PHARR — When Valley View girls basketball coach Arnold Martinez arrived for his team’s first district game of the season against PSJA Memorial on Friday, few expected it would be his last as the Tigers’ head coach.
Minutes before tipoff against the Wolverines, Martinez pulled his team into the hallway to deliver some unexpected news: Martinez was one of many head coaches at Valley View High School set to be fired by the school district.
“He was visibly upset … (Martinez and his team) returned as the horn sounded and the girls and coach were crying,” said Conrado Ito Alvarado, who was one of the referees officiating Friday’s District 31-5A contest between Valley View and PSJA Memorial. “Apparently, he was informing them that (Friday’s) game would be his last game. … He did take pictures with all the girls after the game. Everybody was crying.”
The move was made official Monday morning when the incoming Valley View ISD school board decided to fire Martinez — The Monitor’s 2019-20 All-Area Girls Basketball Coach of the Year — along with several other head coaches in a controversial move to terminate all para-professionals employed as coaches with the district.
Martinez, who was beginning his fifth season at the helm of the Valley View girls basketball program, was responsible for building the Tigers into one of the Rio Grande Valley’s most formidable basketball programs and helped snap a 15-year playoff drought by leading his team to the bi-district round of the Class 5A state playoffs for the first time in school history during the 2019-20 season.
“I have been relieved of my coaching duties as head girls basketball coach at Valley View ISD as of 7 a.m. this morning. The Board has decided to go in another direction and decided not to allow para-professionals to coach anymore at Valley View ISD,” Martinez said. “I want to take the time to thank … the (31-5A) district executive committee for everything they do and have done for our district and I wanted to say goodbye in good terms to all (as) best (as) I could. It is definitely tough news to swallow for me and my girls but in the end, we have to be able to close one chapter and start a new one.”
The Valley View school board also moved to fire boys soccer head coach Damian Magallan, one of the most decorated high school soccer coaches across the RGV, among several other coaches, many of whom like Martinez and Magallan were in the middle of their respective seasons leading their teams.
“I didn’t expect it. They just told us around 10 a.m. You can ask the other coaches how they are. Just imagine how they are. All of them very bummed out because some of us had already started the season. But more than anything, imagine the kids,” Magallan said.
“They just told us out of nowhere. Just imagine they tell you that after everything we’ve accomplished for the Valley View district. I’ve been offered to go to other schools but I’ve never wanted to because I’ve always been here. This is where my kids were. I have close to 20 years with the Valley View school district.”
The controversial decision comes after months of turbulence for the Tigers’ athletic programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Valley View was one of five high schools across the Rio Grande Valley — including La Joya High, La Joya Juarez-Lincoln, Progreso and Rio Hondo — that did not participate in the 2020 high school football season during the fall due to health and safety concerns.
Matters were further complicated for the school’s boys and girls basketball and soccer programs before winter break and the start of the new year.
According to an internal email obtained by The Monitor that was sent to all the Tigers’ athletic coaches on Dec. 11, Valley View ISD Athletic Director Julio C. Martinez explained that the district “will not be resuming in-person coaching” for the foreseeable future.
“If there is no in-person teaching, we will not have in-person coaching,” the Valley View ISD athletic director wrote. “All games and practices will be paused until we resume back into in-person teaching.”
That effectively sidelined the Tigers’ four varsity basketball and soccer squads while the rest of the teams across District 31-5A began district competition in December.
District 31-5A’s other teams — McAllen High, McAllen Memorial, McAllen Rowe, PSJA Memorial, PSJA Southwest, Sharyland High and Sharyland Pioneer — accommodated Valley View’s boys and girls soccer teams by postponing matches until the school was ultimately allowed to resume practices and competition in early January, less than a week before many of those teams’ head coaches were terminated mid-season.
The Monitor reached out to Valley View’s athletic director and superintendent, but both declined to comment citing their inability to make public statements regarding personnel matters.
Valley View ISD had not issued an official statement on the matter at the time of publication.
The Monitor’s Ivan Palacios also contributed to this report.
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Twitter: @ByAndyMcCulloch