New districts statewide: NMAA unveils comprehensive new realignment plan

Nov. 29—There are new, and noticeably larger, districts coming in New Mexico high school football.

But as always, there were plenty of upheavals as the New Mexico Activities Association on Wednesday rolled out its realignment and classification plan for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years.

The NMAA board of directors voted 8-4 in favor of the proposal that was presented to them on Wednesday.

Class 5A basketball has received an alignment facelift.

For example, Atrisco Heritage, long a staple in District 1-5A where it won multiple state championships, is shifting to District 5-5A the next two years.

"I was opposed to it personally, but we'll play the schedule we have like everyone else," Jaguars coach Steve Heredia said. "I would rather have stayed."

West Mesa is leaving District 2 for District 5.

Santa Fe and Capital — and Manzano — are being moved from District 5 to District 2.

Farmington and Piedra Vista are changing from District 2 to District 1.

And Miyamura is joining Class 5A, in a district (5-5A) that includes Los Lunas, Atrisco Heritage, Rio Grande, Albuquerque High and West Mesa.

The new 1-5A group in basketball is Cleveland, Rio Rancho, Volcano Vista, Cibola, Farmington and Piedra Vista. District 2-5A will be La Cueva, Eldorado, Manzano, Sandia, Santa Fe and Capital.

Pretty much all the other sports, including major team sports such as volleyball, baseball and softball — but not swimming/diving, soccer and wrestling, where fewer schools compete — will have district alignments in Class 5A that mirror basketball. Same with metro-area 4A schools.

Football changes

The NMAA was asked by the board to think "outside the box" as it considered a fresh alignment for football, and that vision was formally unveiled Wednesday.

Football, as expected, is going to fewer districts, and they're going to be expanded, which the NMAA believes will help schools untangle scheduling complications that often arise from having to find a large number of nondistrict opponents.

"Having a bigger district ... is incredibly beneficial to us as a football program," said Anthony Gonzales, head coach at Class 4A state champion Lovington. "We have a hard time scheduling games. It's very difficult."

Class 6A football has been reduced from four districts to three and is welcoming one newcomer in Piedra Vista. (It is losing Capital.)

The southern district has largely been left alone, with this exception: Clovis is joining a league that already included Centennial, Las Cruces, Organ Mountain, Hobbs, Carlsbad and Alamogordo. The Wildcats were playing in a district against schools from the metro area and Santa Fe.

Piedra Vista and Farmington are being placed in a six-team District 1, with Volcano Vista, Cleveland, Cibola and Rio Rancho.

The largest of the three 6A football districts is District 2, which has eight schools, starting with newly crowned state champion La Cueva. Atrisco Heritage, Albuquerque High, Eldorado, Los Lunas, Sandia, Santa Fe and West Mesa round out that district.

That district is eight teams and is larger than District 1-6A or 3-6A, NMAA executive director Sally Marquez said, because they want to keep schools together as district partners in both football and other sports.

Los Lunas was fully expecting to drop down from 6A to 5A for the next two football seasons, but apparently there was some incorrect enrollment data related to the pandemic school year (2020-21) that created confusion. So the Tigers recently learned that they are staying put in 6A.

Class 5A football, also as anticipated, has basically been split in two halves. There will be two districts instead of four.

The big change in 5A is that Lovington, newly anointed kings of 4A, is moving up a class in football. The Wildcats join an imposing southern league that also includes 5A state champ Artesia, plus Deming, Gadsden, Goddard, Mayfield, Roswell and Santa Teresa.

"Now that moves the bar for us," Gonzales said. "For our program, we've (already) set the bar pretty high. But you have to challenge yourself every year."

As the Journal has previously reported, Rio Grande is joining a 5A district next year. The Ravens, who have been competing the last few years as an independent, will face Belen, Capital, Del Norte, Highland, Los Alamos, Miyamura and Valley in the northern league.

Del Norte was given the option of playing down in 4A, but the Knights have chosen to continue to play in 5A.

