Teen athlete stuck in the middle

Tug of war between Bullard, Memorial pushes teen to the sideline.

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 03, 2009

A story on the front page of the Sunday sports section and letters to Sports published Thursday misspelled the name of the former Wawona Middle School football coach. He is Robert Vieira, not Vierra.

With a 4.0 grade-point average and football ability that saw him score an average of three touchdowns a game at Wawona Middle School, Jesus Lozano emerged from an impoverished southeast Fresno home and flourished.

It seemed nothing would stop him, until this: A testy tug-of-war for his skills between Bullard and Memorial high schools, resulting in wrist slaps for their officials; warnings to Bullard coach Donnie Arax; the firing of Wawona's football coach; and punishment for a 15-year-old who has done no wrong.

"[Lozano's] a pawn," says Jim Crichlow, the Central Section commissioner for the California Interscholastic Federation, which governs prep sports in the state. "The kid's a totally innocent person."

Yet Crichlow prohibited Lozano from participating in the first five Memorial freshman football games this season for no other reason but to fire off a message to the high schools involved: Follow the rules and don't get greedy.

Also caught in the storm is Robert Vieira, who was removed as Wawona's coach in August, soon after Lozano began practicing with Memorial after originally enrolling at Bullard and becoming involved in its football program.

Vieira has not only coached Lozano, but befriended him, mentored him, bought him a pair of sneakers or two and coordinated his transportation to and from out-of-town football camps. All of Vieira's actions were permissible for a middle-school coach and welcomed by Lozano's mother.

Vieira says Lozano expressed dissatisfaction with the Bullard program, so Vieira suggested to Lozano's mother, Lourdes Martinez, that she ask about a Memorial academic grant available for incoming freshmen with minimum GPAs of at least 3.5 from low-income families.

"The conversation had not one thing to do with football," Vieira says. "It was all about education, where he would have his best chance to succeed and flourish. That's what I would do for my son."

Vieira says Bullard coach Donnie Arax told him that advice got him fired and that Arax orchestrated the termination.

"He berated me, told me how crappy of a coach I was and told me I'll never coach in Fresno Unified again," Vieira says.

Wawona Principal Mike Darling says the timing was coincidence and that he replaced the off-campus coach for other reasons. Darling wouldn't elaborate.

Arax admits to calling Vieira, telling him he was "gutless," and criticizing him as a coach, while making clear his own connections in Fresno Unified.

"I told him I know a lot of people in this town," says Arax, whose sister, Michelle Asadoorian, is a Fresno Unified school board trustee from the Bullard area.

Says Arax: "What he did was chicken [expletive]. Here's a Fresno Unified coach directing a kid to a competing school outside of the district. It doesn't get any worse that that."

Crichlow stands behind Vieira: "He's a coach and a mentor, and I would have recommended to the kid the same thing. As a mentor, he should try to give the kid all the options. Should he be fired for that? That's up to the school itself; that's totally out of my purview."

Blame for all

Crichlow investigated the conduct of Bullard and Memorial involving Lozano and says Arax committed two recruiting violations by approaching the then-eighth-grader on campus at Wawona last spring and then pitching the Knights' football program to Lozano's mother in a meeting at Bullard this summer.