Dulce High School is hoping that eight is the magic number that will bring their football program back to life starting in 2019.
The New Mexico Activities Association’s Board of Directors approved Dulce’s petition Sept. 19 to drop from 11 to 8-man football next fall after all of the Hawks’ 2018 season was canceled to due to lack of participation.
“They petitioned to our Board a couple weeks ago to play independent 8-man football for the remainder of the year and next year and our Board did approve that,” Association associate director Dusty Young said.
Although the Board approved the move for the remainder of 2018, Dulce hasn’t stepped onto the field to compete once this season.
Their preseason roster on MaxPreps listed seven total players, but head coach Dennis Garcia could not be reached to confirm the actual total he was working with.
Despite recent reports that the Hawks decided to forfeit the rest of the season at the midway point, Dulce athletic director Bruce Hatch confirmed the cancellation was official before the start of the season.
“We just didn’t have enough players,” Hatch said. “We canceled at the beginning of the season in August and we didn’t play a single game. We petitioned to the NMAA to move down to 8-man as an independent next year to try and build interest back up into the program.”
Safety was also a concern and there was no guarantee the season could have been saved if Dulce could field 11 to 15 players.
“Any AD or AC will tell you that it’s hard to put just 11 boys out on the field in hope that no one gets hurt,” Dulce athletic coordinator Castia Yepa said. “Even if we did have numbers and say the number was 13, it’s still scary because at any point in the season you might have to cancel if someone gets hurt.”
Dulce was set to play in District 1/5-2A along with McCurdy Charter School, Escalante, Mission Achievement & Success, Questa and Newcomb High School in the Associations new classification and alignment for 2018-2020.
Dulce will be joining an 8-man classification with 17 total teams, including another independent in Navajo Pine High School.
Since 2011 when Dulce finished 9-1 and lost in the quarterfinals of the state tournament to Tularosa High School, the Hawks have a combined record of 9-46, including two winless seasons in 2015 and 2017.