Saturday's high school sports events cancelled amid latest surge in COVID-19 cases

LAS CRUCES — The Las Cruces boys basketball team was the last athletic program in live game action when the Bulldawgs won the 5A state championship on March 14.

That was three days after COVID-19 entered New Mexico, and the 2020 spring sports season were later cancelled as a result.

And after months of waiting to start the revised 2020-2021 season, high school sports in the Land of Enchantment will have to wait a bit longer, as the New Mexico Activities Association announced on Wednesday that this weekend’s scheduled events have been cancelled.

Cross country, volleyball and golf events were originally scheduled to begin on Saturday under the NMAA's revised schedule.

However, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's public health order still prohibits activities consisting of more than 10 people. And as of Wednesday, there was no further guidance from the office of the governor.

All three fall sports have been able to practice in pods of 9-to-1 this week in preparation for a season that may end up pushed to the spring with the rest of the high school sports.

NMAA Associate Director Dusty Young clarified this only affects events for this Saturday and if the season does start later on this year the schools will be allowed to reschedule the missed events, but it's up to the schools individually.

Jason Groves covers sports for the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at jgroves@lcsun-news.com. Matthew Asher covers sports for the Carlsbad Current-Argus and can be reached at masher@currentargus.com.

Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e