Rio Grande and Del Norte are two of a handful of schools, Marquez said, who are eligible to play "down" as part of a new initiative that would allow struggling football programs to compete in a lower classification more suitable to their competitive level. Teams eligible would have to have had a winning percentage of 20% or less in three of the last four years, with the COVID year not counted in the computation.

Any school that plays down will be re-evaluated after the next two seasons. If any one of them wins a playoff game in either 2024 or 2025, that triggers their move back into the class where they were. They'll also move back up if their winning percentage exceeds 65% in either season.

Oregon has a similar model in place.

Class 4A football also has been chopped in half, district-wise, going from four leagues to two. And here, there is more geographical conflict than in 5A, simply because there are far more 4A programs in the northern half of the state than there are in the south.

District 1 has Aztec, Bloomfield, Bernalillo, Española Valley, Grants, Kirtland Central, Moriarty and Taos.

District 2 features non-metro powers such as Portales and Silver, and also Chaparral from the southern half. Albuquerque Academy, Manzano (which is choosing to play down into 4A), St. Pius and Valencia.

Manzano was the 6A state champion just six years ago.

"This gives us a better chance to win more ballgames," Manzano coach Stephen Johnston said. "And to build some positive momentum. It's good for (our) community."

The NMAA created new enrollment number boundaries for a couple of the lower 11-Man classes; the result sees new 3A state champion St. Michael's, and also Cobre, choosing to play "up" into 3A, instead of competing in the Class 2A division where their enrollment would otherwise place them the next two seasons.

Hope Christian, the metro's only 3A football program, went from one nightmarish district to another. The Huskies' new league partners are St. Mike's, Robertson, West Las Vegas, Santa Fe Indian and Pojoaque Valley.

Of note, former 3A-playing football members Raton and Dexter are both dropping to Class 2A after each reached the 3A quarterfinals earlier this month. Albuquerque's Legacy Academy has long been planning to make the jump from 8-Man to 2A, and that is now official for the Silverbacks.

An already crazy competitive 2A district has gotten comprehensively harder, since Dexter has been added to the power grouping of Texico (the state champion), Eunice, Jal, Loving and another newcomer in Tularosa, which remains in 2A but is changing leagues.

For the current two-year block, there were 20 combined football districts in Classes 2A-6A. Under the new alignment, there will be only 13. The largest current football district had six schools (District 3-4/6A); all of the new districts have at least six schools.

There is an appeals process for schools who object to their placement, and they can voice their appeals before the board on Dec. 11.

Classification and realignment for 2024-25 and 2025-26

FOOTBALL ONLY

CLASS 6A

District 1: Cibola, Cleveland, Rio Rancho, Volcano Vista, Farmington, Piedra VistaDistrict 2: Albuquerque High, Atrisco Heritage, Eldorado, La Cueva, Los Lunas, Sandia, Santa Fe, West MesaDistrict 3: Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Centennial, Clovis, Hobbs, Las Cruces, Organ Mountain

CLASS 5A

District 1: Belen, Capital, Del Norte, Highland, Los Alamos, Miyamura, Rio Grande, ValleyDistrict 2: Artesia, Deming, Gadsden, Goddard, Lovington, Mayfield, Roswell, Santa Teresa

CLASS 4A

District 1: Aztec, Bloomfield, Bernalillo, Espanola Valley, Grants, Kirtland Cental, Moriarty, TaosDistrict 2: Albuquerque Academy, Chaparral (playing down), Manzano (playing down), Portales, Silver, St. Pius, Valencia

CLASS 3A

District 1: Crownpoint, Gallup (playing down), Shiprock (playing down), Thoreau, Tohatchi, Wingate, ZuniDistrict 2: Hope Christian, Pojoaque Valley (playing down), Robertson, Santa Fe Indian, St. Michael's (playing up), West Las VegasDistrict 3: Cobre (playing up), Hatch Valley, Hot Springs, New Mexico Military Institute, Ruidoso, Socorro

