Here's how Eastwood, Plano football teams wound up set to play again after cancellation
Felix F. ChavezOn Thursday, after the Plano Independent School District canceled the Plano Senior High School home game against Eastwood set for Sept. 6, it appeared as though the Troopers were going to have to find another opponent.
But by Friday afternoon, the game was back on, albeit moved to Sept. 5 in Frisco at the Ford Center.
The tumultuous week began Monday when Ysleta Independent School District Superintendent Xavier De La Torre said he was contacted by Plano ISD officials about canceling the game.
Ysleta ISD officials offered to move the game to El Paso or a neutral place, such as Midland or Odessa, but those offers were rejected.
By Thursday, the game was canceled due to what Plano ISD said in a news release were safety concerns related to the Aug. 3 mass shooting at the Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall.
Plano ISD is is located in a large suburb north of Dallas. The 21-year-old white man suspected in the Walmart attack is a 2017 graduate of Plano Senior High School. He has been charged with capital murder and is being held without bond in El Paso. The shooting left 22 dead and 25 injured.
Federal officials have said they are considering hate-crime and firearms charges against the suspect and consider the attack an act of domestic terrorism carried out by a white supremacist.
Other teams offer to help Troopers
Eastwood football coach Julio Lopez and the players found out about the cancellation Wednesday. Afterward, other teams reached out about possibly playing the Troopers. Among those were Garland Naaman Forest, which is coached by former Del Valle coach Jesse Perales, Chandler High School from Arizona and Grace Brethren from California.
Lopez said his team was disappointed to hear about the cancellation but believed he and his staff could find another opponent. He said he felt confident something could be worked out.
Even Friday morning, it appeared as though the Troopers were going to play another team, either in El Paso or in another state. Lopez said he didn't think the game with Plano would happen at all.
"We felt we were going to get another game and not leave our kids without a game to be played," Lopez said. "We were working hard to get it done. Everything worked out and we're glad to be taking on Plano."
De La Torre held out hope
On Thursday, De La Torre expressed hope, even amid a growing social media firestorm, that a compromise with Plano still could be reached.
“We felt we were really missing an opportunity to come together as two communities who will always be somehow interrelated by the atrocities of Saturday, Aug. 3, and this could be an opportunity to rise above it,” De La Torre said. “Unite, promote healing and promote normalcy for our student-athletes and basically take the position that our communities, our school districts, our schools are bigger than this event, and that we would not let it define us.”
City leaders and elected officials, along with Frisco ISD Superintendent Mike Waldrip, the Dallas Cowboys and the University Interscholastic League kept talking and working and eventually an agreement was reached to hold the game, but move it to Sept. 5 in Frisco.
De La Torre said it was a "real team effort" that helped get the game reinstated.
"Everyone here at Ysleta ISD is extremely humbled by the outpouring of support, not only for our students, but for our entire community," De La Torre said. "As educators, parents, citizens and Texans, we will always be stronger together."
Plano ISD Superintendent Sara Bonser met with the news media Friday in Plano to discuss the game being reinstated, saying the initial cancellation was about safety. She then added that playing the game at an outdoor neutral stadium was not an option because of security concerns.
Before the game was rescheduled, Bonser and the district faced growing criticism over the cancellation, which even elicited Twitter responses from U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, and her predecessor, Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke.
"This was never about anything but safety," Bonser said. "You charge a superintendent, this state charges the superintendent to the maximum degree possible, to keep its students, staff and visitors safe at any event that we host. We consulted with our law enforcement agencies, we talked with safety and security, we looked at our event venue and said can we to the maximum degree possible have as safe an event as possible, knowing there are some unique circumstances around this particular situation. I hope we can all agree to that. At the end of the day, it is on me to make a decision about safety and security, and I hope that is exactly what the community wants from their superintendent."
The two teams got an assist from Frisco Lebanon Trail and Fort Worth Arlington Heights. The two schools were scheduled to play a nondistrict contest in the Ford Center on Sept. 5, but the teams agreed to move to another venue to allow for Eastwood and Plano to play.
El Paso District 7 city Rep. Henry Rivera spoke about the game during a news conference at Eastwood on Friday to announce the decision to play the game.
"You had two teams being punished for something that they had no part in and this game is important to El Paso, to Eastwood, to Plano," he said. "We are El Paso Strong, and Eastwood will go up and there and represent our city."
On Friday night, the Troopers held a scrimmage against Las Cruces Centennial.
Earlier on Friday, Lopez said the scrimmage was a good thing for the team to focus on with all that was surrounding the program.
"The Texas high school football community has been very supportive of us," Lopez said. "When we found out about the cancellation, the kids were disappointed. But we are a team and they have rallied together."
Eastwood players Isaac Pedregon, Rudy Tellez, Christian Castaneda and Joseph Immediato were at Friday's news conference at the Eastwood football field and they were happy the game was back on.
"When we found out about the cancellation, we were disappointed, but we knew we had to get back to being focused on what we had to do and we believed that we'd still get a game to play," Pedregon said. "To get the game back means a lot to us, to our school, to El Paso."
During the news conference, Lopez said: "The reality is we hear about mass shootings and tragedy far too often. But I think things like football, high school athletics, normal day-to-day activities that we all do, are an important step in the healing process."
Felix F. Chavez may be reached at 546-6167; fchavez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on Twitter.