Postponement creates potential conflict for New Mexico high school volleyball
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (BVM) — High school sports teams all across New Mexico are eager to begin their seasons, and perhaps none more so than La Cueva’s volleyball team.
Earlier this month, the back-to-back Class 5A state champion Bears believed they were just a few days away from finally playing their first match of 2020 and beginning their quest for a three-peat. Then came the news that the New Mexico Activities Association would be postponing volleyball, cross country and fall golf until the spring semester after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that the sports still couldn’t be held in the state due to ongoing public health concerns related to COVID-19.
“We just kind of have to adapt to it,” La Cueva head coach Steve Archibeque said. “I wasn’t happy because it was basically four days before we would’ve had a game and the rug was pulled from underneath us. All the preparations were made. I had selected teams. We were all ready to go and now it’s all moved again.”
The NMAA originally released an amended calendar for the 2020-21 academic year back in July, with football and soccer moved from fall to winter start dates while volleyball, cross country and fall golf were still scheduled to be played in 2020. Now every sport will wait until 2021, with volleyball slated to begin March 1 and run through May 1. Meanwhile, high school volleyball is going on in many other states without much trouble this fall and states like Nebraska are already heading into postseason play.
“Just hearing other states going and everything being successful we thought, ‘OK, we’re in the clear, we’re good,’” Archibeque said, “and then it just started slowing down and we weren’t getting the word that we would be able to proceed and it was a huge blow.”
The latest change creates a potentially big conflict for La Cueva and all New Mexico high school volleyball teams because the season will now take place in the middle of club volleyball season, which usually starts in December and goes through May. The main issue at hand is the games limit. If the high school volleyball season would’ve gone on as planned for the fall, athletes would have been allowed to play a maximum of 18 matches. If that number isn’t raised significantly for the season now slated to begin in March, players may have to choose between playing high school or club games, since both count toward the limit if both high school and club season coincide with each other.
Archibeque, who has a team loaded with club players, said the NMAA is working with clubs to find the best solution possible so that players don’t have to choose, but a concrete plan is not yet known and other potential challenges remain. According to Archibeque, clubs are considering a schedule that would be heavy for most of January and February and then ease up in March and April to the benefit of high school teams, but clubs also traditionally compete in one or two national qualifiers in March and April, which is where a potentially big conflict could arise.
“If they go off to a (club) tournament in say Austin and it’s a national qualifier, that would eat up probably seven matches out of what our limit is unless NMAA does away with the game limits,” Archibeque said. “Then we’re stuck. … But I know club is working with the schedule and trying to accommodate high school as well because they want to make sure that they let the girls not have to make a decision between club or high school.”
No volleyball team in New Mexico stands to be affected more than La Cueva if a solution isn’t found. The Bears return with loads of experience and firepower, including three all-state players, and they’ll have a great shot to make a run at a third consecutive championship — if both the schedule and rules allow for those players to compete for their high school when they want to.
But it’s not only volleyball teams that will be affected if more changes aren’t made prior to the start of New Mexico High School sports in 2021.
“It’s going to affect every sport because a lot of athletes use club as well,” Archibeque said. “Usually when high school baseball and softball season is done is when club baseball and softball start. Now (high school season) is going to run all the way into June. So there has to be a give and take somewhere. Those game limits for all athletes either have to be done away with or they have to be raised.”
