Española wrestling coach Henry MacErnie announced his upcoming retirement at the start of the 2009-10 school year. Wrestling season ended in February. As of June 18, Española had not hired a new wrestling coach. This is too long.
An excellent candidate is eager to take over the program: Aaron Salinas, an assistant coach at Española for 10 years and a man well-known to the team.
Athletic Director Theresa Flores interviewed Salinas for the job June 16, but has yet to make a decision. Salinas has been waiting impatiently, as have I. Flores has known for almost a year that MacErnie was leaving. Why is this taking so long?
Without a coach, the Sundevils have been missing summer competitions. Basketball, baseball and cross country athletes all work out and play during the summer. Wrestling is no different.
When I asked Flores about this earlier this year, she told me she was busy taking care of other business at the athletic department, and that wrestling could wait because it is a winter sport. Basically, she is procrastinating.
I don’t know why Flores is hesitating to hire Salinas.
Since she has not returned my calls recently, I can only speculate.
Perhaps it’s because MacErnie was a also a teacher while Salinas isn’t, and the District wants one person to fill both spots. Flores also told me she was hoping to attract more applicants for the wrestling position. With a strong candidate like Salinas, why?
I guess they do things differently in education. In private business, if you know you’re going to have an opening soon and you already have a qualified candidate among your staff, you give them the job and save yourself time and money.
In education, they insist on going through the dog-and-pony show of posting the opening, conducting interviews and make recommendations before they offer someone the job. Then the person you hire decides they don’t want the job because you can’t meet their demands and you have to go through the process all over again.
It’s not a good system. Salinas has been there all along and should have been offered the job long ago. Even if he’s hired next week, too much time has been wasted already and the wrestlers have suffered.
Compare Española’s hiring situation with Pojoaque’s, where they started advertising June 14 for a football coach and June 7 for girls basketball coach. Pojoaque Athletic director Matt Martinez expects to have hired both by the end of June. There is something to be said for acting that quickly.
Since I started writing for the SUN, Pojoaque has had one athletic director. Española has had four.
This is Flores’ second time around.
She was athletic director from 2000 to 2004, then returned last year. Pojoaque has won 10 state championships in that time. Española has won none.
I think that says something about the relationship between having stable, consistent and decisive leadership behind an athletic program and that program’s success.