School administration deals
with coach and principal student

    GRANTS - Grants High School Head Basketball Coach Marty Zeller was recently escorted out of the Los Alamitos Middle School basketball gym during a boy's basketball tryout session. According to a school official, Zeller was not welcome by the eighth grade boy's team coaches to the session. The coaches called the school principal Joan Gilmore that Zeller was at the gym during the tryout and Gilmore called Zeller and asked that he leave. Apparently Zeller refused, so Gilmore called the police to have him escorted out.

    Longtime businessman and Pirate fan Steve Stewart approached the school board on Nov. 3, about the incident.

    “The is outrageous and uncalled for,” Stewart told the board at the Laguna-Acoma High School. “I have seen adults act in very petty and rude ways but, I've never seen anything that is any more outrageous and uncalled for than Ms. Gilmore's actions toward Marty Zeller.”

Stewart went on reading from a statement in defense of Zeller and requesting correction for Gilmore's actions.

    “I am here to address you as members of the school board because it is your responsibility to hold the employees of the district accountable for behavior that is destructive to the purposes of public education. Refusing to allow the head basketball coach to attend tryouts at the mid-school is like saying that the principal at the mid-school can't go and see what is going on at the elementary schools.”

    At the meeting, Superintendent Kilino Marquez told Stewart to rest assured, “we'll do what is best for all involved. We all want is best for the children.”

Marquez went on to say, “Coach Zeller and Ms. Gilmore are both very good employees, they simply have a difference in opinion.”

    On Thursday, Marquez and members of the schools' employee union (CCFUSE) met to discuss the incident and he said that the meeting went very well. “We are going to try and get both persons at the same table and try to work the issue out. We are going to have disagreements,” the superintendent said, “What matters is how we work them out.”

    Marquez said he is contacting Zeller on the future meeting and the union is contacting Gilmore.

Marquez noted that it is sad the incident went as far as Zeller being escorted out of the gym by police officers. “We could've resolved this early on,” he said. “Maybe this is one of the challenges we'll have now that we've gone to school athletic coordinators instead of one district-wide athletic director.

“We need some time and I believe we'll come to a good ending for those involved,” the superintendent said as the phone interview concluded.

According to several sources, the disagreement between Gilmore and Zeller may have started with the possibility of the coach's eighth grade daughter playing in the high school level in the coming winter basketball season. Zeller's daughter, Teige, is an outstanding basketball player and has shown signs of being a good addition to even a high school team. There is no NMAA or Grants/Cibola County School District policy that does not allow a mid-school student to play high school ball as long as the administrations agree.

    Eighth grade basketball tryouts were held this week at Los Alamitos Middle School by head basketball Coach Walter Sarracino. Ultimately, the schools' administration left the decision of any mid-school student playing high school level to Sarracino, saying that they “trust his judgment.”

The mid-schools athletic coordinator, Patricia Barajas, said yesterday morning that 12 girls were chosen for the eighth grade girl's team and one manager. Three girls were cut. Teige was one of the 12 chosen, and therefore, will not play at high school level.

    “Mr. Sarracino made the decision that none of the mid-school girls will be playing high school basketball despite several of them possibly having the skills,” Barajas said. “In the best interest of the program and the athletes, this is what Walter chose. He feels that the Buccaneers will have a great season this year.”