Seven games into the season, the Española Valley High School football team has a new interim head coach.
Athletic Director Paul Roybal demoted head coach Jesus Maes to an assistant coaching position, Monday, shortly before handing the interim head coaching duties to offensive coordinator Ron DuPree.
Maes did not accept the offer to be an assistant coach.
While he is no longer the head coach of the football team, he is still a teacher at the high school.
The change in personnel came after a 40-20 loss, Oct. 6, at the hands of Albuquerque Academy, Española’s first district game of the season. The Sundevils are 2-5 on the season and 0-1 in their district.
“I made a decision based on what I thought we needed to do for the football program,” Roybal said.
He said he will make the decision regarding a permanent head coach once the football season ends.
For Maes, the firing came as a surprise, as he knew that his team needed serious work, but was hoping the upcoming two weeks without a game would allow him to focus on their weaknesses.
“I got caught up with people that I shouldn’t have,” he said, referring to allowing DuPree and special teams coordinator Jack Young onto his coaching staff, two assistants that coached with Roybal in the past.
He felt that hiring them as assistants did nothing but open the door to a head coaching takeover.
Young will now take over defensive coordinator duties from Maes.
Prior to coming to Española, DuPree’s last head coaching job was at Clarke Community High School in Osceola, Iowa, where he held a 1-10 record in 2015.
Before that, he was the head coach at Oakridge High School in Oakridge, Ore., where his team went 3-6 in 2013.
His last head coaching gig in New Mexico was at Loving High School, in 2008, where he was winless.
His team lost 101-0 against Texico High School that season, a game which many point to as causing the birth of the 50-point mercy rule in New Mexico high school football.
Everywhere that DuPree has gone, he has implemented his signature “Maryland I” style offense, a scheme which relies heavily on powerful runs down the middle.
This season, his offense has averaged 15 points per game.
In Española’s last game against Albuquerque Academy, Oct. 6, the Sundevils were unable to score in the formation, until the offense switched to a spread with quarterback Markus Griego at the helm.
DuPree works full-time at the high school, collecting his salary as the strength and conditioning coach.
Young is a history teacher. Both came to Española in August, because the football program was short of assistant coaches.
With Maes as defensive coordinator, the Sundevils relied on the heroics of the defensive unit for the first half of the season, before that defensive sharpness faded away as the season progressed.
After the loss to Albuquerque Academy, Maes was hoping to revamp the defense by switching players to positions for which they are more suited, and using some offense-specific players to help on the other side of the ball.
The defense has given up 30 points per game, this season.
This was Maes’s second season in charge of the Española football program.
He went 1-9 last year, after coming to the high school at the end of the summer in 2016.
Before that, he was the athletic director and head football coach at Questa High School.
He was selected as the coach for the 2016 2A North All-Star football team, leading his team to victory in June 2016 at Rio Rancho High School.