Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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LOVINGTON - When the smoke cleared, literally, on Friday night's Portales-Lovington football game at Lovington High School, the Rams' undefeated streak had ended, the Wildcats had bested an opponent that gave them trouble in recent years, and the bizarre March sprint of a football regular season was over for both teams. The game's final play was a short touchdown run by Lovington's Tres Arreola that made the Wildcats' final win tally 36-20. A cannon fired from beyond the end...
CLOVIS - Danny Jariwala has seen tough times. During the financial freefall of 2008, Jariwala was the general manager of a Howard Johnson's hotel in Brooklyn. These COVID-19 times, though, are more than tough, they're unprecedented. And now Jariwala is more than just a high-ranking hotel industry employee, he has skin in the game as 85 percent owner of the Super 8 and the Best Western hotels on Mabry Drive in Clovis. Jariwala is also a 20 percent partner in an Alamogordo Quali...
CLOVIS — Crisis often spurs innovation. So, in these pandemic times, the Curry County Chamber of Commerce has had to be uniquely innovative. The Chamber’s initiative for pop-up patios — canopies that allow restaurants to seat customers outdoors — has been a howling success. They’ve certainly become a common sight around Clovis. “Yeah, they’re everywhere,” Curry County Chamber Executive Director Ernie Kos said. “Just in talking to people when we’re delivering them, the sense is definitely a sense of community. (People say), ‘Y...
In the Dr. Seuss classic “Horton Hears a Who,” the tiny citizens of a tiny society on a dust speck held tenuously in an elephant’s trunk get acknowledged by shouting in unison: “We are here, we are here, we are here!” Local business owners during these crazy times of COVID-19 can sometimes feel like those tiny citizens on the dust speck held by Horton the elephant. Their fellow townspeople aren’t always sure what is open, what is not. And that’s where the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce has entered the picture. Like...
Times have changed. Fast. But the love of sports hasn’t. So while playing football in the spring might seem a bit weird, the consensus is that it’s better than not playing at all. And so with that attitude, defending state 4A champion Portales will go charging into its 2020 season — in March 2021. Postponed beats canceled any day. “And that’s the thing we try to sell the kids on — ‘Hey, we’re going to play,’” Portales High Athletic Director Mark Gallegos said. “‘It’s going to be different; it’s going to be unique. It’s going...
Normally, it's Halloween that falls in the midst of a high school football season, not Easter. But this is no normal time. The New Mexico Activities Association, in response to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's announcement that there would be no contact sports in the fall, has allowed for high school football to play a late winter and spring schedule. And that schedule dropped for Clovis High this past week, with the 6A Wildcats kicking off against reigning 5A champion Roswell on...
Perhaps someone who didn't see it coming could be termed an eternal optimist. Whatever the case, expected or unexpected, it came - the Lone Star Conference announced Friday that it is postponing its fall season, at least a bit, which will impact Eastern New Mexico University athletics. An LSC press release on Friday afternoon stated: "Given the uncertainty associated with COVID-19 and the need to fully assess the ability of member institutions to adhere to the NCAA guidelines...
CLOVIS — The roller coaster that is COVID-19 has plunged downward, then upward, then down again for local restaurants. But the Curry County Chamber of Commerce is doing all it can to help. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s latest health order, effective July 13, has forced restaurants to close indoor dining again after it was prohibited, then allowed. On Monday, indoor dining was allowed for a few hours before it was shut down again as courts got involved. The uncertainty in the...
There was the United States Football League. The World League of American Football. The XFL. And now, the New Mexico Activities Association? Yes, get ready for some spring football because Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced last week that contact high school sports will not be played this fall. So the NMAA has pushed football and soccer back to February starts. "I think it's good that we're going to be having a limited schedule and trying to get all the sports in," Clovis...
CLOVIS — Like every tradition, it started small and worked its way up. Now the father-son baseball game played in Clovis among former Little Leaguers and their fathers is 43 years old, and not even the coronavirus could stop it. This past July 4 was mostly like the 42 before it, for a father-son baseball game founded by Jim Cowman and taken over by Stuart Stratton. They still played the game, but it wasn’t exactly the same. These are, after all, the days of COVID-19. “We couldn’t get on a baseball field,” Stratton said, “be...
With the coronavirus it seems like it's been one step forward, two steps back. And some area restaurant owners are particularly frustrated with the dance. "It's definitely bad for the industry, bad for the people," said Justin Cole, who owns Roosevelt Brewing Company & Public House in Portales. "I think we've been doing things right all along; we've been pre-emptive on so much stuff. We pulled out half our tables a month before our government said to. We had masks before they...
PORTALES — Pro sports are rearing their head, with Major League Soccer back last week, Major League Baseball due back next week, National Football League training camps and the National Basketball Association starting the week after. College sports are due to return soon as well, though some Division I and II conferences have already canceled or amended their seasons. Eastern New Mexico University athletes are still preparing to come back with voluntary workouts on tap. How many athletes are involved remains to be seen. ...
COVID-19 has torn through American life like a boll weevil, disrupting just about everything in its path. Locally, most events have been canceled, sending hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars out the window. Clovis lost its life’s-blood events this summer, and the revenue that goes along with them. And sadly, some of those events may be gone permanently. Among those are Clovis Livestock Auction’s horse sales that occur quarterly — during spring, summer, fall and winter — and bring loads of money into the area. N...
