Football is back at McCurdy Charter School after being absent multiple years.
McCurdy has not played a game since a 62-6 loss at Escalante on Oct. 12, 2018 – in a 1-8 season that ended with a forfeit win over Questa as the team’s only victory.
But the Bobcats will return this fall with a fresh team, looking to bring back the established but distant program tradition.
“I think it means a lot,” said McCurdy Football Coach Robert Nevarez. “We are in Northern New Mexico, and basketball is the big sport here. However, football has been a long tradition at McCurdy, it goes back a number of years. I think, anywhere you go in the country, wherever you have a football program, you’re going to have a little bit of extra motivation. And it just ties things together.”
The Bobcat football team is starting football-specific summer strength and conditioning workouts this week, with plans to start the football season in August for the team’s first game in nearly three years. Nevarez said they have more than 30 players signed up for the year.
The Bobcats will compete in district 1/2/5-2A for this year against Escalante, Estancia, Laguna Acoma and Questa, after Questa nearly shuttered its program in 2019 but played a season in 2020, with just 16 total 2A schools slated to compete in football compared to 30 in basketball.
In June 2019, former athletic coordinator Christian Lopez canceled the fall season after nearly half of the roster was determined to be academically ineligible, and the school fired football coach Ron Gallegos. The 2018 season had included a forfeit loss after a player was suspended and multiple others nearly were as well. Though Gallegos said at the time that he believed the move to cancel the football program had been pre-planned by administration.
Nevarez in the time since became the athletic coordinator and football coach, as well as a math teacher and esports coach, after Lopez became the director of safety and security for the Española School District. Nevarez said one of the reasons he was hired, after coaching club sports in Castle Rock, Colo., was to help restart the football program.
Nevarez said the Bobcats plan to have both a varsity high school and a middle school team. He said during 2019 they still played a middle school season.
The fall 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic, and while some schools ultimately played in March and April, Nevarez made the decision that it was not the right time to restart the program.
“We have a varsity (team), we have a full slate,” Nevarez said. “We haven’t had a competitive snap in three years. So, the big thing is we’re really reintroducing football to a lot of these student-athletes.”
Nevarez said he did not want to discuss the team roster yet, but there will be a lot of sophomores and juniors who have not played high school football.
The 2018 roster had two listed freshmen, Marcos Gasca and Izaiah Ortiz, who would potentially be seniors for the team this year.
“This is going to be an introduction year,” Nevarez said.
He said they will transition between middle-school football to learning a more complex playbook and seeing faster opponents without the luxury of preparing by playing junior varsity.
“Our goal is, as a coaching staff, as quickly as possible get them introduced to varsity-level football in preparation for the season.
Nevarez said Tresean Portis, a 2021 McCurdy graduate and former basketball player, has signed up to be an assistant coach for this year having missed playing football so much, while also studying at Northern New Mexico College.
Nevarez said the football field has been around since the 1950s, and he is proud of having one of the last all-grass fields in the state. He said he is hoping to have a bigger weight room for a better strength and conditioning program.
“A 45-pound weight weighs 45 whether it’s an old weight or a new weight,” Nevarez said. “It doesn’t matter what it looks like, just lift it.”
McCurdy won state championships in football in 1976 and 1962, if few can remember those days. Somewhat more recently, the 2012 Bobcats team made the state semifinals and were the No. 2 seed in the state, where they lost to eventual champion Escalante. Their most recent state tournament appearance, in 2016, ended with a 62-0 loss in the quarterfinals.
At a June 10 meeting with school athletes broadcast over Zoom, Nevarez outlined his goals to McCurdy athletes.
“Our unofficial motto of good enough is no longer good enough,” he told the athletes.
He mentioned the start of football season, and said he is excited to start the season with a new crop of athletes.
Nevarez commended the baseball team for their successes this year in winning the district, and the volleyball team for winning a match against Mesa Vista and nearly beating district champion Mora.
“Playing sports is so much more fun when you’re winning,” Nevarez said.