After overseeing another successful four-week run of the Metro Passing League, Highland High School athletic director John Barnhill is already eyeballing the future.
This year’s MPL featured 16 different schools from around the Albuquerque area, including Class 6A powers Rio Rancho and Cleveland. Barnhill anticipates most, if not all, of the schools returning in 2018.
If they do, they could find an additional array of activities awaiting them, beginning with a linemen challenge on the grass practice field adjacent to the lined football field where the MPL unfolded twice per week in June for local varsity teams.
This year, the practice field was not available to teams due to ongoing construction around Highland High.
“I’ve sent an e-mail out telling people we would like to do a linemen challenge on the same night their team plays,” Highland AD John Barnhill told NMPreps. “We’ll investigate that probably after the first of the year as far how we score it. We’ll send information out to people and see what their input is.”
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In addition, Barnhill is looking into ways of getting a few offensive and defensive linemen involved in the actual games. The biggest fear, of course, is injuries.
“It’s something the coaches might want to see,” Barnhill said. “They might want that competition for their big men. We’ll see what happens. I just want to make sure things don’t get too physical without equipment and we’re not getting too aggressive so that kids are getting hurt in the summer. That’s where the balance needs to be. We have to make it appropriate for what we’re doing. We want them to compete without anybody getting hurt.”
Barnhill’s biggest fear about introducing linemen into the fray is holding will become commonplace and the players will acquire bad habits.
“We don’t really want to do that because it would go against the technique of what they’re working on,” Barnhill said. “But maybe we’ll give it a try. I’m not sure we want to go that route, but the league belongs to the coaches and players. If that is something the coaches are interested in, we’ll explore it. I’m not going to force anything upon anybody.”
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Barnhill’s most intriguing proposal could be the creation of a weekend 7-on-7 challenge involving schools located in Albuquerque and those in the southern part of the state of New Mexico, particularly the four major schools in Las Cruces (Las Cruces, Mayfield, Onate, Centennial).
Barnhill envisions a two-day football fiesta with Northern New Mexico vs. Southern New Mexico bragging rights on the line.
“It would be a great opportunity to see Hobbs or Carlsbad or Alamogordo or Artesia,” Barnhill said. “If a school like Artesia came up, that would be awesome. It would a great experience for our kids. Selfishly, I want to see those teams.
“If I can get them here under the light, that would be great. I know the other teams would love that as well. Hopefully, we can reciprocate by sending some teams down there.”
In return for the southern based schools making the long trip to Albuquerque, Barnhill would propose the latter schools reciprocate by traveling to Las Cruces for a similar event.
If nothing else, next year’s MPL schedule could see a tweak or two to the schedule. Responding to feedback from coaches, Barnhill might schedule the 16 varsity teams for Tuesday and Wednesday nights with JV teams moving to Thursday. This year, the JV squads battled on Wednesday nights.
“It would free up some teams to go to a camp and there wouldn’t be any overlap,” Barnhill said. “If we went Tuesday-Wednesday for the varsity and Thursday for the JV, it might work out better for us next year.”
The MPL game format of two 20-minute halves is unlikely to change, Barnhill said.
Regardless of the format, Barnhill’s primary underlying philosophy of the MPL won’t change in any way – no official standings are kept and no trophies awarded at the conclusion of the four weeks. It’s simply an opportunity for teams to compete and break the monotony of summer workouts.
“It’s nice to see kids compete,” Barnhill said. “It breaks up summer workouts. What everybody tries to get out of it is evaluate and give young players some looks. I’m happy and thankful Highland is able to put it on. People recognize it’s a good deal financially and they can work it into their workouts and get some benefit.”
