Española exemplifying the definition of insanity with turmoil

Once again, Española Valley finds itself in a bit of turmoil. Or, as they call it in “The Valley,” Wednesday.

The situation involving Española athletic director Phillip Roybal, who is under investigation regarding “concerns with the football program,” as Española Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez described it, sounds like the same old problem — just with a new host of characters.

While the details of the investigation are scant, suffice it to say that this is yet another blight on a school district that can’t seem to avoid tripping over itself. Considering that the football program already suffered through a midseason firing of Jesus Maes, this leads you to wonder: What the heck is going on there? Remember the feelgood story of the Sundevils’ 2015 season? Well, it was merely a blip on the radar.

In fact, the 2015-16 school year might be the high-water mark for Española sports. The volleyball program was in the midst of seven straight state tournament appearances. The football program set a historic mark with nine wins and its first district title. The muchbeloved boys basketball program won the state title and the girls team reached the state semifinals as well.

Just as the town was riding the wave of unprecedented success, it quickly dissipated.

Since then, the district has dealt with one scandal after another, and quite a few of them involved athletics. Sundevils head volleyball coach Damon Salazar faced an investigation into the treatment of his players and his future is in limbo — even though his program produced good players, equally good results and even better students.

It makes you wonder, what’s really going on with the leadership in the community? In the past, the issue has been the vacuum of leadership, which wasn’t hard to see given the revolving door of superintendents and administrators. Right now, the problem is that the current crop of leaders come off as rudderless, and worse, inept.

This is a town with students yearning to be the beacons of light in a place that sorely needs them, but the leadership always seems to go out of its way to harm them more than help them. You want to say it’s not intentional, but when one scandal after another keeps erupting, it makes you wonder if the system in place is just designed to fail no matter who is in charge.

A year ago, people clamored for the state’s Public Education Department to take over operations of the district after the way the hiring of then-Superintendent Eric Martinez was handled. That was on top of the saga of head coach Richard Martinez. Even though both men — who are not related — are no longer a part of the picture, the problems persist.

Maybe state intervention is what Española Public Schools needs, because it seems like doing the same thing over and over again with the expectation of a different result is not working.

Then again, that’s insanity for you.