CLASS 2A

District 1: Cuba, Hozho Academy, Laguna-Acoma, McCurdy, Navajo Prep, NewcombDistrict 2: Capitan, Cloudcroft, Estancia, Legacy Academy, Raton, Santa Rosa, TucumcariDistrict 3: Dexter, Eunice, Jal, Loving, Texico, Tularosa

8-MAN

District 1: Alamo Navajo, Dulce, Navajo Pine (playing down), Northwest, Pine Hill, RamahDistrict 2: Clayton, Escalante, Fort Sumner, Menaul, QuestaDistrict 3: Gateway Christian, Hagerman/Lake Arthur, Lordsburg, Melrose, Mescalero Apache, Mesilla Valley, Tatum

6-MAN

District 1: Dora, Elida, Floyd, Grady, Logan, NM School/Deaf, Roy/Mosquero, SpringerDistrict 2: Animas, Carrizozo, Chesterton Academy, Hondo Valley, Magdalena, Mountainair

BASKETBALL ALIGNMENT

(NOTE: This will apply to most all the sports, except wrestling, soccer and swimming/diving)

CLASS 5A

District 1: Cibola, Cleveland, Farmington, Piedra Vista, Rio Rancho, Volcano VistaDistrict 2: Capital, Eldorado, La Cueva, Manzano, Sandia, Santa FeDistrict 3: Alamogordo, Centennial, Gadsden, Las Cruces, Mayfield, Organ MountainDistrict 4: Carlsbad, Clovis, Hobbs, RoswellDistrict 5: Albuquerque High, Atrisco Heritage, Los Lunas, Miyamura, Rio Grande, West Mesa

CLASS 4A

District 1: Aztec, Bloomfield, Gallup, Kirtland Central, ShiprockDistrict 2: Espanola Valley, Los Alamos, Moriarty, Pojoaque Valley, TaosDistrict 3: Chaparral, Deming, Santa Teresa, SilverDistrict 4: Artesia, Goddard, Lovington, PortalesDistrict 5: Belen, Grants, Highland, St. Pius, ValenciaDistrict 6: Albuquerque Academy, Bernalillo, Del Norte, Hope Christian (playing up), Valley

CLASS 3A

District 1: Crownpoint, Navajo Prep, Newcomb, Thoreau, Tohatchi, Wingate, ZuniDistrict 2: Academy for Technology and the Classics, Robertson, Santa Fe Indian, Santa Fe Prep, St. Michael's, West Las VegasDistrict 3: Cobre, Hatch Valley, Hot Springs, SocorroDistrict 4: Dexter, N.M. Military Institute, Ruidoso, TularosaDistrict 5: Bosque School, Cottonwood Classical Prep, Cuba, East Mountain, Sandia Prep

CLASS 2A

District 1: Dulce, Hozho Academy (playing up), Laguna-Acoma, Navajo Pine, Ramah, Rehoboth ChristianDistrict 2: Jemez Valley, Legacy Academy, Menaul, Monte del Sol, Native American Community Academy, Oak Grove Classical Prep, Tierra EncantadaDistrict 3: Capitan, Cloudcroft, Lordsburg, Mescalero, Mesilla ValleyDistrict 4: Eunice, Hagerman, Jal, Loving, Tatum, TexicoDistrict 5: Escalante, McCurdy, Mesa Vista (playing up), Mora, Penasco (playing up), Questa (playing up)District 6: Clayton, Estancia, Pecos, Raton, Santa Rosa, Tucumcari

CLASS 1A

District 1: Northwest, Pine Hill, To'hajiilee, Tse'Yi'GaiDistrict 2: Animas, Cliff, Magdalena, Quemado, ReserveDistrict 3: Alamo Navajo, Carrizozo, Corona/Vaughn, Hondo, MountainairDistrict 4: Dora, Elida, Floyd, Gateway Christian, MelroseDistrict 5: Cimarron, Des Moines, Maxwell, Mosquero/Roy, Springer, Wagon MoundDistrict 6: Clovis Christian, Fort Sumner, Grady, Logan, San Jon