Santa Fe athletes, coaches endure pandemic sports season of high times, hard knocks

May 2—Is playing high school sports worth it this year?

The easy answer Luke Padilla could have given was an unequivocal yes.

But Padilla, a talented senior running back for the Capital High School football team, saw the downside as well in a pandemic-stained year that has pushed athletes, coaches and fans to the limit.

The shortened football season in New Mexico — six weeks — was a chance for Padilla to prepare for his jump to collegiate competition in the fall. He kept himself in shape throughout the pandemic as he waited for his chance to play, either at Capital or at Fort Lewis College, the Durango, Colo., school that offered him a scholarship.

But some of his teammates were not ready for the season, spending several months waiting to learn whether they'd even have a chance to play.

When they finally got on the field, some got hurt. In retrospect, Padilla wonders whether playing was worthwhile for them.

"As far as preparing for my next year, it was a good thing to play," Padilla said. "For the other players, especially the younger kids, there were plenty of injuries, and they've got to come back and play in four months [this fall]. So, they're already at a disadvantage."

Such trade-offs have been everywhere in New Mexico prep sports.

The challenges, athletes and coaches agree, are unlike anything they'd ever imagined, let alone faced.

First was the six-month wait to see if there would be a season in any sport. That finally ended in January when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham ordered the reopening of all schools, which allowed athletes to return to action.

Then came the plan by the New Mexico Activities Association, which oversees high school athletics, to play all 13 sanctioned sports in a five-month period starting in February.

Some sports, like football and cross-country, had just five-week seasons. The condensed schedules led to a time in April when 10 sports were either competing or conducting preseason practices at the same time.

Athletes, like everyone else, ran the risk of contracting COVID-19. A positive case, which would prompt a 10-day pause in a team's season under the state Public Education Department's guidelines, could be a season-ender, as was the case for Santa Fe High's football program, which canceled its final two games after one player tested positive for the virus in March.

But if the difficulties were mammoth, so, too, was the determination.

Academy for Technology and the Classics junior Josette Gurule said she was thankful for the chance to run on the school's track and field and cross-country teams this year.

"We would see people from other states competing and we were like, 'Oh, why can't that be us?' " Gurule said. "We worked so hard for this, and we want it so bad, and the carrot has been in front of us for so long."

However, some coaches said the way the NMAA constructed some sports' seasons forced them to sacrifice quality of play for simple participation. Capital head boys basketball coach Ben Gomez said his players don't have enough time to practice because they are playing two or three times a week. The compressed time frame doesn't allow the coaches to correct mistakes or install more plays as they would in a normal four-month season.

"We're creatures of habits, and if we don't practice good habits, then consequently we're not going to play games with good habits," Gomez said.

Seledon Martinez, the former head girls basketball coach at Pojoaque Valley who is now an assistant, added that the health risks associated with the coronavirus are still there for athletes, especially because many of them have not yet been vaccinated. The state Department of Health began allowing people age 16 and above to receive vaccinations earlier this month.

He mourned the loss in January of assistant coach Kim Martinez to COVID-19 and said it's been devastating for him and the players.

"We're lucky nobody else has passed away," Seledon Martinez said.

NMAA Executive Director Sally Marquez called the uncertainty over having a season "the hardest thing I've had to go through in my 38 years of education" but said she finds the reward in the faces of the athletes she sees. She added it took the work of school and district administrators as well as coaches to make the shortened seasons happen.

"When you see the smiles on the kids' faces and see them competing, it is worth it," Marquez said.

Julian Sanchez, a senior who wrestles and played football for Capital, said even a shortened season was a chance to have the kind of senior experience others got pre-pandemic.

"For all of us seniors who worked so long and almost had it all taken away from us, we wanted to get out there and be with our friends, our brothers," Sanchez said. "I want to be out there to watch the boys and girls basketball teams. This is our last bit of the high school experience, and it's big for us."

With the boys and girls state basketball tournaments on tap later this week, prep sports are at what could be termed the midway point. Scheduling has been a consistent worry at many schools.

Peter Graham, head track and field coach at Santa Fe High, said coaches didn't receive guidelines regarding how many teams could attend regular-season meets and limitations on the number of participants until the week before practice started April 5. The list of eligible meets schools could enter wasn't posted until the week of April 12, Graham added, but he cobbled together a six-meet schedule.

"It took a lot of networking to find meets, but we're not going to have as many meets as we have had in the past," Graham said.

Marquez acknowledged the NMAA and schools had to learn to adapt to changing guidance they received from different state agencies, including the Governor's Office, the Department of Health and the Public Education Department.

"We have had to adapt since July; that's when our schedules started changing," Marquez said. "It's been ever-changing, and that is the word to say. Our athletic directors and coaches have done a great job adapting their schedules to make sure their athletes are able to compete."

To help alleviate the workload multisport athletes are taking on this year, some coaches adjusted their practices. Joey Fernandez, the head football and track and field coach at St. Michael's, said he eased up on the intensity of some football practices for players who were also practicing with the basketball team in late March.

"We want them to be healthy for the next basketball games," Fernandez said. "And we're doing the same thing with the wrestlers on the team. With them practicing all different types of things within a few months of each other, it's going to be hard on their bodies. They are using so many different muscles and they're not used to that."

Also concerning to some coaches is the almost nonstop schedule multisport athletes will experience into next year. Many teams use June and July for a mixture of scrimmages and workouts to prepare for the next season. With spring sports ending their seasons in late June, Fernandez said some athletes will split time finishing one season while preparing for the next.

In August, practices for fall sports begin again, leaving little time for rest. Fernandez said he expects coaches and athletes will accommodate one another to help make it the best experience possible for everybody.

Marquez said the NMAA will discuss those issues over the next few weeks, but she would not comment further on what summer workouts will look like for schools.

Despite issues coaches and athletes have faced, Padilla said it has not soured his view on whether competing in sports was worth it. In fact, he took on a new challenge — cheerleading. Padilla said some cheerleaders encouraged him to participate, and he felt compelled to do it because they missed out on their biggest event last year, the state spirit competition, due to the pandemic.

"It's a completely different sport, but in its own way, it's something that is very fun," Padilla said. "It's something I will remember for the rest of my life because I might not ever get a chance to do that again."