Good Morning,
Today’s update dyer need for FUSD to take this seriously is regarding the direct impact to student athletes. Emmaleigh Koers joined the swim team her sophomore year after being recruited by one of her friends. She enjoyed the season so much she decided to give water polo a try her junior year. Her high school boyfriend was on the boys team, needless to say she was excited for the season to start.
Unfortunately that season would be one of division and conflict. An on campus teacher, who was not a coach at the time, John Vinuela caused a lot of tension and discomfort to both the boys and girls. He would sit in on practice and watch, judging and putting down the coaches resulting in everyone feeling uncomfortable. To make matters worse John Vinuela would have meetings with the varsity boys during lunch in his classroom. During these meetings he would put down female coaches, blame the girls for their losses, and encourage them to be openly disrespectful to the coaches. This went on for most of the season. It was causing so many issues among the student athletes that conflict became the norm. A few of the boys would openly put down the girls and the coaches. At one point the conflict was so bad that the boys had to sit outside the deck while they waited for their coach to show up. Coach Lopez kept things moving forward with team bonding, fundraising, morning practices – complete with breakfast burritos continued despite the obstacles.
Prior to the COVID shut down, the swim team was the largest Fresno High had seen in decades, if ever. There were over 60 student athletes signed up and practicing. Everyone was excited about the possibility of a league win for the boys and girls teams. The first time since the 1960’s at Fresno High. Then everything abruptly shut down when the pandemic broke out.
During COVID things slowed down but the teams kept in contact through Zoom, read books, and practiced when it was allowed. The coaches even delivered food and art supplies to several of the athletes' and their families. By the end of her senior year things were finally picking back up and that meant the complete launch of the club they had been working on for two years, Echo Aquatics. Emmaleigh was excited to help coach and worked to become a water aerobics instructor. Echo Aquatics would be a perfect job while she was in college. She could teach water aerobics in the morning during the semester and work full time during the Summer. She was so excited to see all of the hard work come to fruition.
Unfortunately the launch of Echo Aquatics was met with barriers and ludicrous situations. Emmaleigh taught the Saturday morning water aerobics class. Saturday after Saturday she would get to the pool deck and Coach Lopez would be locked out. An outside club with no affiliation to the school was locking them out. How could this club have a key that the actual Fresno High coach did not have?!?! This happened for about six weeks. It would later become clear why this club had a key and Coach Lopez didn’t when the Fresno Area Manatee Master’s made an open donation to the FHS principals general fund. Emmaleigh wrote a letter advocating for this program in 2021. She was ignored.
Thank you,
Cresta