Story about Yuma High too negative

The issue I have with the Oct. 7 article about Yuma High School's athletic “slump” is it does not tell the whole story. I understand we have struggled lately in some sports, but an article like this demeans our student athletes and makes it seem like we have excuses for our athletic struggles.

The coaches here at Yuma High work extremely hard in instructing, motivating and teaching young adults on the importance of a quality education through participation in athletics. We teach the student athletes about character, citizenship, responsibility and working hard in the classroom to ultimately be successful later on in life.

The article barely mentioned the fact we have successful programs like wrestling, softball and baseball. There was no mention that wrestling had seven state qualifiers and was 22-11 in dual matches last year. You barely mentioned that softball has won a lot of games and qualified for the state playoffs the past few years. And your research did not mention that baseball won the last Gila Valley Region title in 2011, qualified for the state tournament, and was back-to-back Cibola Tourney champions in 2008 and 2009.

The article focuses on mainly negative aspects and fails to highlight the positives that our team sports have brought to the school.

The other thing you forgot to mention is that Yuma High athletics is doing positive things for our student athletes. We are sending athletes to college on athletic scholarships and they are competing at that level. A few recent Yuma High School student athletes participating in college athletics are J.C. Baker (football), Chance Sharp (baseball), Isabel Villalobos (softball), Pancho Gomez (baseball) and James Gomez (wrestling).

Articles like this bring a negative tone to Yuma High School and the athletic programs and take away from the quality achievements the teachers and coaches perform on an everyday basis. I find it discouraging that a local newspaper meant to support the local athletic programs would publish such a negative article. I would hope in the future the sportswriters can write articles about the positives of Yuma High School athletics.

Judd Thrower
Head Baseball Coach

Yuma High School