San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
‘BREAKING BARRIERS’
Area’s women athletic directors aim to be role models for new generation
During her interview for the Harlandale ISD athletic director’s spot, Rose Ann Martinez brought a sheet of paper listing the names of prominent high school sports figures. Specifically, it was a list of eight women in the San Antonio area who held athletic director or assistant athletic director jobs. She wanted to be ready in case the question came up. • Why would a woman want a job traditionally held by a man? • “It was important for me to see that there are women in that position,” Martinez said. “I wanted to let the committee know (and) who was doing the interview because I wasn’t sure they were aware. Maybe someone on that panel would be afraid to hire a woman. I wanted them to know there are other women in this position, and I can do this job.”
Luckily for Martinez, she didn’t need to use that list, and in January 2018, she was hired to be athletic director for Harlandale ISD after coaching McCollum’s volleyball team for nine years.
Martinez is one of four women serving as a head athletic director in the Greater San Antonio area. The others include Triva Corrales at Judson ISD, Suzette Arriola at East Central ISD and Lori Wilson at Lytle ISD.
Across the state, they are in exclusive company with about seven other women holding the top spots with public school district athletic departments, according to information supplied by the Texas High School Athletic Directors Association.
“We’re trying to make it the norm to where when there’s women in the room, it’s not ‘Oh! There’s two women in the room,’ and it’s not all men,” Arriola said. “There needs more and more women, at least a 50-50 split. We’re getting there.”
That disparity is more evident at smaller school districts, like Class 3A Lytle, where Wilson said she is often the only woman in the room during athletic director meetings.
“I’ve learned, and I know
my job and I feel competent, so it doesn’t bother me,” said Wilson, who is also the girls basketball coach at Lytle. “I would like to see, soon in the future, maybe we could see a few more females down here at the 3A level.”
Getting the job
Ascending to the top spot within an athletic department is difficult, especially for a woman. The fact there are only a handful around the state affirms that. In Texas, most athletic directors are men and almost all of them have a football background. In some cases, the head football coach serves as the school district’s athletic director.
Corrales is well aware of that, especially heading Judson ISD, with a flagship high school that is most identified with football success. Judson has won six state championships, the most of any school in the San Antonio area and fifth-most across the state. The last title was won in 2002 before the school district opened Wagner (2005) and Veterans Memorial (2016).
Scrutiny, though, comes from outside the Judson ISD circles. Her confidence in the position comes from the support of her head football coaches — Mark Soto (Judson), Jason Starin (Wagner) and Bobby Irvin (Veterans Memorial). She takes a collaborative approach with them and all of the district’s athletic coordinators during meetings held every Monday.
“They never let me feel less than, and they’ve never made me feel ignorant,” Corrales said. “They always ask my opinion, and the beautiful part is that I ask their opinion. We have a great partnership. We’re definitely a team and we do things together.”
Corrales, a Burbank alum, was hired as the athletic director in May 2021 following a successful 11-year run as the girls basketball coach at Judson. Corrales guided the Rockets to five straight UIL state tournaments — an unprecedented feat by any area basketball program — and won it all in 2019.
After the Rockets’ season ended in the state semifinals against Houston Cypress Creek in 2021, Corrales was at a career crossroads. She entertained an offer to become an associate women’s basketball head coach at the University of North Texas. Then, the opportunity to become Judson ISD’s athletic director opened, and that was enough for Corrales to leave coaching.
“I’d been a part of basketball in some form or fashion since I was three years old,” Corrales said. “I looked at it as a breakup because I wasn’t going to do what I loved anymore, and that was a big decision for me. Being able to move into a role that is not very popular for women was something that was intriguing for me.”
Martinez was a multi-sport athlete at Harlandale before graduating in 1989. She played volleyball at Incarnate Word College (before it was UIW) and started her coaching career as a volleyball assistant under the legendary Sylvia Cardenas at Harlandale. She coached at South San, Taft and Holmes before returning to Harlandale ISD to become the volleyball coach at McCollum in 2009.
