Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Realignment will change next year’s football schedules slightly for Portales, Clovis and Texico — and pretty drastically for Fort Sumner and Dora — assuming the New Mexico Activities Association’s proposals go through.
The governing body of prep activities approved new classifications and alignments for member schools during its regular meeting Wednesday in Albuquerque.
Teams have until Wednesday to appeal their placement to the NMAA. A complete realignment and a summary of changes are available at nmact.org.
Districts for most sports did not change. For most sports, Clovis will continue to compete in District 4-5A with Carlsbad, Hobbs and Roswell; Portales will continue to compete in District 4-4A with Artesia, Goddard and Lovington.
The most notable differences for Clovis and Portales each come in the football classifications.
Clovis will continue to compete in District 2/5-6A, but the district will gain two new members. Albuquerque High and Santa Fe High join Clovis, Eldorado, La Cueva, Manzano and Sandia.
Clovis Athletic Director Lonnie Baca said he didn’t take issue with any of the changes.
“We’re excited to continue to be with the Albuquerque schools in our football district,” Baca said. “We’re excited to be with Hobbs, Carlsbad and Roswell (in most other sports). Our coaches are pleased with what happened, and I’m pleased with what happened.”
It is Baca’s understanding that all of the teams in Clovis’ pending football district were content, “but that may change between now and next Thursday.”
Assuming the realignment happens as proposed, Clovis will have a six-game district schedule instead of four. Clovis’ non-district opponents in 2019 were Lubbock Monterey, Lubbock Coronado, Lubbock Estacado, Rio Rancho, Hobbs and Los Lunas. Baca said Los Lunas has already dropped Clovis from its 2020 schedule, so Clovis would need to lose one more non-district opponent to add Albuquerque High and Santa Fe to the schedule.
The Wildcats last played Albuquerque High in the 1979 Class 4A semifinals. Clovis has won 14 of its 15 meetings against Santa Fe and the last seven by an average of 40 points.
For Portales, Moriarty moved to District 2-4A, and District 3/4A adds Silver to the fold of Lovington, Portales and Ruidoso. The Colts, defeated by Portales in the 4A quarterfinals, played last season in a district that included 4A and 5A teams.
“I think it’s a good thing in terms of competition,” Portales Athletic Director Mark Gallegos said of adding Silver, “but it’s another hardship having to travel.”
Gallegos doesn’t believe anybody in 3/4-4A will appeal, and he has already been in discussion with Silver on their district schedule.
One change that will benefit Portales, Gallegos said, is shrinking Portales’ cross country district to the standard four-team 4-4A fold. The Rams’ most recent district cross country championship was in Santa Teresa.
In other moves impacting area schools:
• Fort Sumner is moving down to eight-man football. Their departure from 11-man will leave District 6-2A as the state’s only three-team football district with Texico, Santa Rosa and Clayton. The Foxes will play in District 2 with Logan, Melrose, Tatum and Mesilla Valley.
• District 2 Six-Man gains Dora, which had been an eight-man school but took a roster hit over the last two seasons after Elida pulled out of a cooperative agreement to strike out on its own as a six-man squad.
• Grady and San Jon have terminated their cooperative agreement, and will be district opponents in baseball, basketball, volleyball, track and six-man football.
