Parents of Fox Tech athletes expressed frustration and anger Wednesday night at a meeting with SAISD superintendent Robert Durón and athletic director Gil Garza, roundly criticizing the school district’s decision last week to scrap the downtown high school’s football program.
Saturday night’s Chili Bowl was the last football game for Tech, which next year begins making the transition to a “special purpose” school with a magnet program for health and law careers.
“Removing the football program is not the right choice,” said Maribell Del Moral, the mother of a Tech varsity football player. “We need an abundance of people at the next school board meeting. It’s a long shot because, obviously, the decision to drop football at Tech has been made. But we still want them to know how we feel.”
The purpose of Wednesday night’s meeting was to provide parents an opportunity to ask questions about University Interscholastic League rules regarding transfers in such circumstances. But the 50-minute gathering quickly turned into a shouting session after Durón introduced Garza and left the meeting.
“Why are you dropping football?” said Obie Hines, a 1985 Tech graduate who played football.
Others in the audience of about 100 in the Tech auditorium stood and asked the same question, drowning out Garza as he attempted to explain transfer guidelines.
At one point, Tech head football coach Denny Peel intervened and asked parents to give Garza the courtesy of speaking without getting interrupted.
“Please let him talk,” said Peel, who was the Buffaloes’ head coach for 15 seasons. “I know we’ve all got concerns and questions, so let’s try to listen to what Mr. Garza has to say. He does care about kids.”
While Tech football is now history, Garza said the San Antonio Independent School District is committed to giving the school an opportunity to compete in all other sports for at least two more years.
“We want to have team sports at Fox Tech as long as there are players and there is interest,” Garza said. “We’ll see where we are after two years. I can’t guarantee anything because you can’t have a team without players. But if in two years we see an abundance of students who want to compete, we probably won’t cut the other sports.”
Garza told the audience that SAISD officials reached a consensus to drop football at Tech because the school simply wouldn’t have the numbers to sustain the sport when it begins converting to a magnet school.
Only 250 freshmen, 125 each for the health and law magnet programs, will be allowed to enroll at Tech next fall.
“I know the value of athletics, believe me,” Garza said. “I didn’t make that decision (to drop football) by myself. It was made by a group of people, including Coach Peel. He lived it every Friday night and he knows how tough it is to compete when you don’t have the numbers.”
Under UIL transfer rules, any Tech student who lives in the Tech attendance zone would be eligible to compete in a varsity sport at any SAISD school during the 2010-11 school year.
Durón said the district’s top priority at Tech is to ensure that students attending the school now be given the opportunity to remain and graduate “as Buffaloes.”
Durón was jeered by some in the audience as he made his way out of the auditorium.
After the meeting, Peel mingled with parents and some of the players he coached this season.
“They mean well,” Peel said. “They’re loyal and they’re concerned. But it still boils down to numbers and it affects everybody.”
Peel said it was “very special” when the audience gave him a loud ovation after a parent praised him for being a strong mentor to his football players.
“That affirmed the relationship I’ve had with these parents throughout the years,” Peel said.
Tom and Guadalupe Stewart have a son who played on the Tech varsity football team this season and three other children at the school. They expressed anger at SAISD administrators.
“It hurt me as much as it did the kids last week when they told us there would be no more football at Tech,” said Tom Stewart, a 1989 Tech graduate who played football. “I consider all these kids my kids. It’s all about politics and the kids are stuck in the middle.”
Glenard Wilson, a 1969 Tech graduate who ran track, expressed a view that contrasted with the general mood in the auditorium.
“It’s sad to lose the football tradition, but I can see both sides of the coin,” he said. “I know it’s tough right now, but this new magnet program will be good from an education standpoint.”
