Tucson Weekly: Fire Him (May 7

Amphi Baseball Coach Danny Hernandez Knowingly Broke The Rules.
By An Editorial
SINCE THE TUCSON Weekly broke the Amphi baseball scandal on April 9, the dailies have followed up with a series of hand-wringing stories.
They've fretted about the correctness of importing high-school baseball players from Mexico; they've decried the timing of the investigation (in mid season); they've talked about winning and losing, and racism, and hatred, and opportunities gained and lost.
They've examined the woes of Mexican baseball players and how difficult it is to play ball in Mexico, and how much easier it is to get onto a pro team after playing in the United States. As an aside, they've noted the education foreign students get while at Amphi High, and the wonderful opportunity they have to learn English.
Currents They've interviewed baseball players from the team who opined, like Peter Zazueta in The Arizona Daily Star: "I'm not saying that people are racists, but if guys want to play baseball and want to get an education and want to learn English, then they should be allowed that opportunity."
The Star quoted the father of one of the Mexican national players, Ramses Acosta saying he understood why U.S. parents would be upset over their children being cut from the Amphi team, adding, "But I have a right to give my son the best education possible."
The Star has lapsed into a maudlin sportswriter's tone, with lines like: "Little wonder then, wide-eyed little boys turned varsity all-stars look north of the border..."
The coverage has gone on ad nauseam, with pictures of Amphi Coach Danny Hernandez, pictures of angered parents, pictures of forlorn players from Mexico. Hernandez has defended his practices, denied knowing the players beforehand, and talked of unjust residency rules. The Tucson Citizen quoted him as lamenting, "I'm hurting right now for our kids, I love Amphi, but the administration..." Rival coaches were quoted as saying what a great guy Hernandez is and what poor timing this was, and how, after all, everyone does a bit of recruiting.
BUT WHEN ALL is said and done, baseball is so very simple, any Little League kid can tell you what it's all about: If you can't play by the rules, don't get into the game.
All the ranting and raving, disapproval and second-guessing are for naught. The rules governing the schools and their athletics, as overseen by the Arizona Athletic Association, are very specific and not at all hard to understand. They include the fact that a student is only eligible to play sports for the school in the attendance zone in which his/her parents or guardians live. They also state that if a student is under 18 and not living with his her parent, they must have a legal guardianship registered in the Pima County courts before they can play sports. Also, a player must be only 18 years old in September of the school year during which he intends to play a sport. Furthermore, there can be no act of influencing a student to come to a school to play a sport.
Dr. Voie Coy of the AIA makes it clear that these are not the AIA's rules, so to speak, but rules the schools who belong to AIA have adopted "for a fair and equable playing field." He says the schools may vote to change these rules at any time, but until then, these are their rules. The penalties for breaking them is forfeiture.
Clearly, high-school sports were not set up to be farm teams for the pros.
Hernandez has never denied knowing the rules. He just didn't like them, and he made a decision not to abide by them. It's a decision which has reverberated throughout Amphi High.
Amphi's administrators are not the bad guys. They had no choice but to investigate accusations of unfairness and illegal recruiting brought before them, no matter what the timing. School documents indicate the investigation was begun in October 1997, well before the baseball season. Hernandez is no hero and no martyr. He knew parents were demanding an investigation and the administration was being compelled to act. Even with that information, he choose to put nine Mexican nationals on his baseball team.
Rather telltale of his knowledge of the impending problems is the fact that court records show that in November 1997, after the investigation was underway, assistant coach (and Adult Probation officer) Ron Dominquez signed guardianship for two players, Sergio and José Contreras.
They never lived with him. And while The Arizona Daily Star reports that Guadalupe Chavez, Nicholas Garcia, José Quintero and Francisco Lopez lived together in an apartment, and their mothers took turns staying with them, court records show that in November 1997, Irma Espinoza signed guardianship papers for Nicholas Garcia, and Espinoza's sister, former UA softball star Laura Espinoza-Watson, signed guardianship papers for Francisco Lopez.
Neither student contends he has lived with these women. (Hernandez's sister, Lisa Bravo, works at the UA for football coach Dick Tomey, and Espinoza-Watson is married to former football player Dave Watson.)
Another student, Ramses Acosta, was living with Hernandez' father. Player Omar Manjarrez told the Star he's living with Bravo. Yet three students, Ramses Acosta, Guadalupe Chavez and Omar Manjarrez, also applied to be in Amphi's Youth on their Own Program, designed to help homeless students in the Amphi District. Baldamar Urias, prominently featured in an Arizona Daily Star article as saying, "What came first was studying, not playing baseball," wrote a letter in a class in October which included the following: "I am a happy person and the activities I like are sports, eating, watching TV and studying. I'm here because I play baseball on the Amphi team. On my team there are four Mexicanos. They are my friends from Sonora."
Despite all the reporting, a little know is the fact is that three young Mexican national females were asked to leave Amphi in the fall because they didn't have the correct paperwork to qualify students.
Obviously, all this doesn't add up, and it certainly doesn't fit with AIA rules. No amount of rationalization can change that.
FOR MORE THAN a week now, Hernandez, head of security at Amphi High, has not shown up for work. At this writing, no one will say what his intentions might be. And school officials aren't talking about whether he'll keep his job.
The web Hernandez has spun at Amphi High School at best teaches kids things we don't want them to learn: Lie, deny and defend should not be the creed of any baseball team, much less the creed of a coach. At worst, the situation has the potential to ruin lives.
Obviously, this despicable situation has dragged on far too long. It's time to fire Danny Hernandez.

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