Prep notes: Oklahoma, North Carolina latest to offer Carlsbad linebacker

Oklahoma and Bill Belichick-led North Carolina are the latest Division I football programs to have extended a scholarship offer to rising Carlsbad High junior linebacker Colton McKibben.

McKibben, recently touted as the state’s top 2025 player by MaxPreps, is up to 15 D1 offers.

The University of New Mexico and New Mexico state are among those 15.

The other schools to have offered the 6-foot-3, 225-pound McKibben are Arizona and Arizona State, TCU and Texas Tech, Iowa State, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, Auburn, Washington and Oklahoma State.

Carlsbad does have one regular season game in the metro area this upcoming season, Sept. 11, a Thursday, against Cibola. The Cougars’ Hayes Baum, a senior linebacker, has already committed to play for UNM.

HIGHLAND HOF: Highland High last weekend inducted a huge group into its 2025 Sports Hall of Fame.

This year’s inductees:

Marty Peterson (Class of 1977; basketball); Carol Hudson Knauber (Class of 1973; field hockey, track and field, former Olympic qualifier in 1972); Glenn Russell (Class of 1981; football, baseball); John Scott East (Class of 1981; track and field); Dan Hays (Class of 1964; basketball); Charles Clausen (Class of 1958; football, wrestling, former NFL assistant coach); Bob McCorkle (Class of 1959; football, basketball, baseball); Jack Stroud (Class of 1961; football, baseball, New York Mets draftee); Ted Russell (Class of 1964; tennis).

The last inductee was Bobby Gibbs, a former coach at Highland and also the former executive director of the New Mexico High School Coaches Association.

AREA CODE GAMES: The upperclassmen portion of the Area Code Games in Long Beach, California, got underway on Wednesday.

La Cueva right-handed pitcher Dylan Blomker, Artesia RHP Jack Byers and Cleveland 3B/OF Anthony Del Angel are all playing for the same team, the Reds, during the event that runs through Monday.

That trio represents the top three prep prospects in New Mexico from the Class of 2026. Blomker already has verbally committed to LSU, Del Angel to Oklahoma. Byers has yet to declare.