The 2025-26 prep sports calendar is here

The prep sports calendar stretches across 9½ months.

Monday is Day 1 of the 2025-26 journey. Day 1 of 286. It’ll end when the final pitch of the state baseball tournament is thrown on May 16.

But the fuse is officially lit on Monday, as high school football camps for 119 teams get underway.

Opening night is hurtling toward us quickly, with the first games set for Thursday, Aug. 21.

Volcano Vista-La Cueva, Valley-Bernalillo and Manzano-Highland get things started on that night in the metro area, with most of the rest of the state following the next day.

There are any number of questions that must be addressed and examined around the state. Solutions will reveal themselves steadily between now and Nov. 30, which is state championship day for the upper divisions. I’ll be getting to many if not all of these queries when the Journal officially begins previewing the season and breaking down the classifications in a couple of weeks.

Let’s float a few of these questions in the meantime.

Can Cleveland repeat as 6A state champion? The Storm feature arguably the division’s top returning QB in Jordan Hatch, plus a whole slew of influential players on both sides of the ball from the team that topped La Cueva last November in the title game. Reminder: It has been eight YEARS since a 6A state championship game has been contested without Cleveland being one of the finalists.

And what of the Bears? True, their best offensive and defensive players, Cam Dyer and Mason Posa, have graduated, but La Cueva surely will be prominently in the mix. How prominent? Probably very prominent.

Can Centennial, which has been knocking (hard) on the door, finally reach its first big-school final? Can Las Cruces, which has several gifted offensive players back in the fold as the Bulldawgs look to return to the pinnacle of the 6A classification?

Sandia and Cibola both have new coaches. How will their seasons unfold? The Matadors and Cougars are, from my keyboard, two of the most interesting groups to watch in all of 6A. Tylon Wilder at Española Valley did wonders with the Sundevils, getting them to the state semifinals in Class 4A last fall. That was a tremendous piece of work, and now he takes over at Sandia. David Howes at Cibola is back in the head coaching chair as the former Rio Rancho High head man hopes to make his alma mater relevant again.

Quarterbacking, as always, is the most urgent necessity for a team with true championship designs. How will some of New Mexico’s elite programs adjust with new faces trying to replace prodigious talent at that position? La Cueva lost Dyer. Centennial lost Zaiden Davis. Bloomfield, last year’s 4A state champion, lost Blake Spencer. Artesia, beaten by Roswell in the 5A state title game, is retooling at QB, as are the Coyotes. There are plenty of other examples of crucial pieces having moved on — like Texico’s unstoppable runner Alex Fuentes off the 2A champion Wolverines, for example.

How will things look at Robertson? The perennial Class 3A power saw longtime coach Leroy Gonzalez — who won multiple state championships for the Cardinals in both football and baseball — let go by Robertson earlier this year. (A decision, I confess, that on the surface escapes my understanding.) Offensive coordinator Lucas Sanchez was promoted in June to head coach. Another top 3A outfit, Socorro, also starts the 2025 season with a new coach after Damien Ocampo’s surprising resignation at the start of this calendar year.

What to make of Legacy Academy? The Silverbacks from Albuquerque’s West Side transitioned from 8-Man in 2023 to Class 2A last year, and they started super fast with nine consecutive victories, grabbing headlines, before losing their last two games. Legacy Academy is also under new management, with Joey Romero moving up the chain from inside the program and taking over from Bryan Clampitt.

How will Ruidoso fare? This program, and that city, has been under siege by flooding once again this summer after floods and fire rocked the community a year ago. The Warriors, who gamely played through all the distractions, finished 2-9 a season ago. There’s not a single team any of us should be rooting harder for than Ruidoso, which also has a new head coach.

Is St. Pius the clear favorite to win a blue trophy in Class 4A come Thanksgiving weekend? Why wouldn’t they be? The Sartans, beaten in the state final by Bloomfield last November, not only have the best collection of skill position talent in the 4A division (all varsity veterans), those athletes stack up favorably against just about any team in any class. Plus, they’ve had a taste now and they’re hungry.

What can we expect from Bernalillo and Valencia in 4A after both reached the state quarterfinals last year? (The Sartans actually reached the semis, where they were ousted by Bloomfield.) Valencia is one of those teams whose trajectory I’m eager to watch.

The Class 5A division last season was dominated, to exactly no one’s surprise, by the southern district, which produced all four semifinal teams.

Is there any reason to believe that will change? Uh, well, no, not really. Highland won a playoff game last year, but how will the Hornets fare now that their bruising superstar back, Amiri Mumba, has graduated? Can Valley return to the postseason?

As I said, we’ll preview all the classes a little later this month.

For now, let’s celebrate this news: The 2025-26 window is open.