Rio Rancho Public Schools athletic director Bruce Carver told the school board on July 23 about his plans for a new Metro League in the city.

The new cost-effective league will foster competition among the district’s four middle schools — Eagle Ridge, Lincoln, Mountain View and the new Rio Rancho Middle School, formerly the Mid-High — and help prepare those athletes for eventual varsity competition.

Carver said he’s concerned about increasing participation in the district’s seventh grade and how this concept will be a change from the past. Then, he said, each team would field one seventh-grade team, which would compete against other area schools, such as Jemez Valley, Los Lunas, Belen and parts of Albuquerque.

“They’d have 30-40 kids come out for a team and we’d cut the team from 30 to 15, (and we’d) send 15 kids packing. Once you lose those 15 kids, they’re done – they’ll never come back (to that sport,” Carver explained. “Once you’ve got those 15 kids (who make the team), you’re telling them they’re your (future varsity) players.”

Now, he said, each school can have two, maybe even three, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, and baseball and softball teams, thus increasing participation.

Travel expenses will be cut, for teams as well as parents; there will be no charge for admission, Carver said.

Volleyball and basketball will have six- or seven-week seasons, Carver said, with baseball and softball, which will combine seventh- and eighth-graders, still in the planning stages.

Curtis Spencer will be the Metro League’s coordinator.

With the move to start a seventh-grade intramural volleyball program (Metro League) in the city’s middle schools, Cleveland High volleyball coach Ben Wallis is hosting an informational meeting for parents of incoming seventh-graders.

That meeting will be held Wednesday, Aug. 6, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Rio Rancho High School gymnasium.

Wallis, with RRHS volleyball coach Toby Manzanares, will inform parents about the new league’s framework, rules and regulations, plus general information and changes for the year.