Manzano-Santa Fe High game still on despite COVID-19 outbreak

The Santa Fe New Mexican - 9/15/2021

Sep. 16—When Andrew Martinez saw that Albuquerque Manzano canceled Friday's prep football game against Albuquerque High on Tuesday night because of a COVID-19 outbreak, he made sure to follow up Wednesday morning.

The Demons' football coach wanted to make sure the Sept. 24 game with the Monarchs would not be affected after reports that roughly 50 Monarchs were in quarantine related to a COVID-19 outbreak within the program. That led to the cancellation of Manzano's District 2/5-6A opener against the Bulldogs, and Martinez worried it could impact next week's matchup, which also happens to be the school's homecoming week.

"I called [Santa Fe Public Schools athletic director Marc Ducharme] first thing in the morning," Martinez said Wednesday afternoon.

The good news is that Manzano athletic director Matt Espinoza told Ducharme he expects the team to be ready to play next week.

"He said, 'We got you, we'll be there,'" Ducharme said. "'We're gonna play this one.'"

Ducharme said losing out on the football game, which is generally the centerpiece of homecoming weekend in which the school's king and queen are announced, would be disappointing, but it would not affect festivities. The worst-case scenario, he said, would be the announcements would still occur Friday, but probably to a much smaller group.

The coronavirus epidemic has wreaked havoc on schedules almost from the outset of the football season. Moriarty announced a week before its season-opener against West Las Vegas on Aug. 20 it would cancel the game because of a coronavirus-related incident within the program. It almost happened again to the Pintos in preparation for their game against Capital last week because a player displayed COVID-19-like symptoms, but they ended up playing.

The pandemic has forced the cancellation of at least one game on the prep football schedule every week, but no team has lost more than one game so far.

Santa Fe High, which is 4-0, is scheduled to play Albuquerque Eldorado on Saturday in Albuquerque.

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