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CLOVIS — If there’s good football to be played 200 miles to the west, or there’s good football to be played 100 miles to the east ... then go east, young Wildcats.
That’s the philosophy reflected in the Clovis High football schedule, released this week by second-year coach Cal Fullerton.
There’s still plenty of action against New Mexico, and particularly Albuquerque metro-area teams, in the 10-game slate that starts Aug. 24 at Hobbs. But there’s a heavy dose of Texas, with Lubbock schools Cooper, Coronado and Monterrey on the 2018 docket.
Fullerton said the move was somewhat out of necessity due to teams dropping off the schedule — Carlsbad, Goddard and Santa Fe — but Fullerton figured his team will get a good dose of Albuquerque in its District 2-6A schedule.
“Rather than go to Albuquerque like we were going to for district anyway we kind of decided to look across the state,” Fullerton said. “When I was growing up and when I was playing, we always played Texas schools. It always made us better for the playoffs. That’s the philosophy.”
Clovis went seven years between playing Texas schools, largely because those schools had too many district games to even consider adding a New Mexico team. That changed in 2014, when Clovis got games with Texas teams again — a two-year commitment with Frenship, followed by Lubbock Cooper.
Cooper is now the third Texas school on the schedule with a home game Sept. 28. The Wildcats will first play at Monterey Sept. 14 and host Coronado Sept. 21. The schedule marks the most Texas schools in one season since the Wildcats faced Borger, Amarillo, Plainview and Tascosa in the 1999 season.
“Coronado went undefeated in the regular season; great offensive football team, pretty good on defense,” Fullerton said. “Monterrey, they’ve made the playoffs at least the last three years since Coach (Wayne) Hutchison got there. He’s done a really good job. Obviously, Cooper is pretty familiar. They’ve made the playoffs every year we’ve played them. They’ve got a great tradition and great facilities.”
But if you still like mind-numbing travel, hold the phone because Clovis also added Aztec to the schedule. Fullerton concedes the Wildcats want to make the 395-mile trip to Aztec about as much as the Tigers want to make the trip to Clovis in 2019, but it was the best option either had. Fullerton said he’d discussed a game with Texarkana, but even a neutral-site compromise in Frisco would have been a longer trip than Aztec.
“It’s going to be a long haul,” Fullerton said. “but we were lucky to find it. We’re going to do a home-and-away for two years.”
The Wildcats hit the road Aug. 31 for that game, before returning to host Rio Rancho Sept. 7.
The District 2-6A schedule includes consecutive road games followed by consecutive home games. The Wildcats visit Sandia Oct. 5 and Manzano Oct. 12, then host Eldorado Oct. 19 and La Cueva Nov. 2.