Players frustrated by program’s lack of direction
No coach or any off-season workouts concern team as first practice is Aug. 12
Frustrated by what they feel is a lack of progress and accountability by Española Public Schools’ administrators about hiring a new head coach, several varsity players of the Española Valley volleyball team are trying to make their voices heard.
Several players spoke to The New Mexican about what they feel is a glacial pace the school district is taking to replace Damon Salazar, who was fired in April after 10 seasons. And players say there is subpar treatment of the program compared to more high-profile teams, such as boys basketball in particular, with off-season workouts. Complicating matters is that the team is just almost two weeks away from the start of practice Aug. 12.
“It just feels like they don’t really care about our program like they do every other program,” said Anita DeAguero, an incoming junior who was a defensive specialist last season. “It’s insulting.”
As of Saturday, the school district had not officially hired a new coach, but Española Valley athletic director Theresa Flores said she expects former McCurdy head coach JuliAnn Martinez to take over the team this week.
However, the players expressed concern, questioning if Martinez has the experience to lead a Class 5A program after coaching a smallschool team for a little more than a year. In fact, they said they would prefer Salazar to remain as their head coach. Martinez could not be reached for comment.
“They know they were wrong in firing coach Damon,” said Dulce Maldonado, who will be a senior when the school year starts and was the team’s leading hitter last year. “They are now talking someone into the job just to save themselves.”
Flores said the slow pace in
finding a replacement coach was mostly the result of a lack of candidates. She said she received only one other job application besides Martinez, and when the district set up an interview, the candidate backed out after taking a position elsewhere.
Flores added that she has spoken to players’ parents who indicated there were coaches interested in the job, but they never applied.
“It was something disappointing to me,” Flores said.
The players said they feel that bringing back Salazar is the sensible solution during a July 17 school board meeting. At the meeting, they asked Flores about a statement she made in April to the Journal North about Salazar. Flores said in the story that Salazar and head boys basketball coach James Branch, who were fired the same day, were not welcome back at the school, even if they reapplied.
In a video obtained by The New Mexican, Flores denied saying that both coaches could not reapply.
“I didn’t even speak to the reporter,” Flores said. “I have spoken to that reporter in the past week, and that was about football.”
Miguel Medina resigned as the football head coach July 15.
Flores was adamant about not having that April interview when speaking to The New Mexican, saying she spoke with Salazar’s father recently and told him that his son could reapply for the head coach position. However, Fred Salazar said he remembers the conversation differently.
“I asked her about [Damon reapplying], and she said I had accused her of firing Damon,” Fred Salazar said. “As the conversation went on, I asked her, ‘Can Damon reapply for the job? Is it still open?’ She said ‘no.’ ”
Damon Salazar did not want to comment about specifics, only saying he wished someone was looking out for the players.
“It’s just silliness,” Damon Salazar said. “We should be wanting to help our youth. I don’t want them to go through this stuff.”
Some of the players also took issue with how the district handled the search. DeAguero said that when players asked Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez about the search committee in a meeting with her two weeks ago, they were were not given any specific names or details. DeAguero added that it was her understanding that the boys basketball head coach search committee, which hired Gabe Martinez in May, had a player on it. DeAguero said she was not aware of any players who were on the volleyball head coach search committee.
Gutierrez said the committee included girls basketball coach Joe Estrada, softball coach Robbie Garcia and Flores. Because of the dearth of applicants and how late in the summer it was, Gutierrez said she abided by the committee’s recommendation to hire Martinez.
“Sometimes, it’s a situation where you have more than one finalist,” Gutierrez said. “Like in girls basketball [in 2018], the committee sent me three names. So, I put together a finalist committee with the high school principal and I invited the middle school principal to join me to interview the finalists.”
Still, the players’ grievances go beyond the search process.
Regina Rodella, a right-side hitter for the Lady Sundevils who will be a senior, said the district might have violated Title IX statutes. She raised concerns about giving volleyball players equal access to facilities and physical education classes that focus on training and development of players in their respective sports. Rodella said the team was not allowed to use Edward Medina Gymnasium for out-ofseason workouts while Salazar was still coach and that the boys basketball team was allowed two sports physical education classes while members of the volleyball team were in one that included athletes from other sports.
Branch disputed the claim, saying Española only offered one sports physical education class for his team in the morning. He did say he had several freshmen who were on the boys basketball C team in a general PE class, and they did play basketball on occasion.
“That might be what they are referring to,” Branch said. “We did play basketball, but we also did badminton, soccer, field hockey. … We didn’t just play basketball.”
Flores added that the sports PE class requires a teacher or a certified coach to supervise the students. She said assistant volleyball coach Erin Lopez could have done that, but she also was an elementary school teacher, so it made scheduling time for the team a challenge.
As for using facilities when teams were out of season, Damon Salazar provided The New Mexican his correspondence with Gutierrez in January. He requested to use the gym four days a week from 6 to 8:30 p.m. for the team, as well as conducting volleyball tournaments in the spring as a fundraiser. Gutierrez replied that “your off season team, falls under the same categories as [Española Valley Community Association] and AAU ball clubs, and these organizations are now required to pay.”
Salazar responded by pointing out that the NMAA allows each sport 7½ hours of practice per week for off-season workouts and training, adding that softball and football teams were already doing that. Rodella and Maldonado both said the team has not had an off-season workout coordinated by a coach since the season ended in November.
Gutierrez said while the request to use the gym might have involved the Española program, she said it was made in the middle of basketball season, which made it difficult to slot the volleyball team into the facility.
“There was some concern about, ‘Was it open gym and compliance with our practice schedule in the off season or open gym for club volleyball?’ ” Gutierrez told The New Mexican. “Certainly, if he had made that request later in the spring, like late February or early March, it would have been honored.”
Since then, the varsity players made an effort on their own to travel to Santa Fe Indian School to take part in off-season scrimmages.
Maldonado said players drive their own vehicles to SFIS and showed up without any equipment or a coach to warmup prior to taking the court.
“We didn’t even have any support from our school,” Maldonado said.