Bernalillo Spartans’ 2026 football schedule set after playoff season

Bernalillo’s path back to the Class 4A playoffs now runs through a bigger, meaner District 1, and Bloomfield sits right at the center of the question. After finishing 7-4 in 2025 and reaching the quarterfinals, the Spartans enter 2026 with the burden of proving that last fall was not just a good season, but the start of a deeper run.

The New Mexico Activities Association’s realignment dropped Bernalillo into expanded Class 4A District 1 with Aztec, Bloomfield, Española Valley, Grants, Kirtland Central, Moriarty and Taos. That alignment turns the district race into the main stress test of the year, with Bloomfield standing out as the sharpest measuring stick after the Bobcats ended Bernalillo’s postseason with a 49-0 quarterfinal loss. The rest of the district adds a tough mix of styles and road trips, and the Spartans will have little room to ease into league play once the season opens in mid-August.

That challenge comes after a stretch of steady progress under head coach John Cobos, who has led Bernalillo since 2015. The Spartans have now posted three straight winning seasons under Cobos, and one report put his record at 47-60 through the 2025 season. Bernalillo’s climb has been gradual but real: in 2023, the program won its first state playoff game, finished 8-4 and was described as having its most wins in at least 20 years, if not ever. Cobos was later named the All-Metro 3A-5A Coach of the Year.

The 2025 season showed both sides of the program’s rise. Bernalillo opened with a 16-14 comeback win over Valley in the rivalry known as the Cobos Bowl, a game Cobos called a dog fight before kickoff. The Spartans kept winning enough to reach 7-4 and the state quarterfinals, but Bloomfield exposed how far the gap still is between a playoff team and a true contender.

That is why the 2026 schedule matters in Bernalillo, where players, coaches and fans have spent the offseason looking at the next step, not the last one. First practice for the 2026 high school season is set for August 3, and when the games begin, the Spartans will know quickly whether the momentum from 2023, 2024 and 2025 can survive the grind of a larger, stronger district. Cobos put that standard plainly after last year’s playoff run: “I can promise you, we’ll be back.”