Robertson coach placed on leave; team shows solidarity
District investigating Fulgenzi for undisclosed ‘misconduct’
The Las Vegas Robertson Lady Cardinals rolled into Santa Fe Indian School on Tuesday with the top ranking in Class 3A, the top spot in District 2-3A and T-shirts displaying solidarity for their absent head coach.
Robertson played its first volleyball match against the Lady Braves without head coach Stacy Fulgenzi, as the Las Vegas City Schools district placed her on paid leave as it conducts and investigation into what Fulgenzi said was “misconduct” on her part. Fulgenzi declined further comment because the investigation is ongoing.
Las Vegas Robertson athletic director Juan Carlos Fulgenzi declined to comment on the matter, saying he was not the district spokesman and referred any questions to superintendent Larryssa Archuleta, who did not return phone messages left by The New Mexican.
Assistant coach Fran Jenkins took over head coach duties Tuesday, and Robertson swept the Lady Braves to improve to 14-3 on the season and 7-0 in district play. Stacy Fulgenzi, a 1991 Robertson graduate, has guided the Lady Cardinals to a 67-24 record in three-plus seasons and consecutive Class 4A runner-up finishes in 2016 and 2017 when the state had a six-classification system.
The situation left many of the Lady Cardinals wondering why their coach was not on the sidelines. Lauren Fulgenzi, the senior setter for Robertson and head coach’s daughter, said she was the one who broke the news of Fulgenzi’s leave of absence to her team Monday.
“I had to leave practice early because I found out
about it,” Lauren Fulgenzi said. “So they practice all day with me and my mom, and they still didn’t know what had happened. So, I had to tell them.”
Parents of a couple of players declined interview requests of their daughters. However, the Lady Cardinals showed up to SFIS with black warmup shirts with “Bring Back Coach Stacy” emblazoned on the front and hung the shirts on the mezzanine section behind their bench during the match.
Lauren Fulgenzi said she was struck by the team’s support of her mother.
“It means so much to me and my mom,” Lauren Fulgenzi said. “My mom can’t contact them, but she sees it and it helps her so much. She wants to be with the girls, but she can’t.”
Dawn C’de Baca, Stacy Fulgenzi’s sister and the head coach at Albuquerque Volcano Vista, said she believes a fundraiser for the school’s “Dig Pink” match in which the host school raises money for breast cancer awareness might be at the heart of the matter. C’de Baca said Stacy Fulgenzi told her she was reprimanded by school administrators last week for not filling out a fundraising request in her efforts to raise money for Cathy Lucero, a longtime employee of Las Vegas City Schools and the West Las Vegas School district who was battling Stage 4 breast cancer.
“Her athletic director [Juan Carlos Fulgenzi] gave her a letter of reprimand that she didn’t fill out a request for it and didn’t deposit the money within 24 hours [of the event],” C’de Baca said. “This was something she never had to do before, and she’s done something like this for the past four years.”
Juan Carlos Fulgenzi was Stacy’s brother-in-law until she divorced Warren Fulgenzi Sr. in 2018.
“She just wanted to be treated fairly,” C’de Baca said. “It’s not about special treatment. It’s about treating everybody equally and fairly.”