With Major League Baseball’s scheduled return less than three weeks away, oddsmakers are giving the Los Angeles Dodgers the best chance to win the World Series. If the Dodgers live up to that expectation, a lot of thanks will be owed to Logan White, the scout who brought the Dodgers’ farm system from being ranked in MLB’s bottom third up to No. 1 with the signing of players that included Clayton Kershaw, Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager. White, a 1980 Portales High graduate and 2019 Legends of Scouting Hall of Fame induc...
Generally speaking, it shouldn't be surprising when fireworks stands and tents are busy on July 3. You would just as much expect a supermarket to be jumping the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, a toy store buzzing on Christmas Eve. But, Friday was no ordinary July 3. This is the first COVID summer, and with it the first COVID Fourth of July, the first COVID Fourth of July Eve. Plenty of eastern New Mexicans have had their wages or jobs cut, their businesses shut down or at...
It’s now a month into Phase 2 of re-opening in New Mexico, with businesses trying to reclaim some kind of normal. “I think that things are settling down with local businesses,” Curry County Chamber of Commerce Director Ernie Kos said. “I know there are a few businesses that are having a hard time with getting staffed up.” “We’re glad to get back open to some degree, but our businesses are still reeling and trying to recover,” Roosevelt County Chamber Director Karl Terry said. “We’re real pleased to get people, get their d...
As professional sports get organized for their return, high school sports continue to make the long trek back as well. In New Mexico, that trek is going slowly, with practices moving forward as restrictions loosen up ever so slightly. "We're still in the Phase 1 workout plan that was sent to us by the New Mexico Activities Association," Clovis High Athletic Director Lonnie Baca said Monday night. Portales wasn't even going sport specific until this week, previously having...
CLOVIS - Sutton's Bakery has a history in Clovis as rich as the goods it used to sell at 515 N. Main St. Justin Cole is in the process of unearthing some of that history, researching the bakery's past. While doing that, Cole is getting ready to make some new history at the location, where he will open a Clovis version of the Roosevelt Brewing Company & Public House that he has owned on 201 S. Main St. in Portales since 2012. Cole is aiming for the Clovis establishment, which w...
CLOVIS - Braelyn Kruelskie loved lots of sports growing up in Oklahoma. "Volleyball, basketball, tennis, a little gymnastics," she said. "It always came back to softball." Ah, her true sports love. She loved playing it, loves coaching it, and is getting a chance to do the latter at Clovis High School. This past Thursday, Kruelskie was announced as the Lady Wildcats' new varsity softball head coach, replacing Emery Sierra. "I am really excited," Kruelskie said. "I think we've...
In the wake of nationwide racial unrest, protests and rallies, a new law has been handed down from Santa Fe that requires New Mexico law officers to wear body cameras and keep them turned on. And not everyone is pleased with it. Count State Sen. Pat Woods, R-Broadview, and State Rep. Randal Crowder, R-Clovis, among them. While both lawmakers are all for racial justice and equality, each has his reasons to think the body-camera law may hurt more than it helps. Meanwhile, Clovis Police Chief Doug Ford is awaiting more clarity b...
CLOVIS - Take that, coronavirus. Though COVID-19 wiped out much of the annual Draggin' Main Festival, it couldn't stop people from cruising down Main Street literally - and Memory Lane figuratively - on Saturday night. Cars of both the vintage and recent varieties jammed Main Street for the Draggin' Main cruise, so many of them headed southbound that it sometimes felt more like Laggin' Main. But that was a good thing. Lots of people out in the fresh early-night air, socializin...
Clovis already knows what Hesston, Kansas, is about to find out. Clovis High knows what it's like to have the services of Aydan Everett for both soccer and basketball, knows what a difference she makes. Two-year Hesston College is soon going to have those services. Everett was recruited to play women's soccer there, received a partial scholarship. She was then asked if she wanted to walk on to the women's basketball team. She did. So, in August when Everett takes her talents...
Back in the days of yore, as in 2019, all coaches had to worry about during preseason practices were Xs and Os, game strategy, players showing signs of melding into a cohesive unit. In 2020, coaches still have to worry about all that, plus so much more. There is keeping players at least 6 feet apart, only getting to coach them in limited groups called pods, asking them with whom they've recently been in contact, if they feel feverish, keeping track of which gate they came in,...
PORTALES - Of anything that happened at Tuesday night's regular Portales City Council meeting, perhaps the most significant was the sign of some kind of normal. After months of Zoom and Facebook meetings, the council was finally back in a somewhat normal setting Tuesday - at the Memorial Building Auditorium at 200 E. Seventh St. Soon after the meeting began and the minutes of the last Zoom meeting on June 2 were approved, there came a bit of the bittersweet, as Mayor Ronald...
CLOVIS - The coronavirus, with all its dangers and restrictions, has even prevented people from being able to go out and enjoy a frosty cold one. Worse yet, in the case of Bandolero Brewery at 421 N. Main St. in Clovis, people have been denied the pleasure of watching their beer ferment right in front of them before it's poured into their glass and they knock it back. The micro-brewery, Clovis' first, was due to open in March. Then along came COVID-19. Andrew Logan,...
