Saturday, December 27, 2003

Belen, Los Lunas interested in NMAA realignment

Eagles, Tigers want to play closer to home

T.S. Last News-Bulletin Sports Editor; tlast@news-bulletin.com

Albuquerque Changes at the top of New Mexico Activities Association leadership may lead to changes for Belen and Los Lunas high school athletic teams.

Athletic directors at Valencia County's two high schools said they have appealed to a committee studying realignment to place them in athletic districts that require less travel and keep student-athletes in the classroom longer.

Belen Athletic Director Danny Griego said he recently spoke with Scott Evans, who serves on the committee studying the issue. He told Evans that Belen wanted out of District 3-4A, which requires travel to southern schools Deming, Las Cruces Oñate, Santa Teresa and Silver.

"Travel equals cost, and it equals loss of class time," Griego said. "For our community, financially and academically, I think it would be beneficial for us to make an attempt to get into a central district."

Los Lunas Athletic Director Rex Henington feels the same way and notified the NMAA of Los Lunas Schools' interest in moving out of District 3-5A, which includes of Anthony Gadsden, Alamogordo, Las Cruces High and Las Cruces Mayfield.

"We presented a formal letter of petition to that committee to consider our request," Henington said. "We'll go from one step to the next from there."

The next step is a meeting of the realignment committee on Monday, Dec. 29. Though no action will be taken, the committee will make recommendations to be considered by the NMAA Board of Directors at a later date.

Griego said he didn't think any changes in the alignment of athletic districts would occur until the 2006-07 school year.

"We're probably looking at 2006 before anything major happens," he said. "I'd say, for at least two more years, we're locked in."

The committee studying realignment was appointed by newly hired NMAA Executive Director Gary Tripp, who has indicated an interest in consolidating athletic districts. Quoted in Friday's edition of the Albuquerque Journal, Tripp said "Class time, and how many minutes they might be out of class, needs to be our number one priority. They need to be students first."

That argument is supported by Griego and Henington. An Eagle or Tiger basketball team, for instance, will travel approximately 1,600 miles per year to attend district contests. That translates to roughly 30 hours on the road. By comparison, a Las Cruces high school basketball team logs just over 600 miles for district road trips, or about 11 hours of travel time.

Belen and Los Lunas were in the same district with Albuquerque-area schools until 2000, when the NMAA added a fifth classification for the state's largest schools. Los Lunas was elevated to Class 5A while Belen remained 4A, but both were placed in districts with schools from the south.

"It causes our studen- athletes to lose much more class time than any other schools in this vicinity. Also, we think it's a safety issue," said Henington, adding that some players and coaches don't return home until 2:30 a.m. or later on some school nights. "It all goes back to what is best for the student body at Los Lunas High School, and this is not the best. It needs to be changed."

Los Lunas made an attempt to switch districts earlier this year. In January, it petitioned the NMAA to reconsider its approved alignments for the 2004-05/2005-06 two-year block, but the request was denied.

In addition, the Belen and Los Lunas school districts would stand to save a considerable amount of money if placed in centralized districts. Bill Moffatt, deputy superintendent of finance and operation for Los Lunas Schools, said in a News-Bulletin story last January that the district's budget of $119,484 for athletic travel could be reduced by as much as half. In 2001, Belen increased its athletic budget from about $120,000 to $160,000 to account for the increased travel costs.

Griego said one proposal for realignment grouped Belen with Bernalillo, Moriarty and Albuquerque private schools Academy and St. Pius.

Los Lunas could be placed in a district that would include any of Albuquerque's 11 public high schools.

Griego said he also spoke with Evans about a proposal that would revert back to four classifications. In that case, Belen and Los Lunas could end up in the same district again, along with Albuquerque's Rio Grande, Valley and West Mesa high schools. "I don't get the sense from Scotty Evans that that's going to be their big push, but they wanted to have some ideas so they could have some options going into the meeting on the 29th."

(News-Bulletin staff writer Jessica Dyer contributed to this story.)

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