Cleveland waits for chance to play, defend New Mexico state title
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (BVM) — High school sports teams all across New Mexico are ready for their chance to play again after what’s amounted to a 10-month-long offseason that began last March with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The offseason has been even longer for some teams, including the defending Class 6A football state champion Cleveland Storm, who played their last game 14 months ago on Nov. 30, 2019. For Cleveland head coach Heath Ridenour, the wait has been even more difficult as he’s watched many other states complete their 2020 high school football seasons without too much trouble.
“It’s miserable,” Ridenour said. “I know we can do it. These other states did it. They trusted their coaches, they trusted their schools to follow rules and protocols to keep people safe and they did that. I feel like we haven’t even been given an opportunity to see if we can do it. It’s frustrating. I know we can do it and our kids deserve the opportunity.”
That opportunity has been delayed until next month at the earliest. Last summer, the New Mexico Activities Association pushed the start of football season back to Feb. 1, but that wait could be even longer. NMAA executive director Sally Marquez said in an interview posted Tuesday that while she’s still hopeful all sports will be played during the 2020-21 school year, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has not yet given the NMAA the green light to proceed.
So the waiting game continues for Ridenour, his staff and his players, who have plenty of reason to be excited about the possibility of playing football again. When and if they do finally return to the field, the Storm will be doing so with many of the same players who helped lead the program to its third state title in nine years, including senior quarterback Jeff Davison, a three-year starter who threw for 1,169 yards and 12 touchdowns with no interceptions last season when he also missed some time with a separated shoulder.
“I’m really excited about this group,” Ridenour said. “This is a group that we knew as freshmen that they were going to be very talented and a lot of these kids started as sophomores.”
With such a talented, experienced group of players returning, there’s certainly enough reason for the Storm to believe they can have a lot more success when and if they get the chance to compete this year, but the chance to play in and of itself has become increasingly more important than the chance to win games.
“We still want to win, but it’s put it in perspective to a point that it’s not about championships right now,” Ridenour said. “It’s about getting these kids back to some form of normalcy, being around their friends and getting them back to a stable mental situation. … Having to tell them we’re not going yet or we’re getting postponed or it doesn’t look like we’re going to play, it’s just bad news after bad news and that’s the most frustrating part is to see their face and see the letdown in their eyes.”
The hope is that good news will come soon enough for Cleveland and every other high school sports team in the state. It’s looking increasingly likely that football season will be delayed again, possibly until March, and the schedule could also be shortened. But whatever the case may be, Ridenour, his players and staff will be ready to go when given the go-ahead.
“We don’t care what it looks like,” Ridenour. “We don’t care where we play, we don’t care when we play, we just want the opportunity to get together and be around each other and compete. It doesn’t matter. Just tell us yes, tell us we can go and we’ll handle the rest.”
