a concern to Benjamin. He said his teams were accustomed to playing most of the tournament without much fan support because Las Cruces is three hours away and the weekday schedule prevented fans from showing up en masse.
However, his feeling in the immediate aftermath of March 11 was that the tournament should have been at least suspended, if not canceled, to protect everybody from the still-unknown effects of the novel coronavirus.
“My first thought was the kids,” Benjamin said. “If they aren’t letting people into the game, maybe the kids shouldn’t be playing. That was my first reaction. They should be protecting the kids.”
New Mexico Activities Association Executive Director Sally Marquez elected to maintain the tournament schedule to finish the season, while also adhering to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s orders to limit large gatherings.
The next day brought a new reality to coaches and players. Marquez capped attendance at state tournament games to 100 people, and Gomez said it felt odd to pull into The Pit parking lot and see a handful of vehicles. Then came the escort from UNM personnel to make sure the attendance limit was enforced.
“It was very bizarre,” Gomez said. “We used to come to the Lobo camps back in the day, and it was kinda like some of those games. Shoot, we had more fans for those games in the Lobo camp.”
What Gomez and Benjamin noted from their semifinal wins (Capital beat the Storm, while Las Cruces defeated Albuquerque Volcano Vista) was that the game hinged on which team could generate the energy to overcome their quiet, scrimmage-like surroundings.
Las Cruces held the Hawks to just 13 points in the second half of a 47-31 win, while Capital scored eight of the last nine points to beat Cleveland, 74-64.
“I think not having fans benefitted us,” Benjamin said. “Those momentum swings where the fans can really take over and teams can feed off of that, we didn’t have that.”
That mindset followed suit two days later, as Las Cruces used a 13-0 run in the second quarter to turn an 11-6 deficit into an 18-11 lead it never relinquished. Yet, even as the Bulldogs yelled and screamed in celebration, there was a sense of unfinished business.
It wasn’t just on Las Cruces’ side, though.
“It felt incomplete,” Arroyos said. “Me and [Capital senior wing] T.J. Sanchez were like, ‘This is our last state tournament and it feels real awkward.’ It was like, why didn’t anyone just postpone state and then let us get our fans in when we could?”
Still reeling
The past two months have been rough for students, as they finished the year at home, as “virtual learning” became the catchphrase. Arroyos and Saiz said they missed all those mileposts that come with the final weeks of their high school careers — the senior prom, the final exams, the final day of school and especially graduation. They felt bad about the spring athletes who didn’t get the chance to finish their seasons.
Arroyos said he didn’t understand how much the coronavirus pandemic impacted him until Saturday, when he took part in the school’s senior parade.
“I was like, ‘Damn, it’s really through,’ ” Arroyos said. “I hadn’t checked my emails or anything because I was working and helping out my family. I kinda felt cheated.”
Sadly, he’s not alone.