High school state golf leaving the metro area; state softball format gets a change

Dec. 12—Softball has a revised state tournament format. And state golf has a new home.

Those were the two major news components to emerge Thursday from the offices of the New Mexico Activities Association.

The last bit of business the board addressed Thursday was to formally confirm Dusty Young’s salary as the executive director. Young, who took over the position on Nov. 1, was given a three-year contract that runs through Oct. 31, 2027. His salary will be $175,000 per year.

NMAA assistant director Scott Owen has been promoted to associate director, which was Young’s former position before Young replaced Sally Marquez at the top. Marquez was making just under $200,000 her last year on the job.

The announcement about state golf moving from the metro area to Farmington/Kirtland actually was not part of the NMAA’s board of directors meeting Thursday morning.

But for the next two years, state golf will move to the Four Corners, to San Juan Country Club and Piñon Hills Golf Course in Farmington, and also Riverview Golf Course in nearby Kirtland.

Farmington has hosted multiple state golf tournaments in the past, and will do so again in 2025 and 2026.

“With state golf, we’ve always looked to move that event around the state and provide other communities the opportunity to host it,” Young said. “Their community came to us and said, ‘Hey, we have three great courses here, would you consider bringing the entire event?'”

Golf has visited more cities for a state championship than probably any sport other than football. Las Cruces, Socorro, Roswell, Hobbs, Clovis, Alamogordo and Ruidoso, plus Farmington, are among the other cities that have hosted state golf.

The Class 5A and 4A tournaments in recent years have been held at the two courses on the Santa Ana Pueblo — Twin Warriors Golf Club and Santa Ana Golf Club. Canyon Club in Albuquerque was hosting the Class 1A-3A event. The agreement to use the two pueblo courses ended after the 2024 state tournament.

But the Santa Ana Pueblo plans to make another push to host state golf in a couple of years, said Derek Gutierrez, the PGA director of golf and general manager of Santa Ana Golf Club, Inc.

“We hope to bring it back,” Young said.

Softball was the other sport in which there was a major change Thursday.

In previous seasons, the first round of the state brackets were single elimination, with games played at campus sites, and then the remaining teams were in the metro area for Week 2, which is double elimination in the final rounds.

Starting in May, the first round AND the quarterfinal games will be played at home sites.

But, even the losing teams in the quarterfinals will advance to Week 2, except with one loss rather than no losses in the double elimination format.

This, Owen said, will reduce the maximum number of games in Week 2 from 64 to 40. The NMAA has faced logistical challenges staging that many games in a four-day period, and in years when inclement weather complicates things, the schedule becomes a nightmare.

“This is the best option for the event moving forward for everybody involved,” Young said.

Young also confirmed that the NMAA is eyeing the recently renovated Los Altos softball complex in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights as a partial venue for state. The NMAA plans to continue to utilize Cleveland High in Rio Rancho, which has four fields. Los Altos hosted the Albuquerque Metro Championships last spring, to relatively solid reviews.

NMAA PERSONNEL: Owen was hired in November 2012, a couple of months after Marquez took over as executive director.

Now he will be second in command behind Young.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time here working at the NMAA, working with both Dusty and Sally,” said Owen, 45, a graduate of Carlsbad High School. “I’ve tried to be a sponge, learning … coming from the college ranks, coaching and not having been in the schools, it’s been a large learning curve.”

Owen wrestled at Northern Illinois, and coached wrestling there, and later coached at the Naval Academy, and then finally at Bloomsburg University in eastern Pennsylvania.

That was his last job before the NMAA hired him.

“I’m very excited for the challenge,” Owen said. “I don’t envision my role changing that much, maybe (there will be) more hands-on with some of the higher-level decision making.”

The NMAA also has two new assistant directors in Julie Sanchez (who formerly was a member of the Albuquerque Public Schools athletic department staff) and Gary Allison. Allison most recently was an NMAA board member and also as athletic director at Silver High.