Martinez applied for the school’s district athletic director’s spot in 2017 when it first opened up. Unaware that Isaac Martinez, who had stepped down as Harlandale’s football coach following the 2016 season, had applied for it, Rose Ann Martinez had second thoughts keeping her application in the mix, mostly because she wanted to avoid conflict with a close coaching associate.
“But then I sat back for a couple of days and thought, ‘No. What am I thinking?’ ” she said. “I’m glad I applied for it. Why would I have not gone after it just because someone else was applying?”
When Isaac Martinez retired in 2018, Rose Ann Martinez applied again and got the job. It was a full circle moment as she ascended to a leadership role in the community that raised her.
“I hope to inspire other women, and even men, in our district to say, ‘You know, I want to be in that position one day,’ ” Martinez said.
Arriola is a 1982 graduate from Highlands. She played volleyball at St. Phillips and Stephen F. Austin, where she graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She coached volleyball at St. Mary’s Hall and Southside before heading to East Central High School in 2007 to be an assistant principal.
In 2013, she became the assistant athletic director at East Central before getting the top spot in 2018. Having school administrative experience has been beneficial.
“I have an understanding that coaches should not get whatever they want, no matter who they are or how many championships they’ve won,” Arriola said. “There’s an understanding that there’s a bridge that has to be built between your school building and your athletic department. The knowledge I gained from being a school building administrator was so valuable. I felt that was something that I had over other ADs.”
Having a background that is not football-centric brings balance,
especially if its rooted in girls and women’s athletics.
“Being in charge of meeting with a male-dominated group of coaches, I have to try to put things in a different perspective and try to see things from a guy’s point of view,” Martinez said. “I think I’m capable enough to be able to talk to the about a women’s point of view, so it balances out. All the coaches in our district have been very welcoming and very respectful. There hasn’t been any pushback at all. I don’t feel it, if there is.”
Setting the example
While Corrales enjoys a supportive relationship with her colleagues, that isn’t always the case with those outside the athletic administration realm. It’s when she deals with officials, who mostly have jobs outside the schools and are often surprised to find she’s the head athletic director.
Her first experience with it occurred in 2021 when she helmed her first football game at Rutledge Stadium. As she unlocked the door to the officials’ dressing room, she said one of them seemed surprised she was the athletic director. He asked her to turn around and then patted her back. Corrales turned back, bewildered and the official informed her it was a sticker that said “kick me.”
“I couldn’t believe he said that to me on my very first football game,” Corrales said. “I told him that wasn’t very nice, and I kept moving on. … I don’t mind being the pawn if it opens the door for the next woman to make a move. I’m all about breaking barriers and creating an opportunity for the next person so they don’t have go through the gender stereotype.”
Corrales said it’s important for the next generation of girls to see women in positions of authority. She said some women who have preceded her as athletic directors spent too much time justifying their jobs instead of advancing the needs of a department.
“There are not a lot of women as mentors in this position,” Corrales said. “That’s what I want to be. I want to be a mentor for other women. The ones who have gone before me, they were scrutinized, and they had to fight every day to stay afloat, and they treated everyone as a threat. Their vision wasn’t really to be as mentors. They were just trying to protect their own position.”
Wilson is a 1989 graduate of Somerset and played basketball at Sul Ross. She was the head softball coach at South San for 16 years before becoming the head basketball coach at Lytle 12 years ago. Wilson added athletic director duties eight years ago.
Wilson said she delegates duties to coordinators during the girls basketball season to help lessen her workload. When it comes to the athletic director’s job, Wilson said on occasion, she has sensed men who have applied for jobs at Lytle could potentially have issue with her.
“I felt like that it was going to hard for them to accept their boss being a female,” Wilson said. “I’m the easiest person to get along with. I don’t use my (athletic director) title. I think at the 3A level, most of them assume it’s going to be a football coach, and that’s the way it is.”
Ultimately, reshaping that narrative is the goal.
“Slowly, but surely, women are breaking through in this position, and I just don’t mean athletic administration,” Corrales said. “When I say in ‘this position,’ I mean being the boss. (It’s important) having a group of women who are strong leaders, who can get it done.”