LAS CRUCES – The annual Las Cruces/Mayfield football game will still take place in the 2020-21 school year, but it could serve as a kickoff to a unique season in early March rather than the season finale of the past. 

The New Mexico Activities Association on Wednesday announced a revised calendar due to COVID-19, for all sports, with football’s seven-game regular season set to begin in February. 

About all that is certain at this point is that two-a-day practices won’t take place in the scorching summer months. There will not be scrimmages prior to the season and the number of postseason qualifiers will likely be reduced.

“It’s going to be different, but I’m excited,” Las Cruces High football coach Mark Lopez said. “It will be nice and cool if we do two-a-days and we won’t have to worry about that August heat. It’s a once in a lifetime thing. The seniors will be able to graduate. They went through this, but still made it possible. I’m hoping at the end of this, it will be a big success story.”

More: NMAA announces revised 2020-21 sports calendar

 As Las Cruces Public Schools athletic director Earnest Viramontes begins to iron out schedules for all sports, factors such as travel restrictions and distance will be considered. There is also ongoing communication between districts to determine if games that were previously scheduled, will be played. 

More: Breaking down 2020 high school football schedules for city teams

NMAA Executive Director Sally Marquez said overnight trips are not allowed and current Education Department guidelines recommend one person per seat on longer trips and two per seat on shorter trips. A football road trip to Alamogordo, for instance, might require three charter buses, rather than one. 

“My plan is to get those games in that require some travel, but we might have to schedule games closer, and districts might have to help each other so that teams can get the maximum number of games,” Viramontes said.  

District tournaments and preseason tournaments will not be allowed this season, so those games are easy to scratch off the schedule. And district games must be played, which for many LCPS schools, will fill the majority of the schedule. 

The District 3-5A schedule for most sports is 12 games, leaving sports such as basketball and volleyball (18 game seasons) with six slots to fill. 

There are fewer slots to fill for District 3-6A football teams with six teams in the district. 

“When you look at the last seven weeks of the regular season (of the pre-COVID-19 schedule), that is what I will plug in,” Viramontes said. “That is a starting point.”

While Viramontes hopes his district’s programs will be allowed to travel, it’s unclear which districts across the state will eliminate travel. 

“The biggest thing that we were told was that we would be guaranteed our district games,” Centennial football coach Aaron Ocampo said. “The district would work hard to get us to seven, but it’s not guaranteed depending on who is willing to travel and who is not.”

In Centennial’s case, the Hawks’ first game could be March 5 or March 6 at home against Atrisco Heritage, depending on Atrisco’s travel policy. 

If Atrisco Heritage couldn’t travel, perhaps Viramontes could approach Centennial’s Week 1 scheduled opponent, Rio Rancho Cleveland, or a district from a smaller classification that is closer to Las Cruces.

“If we are allowed to get seven games and the district can get us seven games, I want to play seven games,” Ocampo said. “I’ve spoken to a lot of coaches and have not heard anything specific if they will travel or not. It’s kind of wait and see from district athletic directors.”

As of this week, Rio Rancho School District athletics director Larry Chavez said his programs would not be prevented from either hosting LCPS schools or traveling to Las Cruces. 

Viramontes said he hopes to learn confirm travel policies for Albuquerque Public Schools next week. 

“That is going to be a worry anytime you put a bunch of kids on a bus and travel three hours, but hopefully by the time football season rolls around, it could be permissible to put athletes on a bus,” said Chavez, who is the chairman for the six-team District 1-5A. “We are not going to shut the door on that, though.”

Chavez said he plans to keep Las Cruces High’s home game against Cleveland, scheduled for Week 4; as well as Oñate’s Week 5 game at Rio Rancho.

“I have been talking to (Viramontes) and we are hoping to get get it straightened out,” Chavez said. “Everything could change at any time. You just look at this summer, where we could start, then we couldn’t. I just shut down Rio Rancho Public Schools (on Thursday) just with the COVID-19 cases going up in New Mexico, everything could change.”

Another challenge facing Viramontes is that all three big school programs have an open week prior to the final five weeks of the season. 

“It may be hard to find a game since there are not as many big schools in New Mexico,” Ocampo said. 

An example of what a spring football schedule could look like for LCPS teams:

• Feb. 22-26: Practice

• March 5-6: Centennial vs. Atrisco Heritage; Mayfield at Las Cruces; Oñate at Rio Rancho
• March 12-13: Roswell at Mayfield; TBD as Centennial, Las Cruces and Oñate all have open weeks in Week 6 of the current schedule
• March 19-20: Oñate at Centennial; Las Cruces at Carlsbad; Mayfield TBD
• March 26-27: Centennial at Carlsbad; Hobbs at Las Cruces; Mayfield at Goddard; Gadsden at Oñate
• April 2-3: Centennial at Las Cruces; Chaparral at Mayfield; Oñate at Hobbs
• April 9-10: Hobbs at Centennial; Las Cruces at Gadsden; Mayfield at Santa Teresa; Carlsbad at Oñate
• April 16-17: Gadsden at Centennial; Las Cruces at Oñate; Mayfield at Deming
• April 23-24: State quarterfinals
• April 30-May 1: State semifinals
• May 8: State championship

In its first season as a Class 5A football program, Mayfield has three district football games against Chaparral, Deming and Santa Teresa. 

The Mayfield/Cruces game could very well kick off the regular season on March 5. The game was moved to Week 5 when Mayfield elected to drop to Class 5A in December. 

“In Class 5A and Class 4A, we are looking to see what everyone has available,” Viramontes said. “The bye weeks are the games that are hard to fill because everyone has a different number of teams and different byes. We have to verify the games we have on the schedule and then see if we can move stuff.”

The Trojans also have both Roswell High and Goddard on their schedule in addition to Oñate (Week 3) and Centennial (Week 4). The Roswell game would likely be moved to March 12-13, which is the same week the LCPS big schools are open. 

There are still many puzzle pieces to make fit. Viramontes said he will prioritize cross country, volleyball and golf since they are currently slated to begin first. 

“I want to get all of the scheduling done as they come in order,” Viramontes said. “In the next couple weeks, I will have a good idea of what the schedule looks like. The individual sports might look a little different and could take a little longer, since we already have games scheduled for the team sports.”