This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: Husband, Davide; daughter, Nelinha
School: Denair Middle School
Subject taught: Moderate/severe special education teacher
Experience and education: I worked at a day program with individuals with behavioral support needs for four years. I was a 1-1 paraprofessional in the moderate/severe special education class at Denair High School for two school years for two students. I received my BA in liberal arts at CSU Stanislaus in 2018.
What attracted you to Denair? Denair reminded me of the school I went to. A small community that is united and wants the best for its students.
What most inspires you about teaching? Making a difference in our students’ lives and seeing the growth from each individual student.
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? A challenge I look forward to tackling this year as a first-year teacher is learning the curriculum.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? A favorite teaching tool is using the classroom money daily and using the classroom store for positive reinforcement at the end of the week.
What do you want your students to remember? I want my students to remember I will always advocate for them and their needs, and I want them to know I will always seek inclusion for my students.
How can parents support what you do? Parents can support what I do by communicating any question or concerns they have. I believe in working as a team with parents to best support their student.
What would surprise people about your job? This job can be hard, but there is so much reward that comes with it, too.
What do you do for fun? I enjoy hanging out with my little family, cooking and baking, and being near the beach.
It was a shocking start to the season – literally – for the Denair High football team.
Trailing 14-6 at halftime Saturday night, the Coyotes never got a chance to try to catch up against Big Valley Christian.
That’s because lightning strikes to the east that were creeping ever closer to Jack Lytton Stadium presented an obvious and imminent safety risk to the players, coaches, fans and officials, forcing Denair High Principal Breanne Aguiar and head coach Anthony Armas to cancel the rest of the game.
“It wasn’t easy, but it was the right call,” Armas explained Monday. “They wanted to play, we wanted to play. Everybody was bummed.”
Armas said he saw at least four or five lightning bolts light up the sky late in the first half. Though they were off to the east, the problem was that they were moving in the direction of the stadium.
“I have a friend with a weather app who was tracking it,” Armas said. “It was getting worse. The storm was coming.”
At halftime, the game officials told Armas that it wasn’t up to them to decide whether to continue play; that he and Aguiar were the ones who had to make the call.
“It was kind of chaotic,” Armas said. “I was in the locker room. I was on the phone to our principal. We thought we should call the game. Then I had to find the officials and the other coach. It was hard. It’s the first game of the season and the kids wanted to play, the fans were there, but it was the right decision.”
Before the weather interrupted it, the actual game was going about as Armas expected, especially for the first week. The Coyotes made a few mistakes, but were hanging in there.
“Even with all of that happening, we’re only down eight points,” Armas said. “On defense, I thought we pursued the ball well. We limited our penalties. Offensively, there’s stuff we have to fine tune. We did fumble on our first play from scrimmage, but other than that, we didn’t have any turnovers.”
Jesse Ruelas’ short touchdown run in the first quarter cut Big Valley’s lead to 7-6. The Lions added another TD in the second period to make it 14-6 … and then Mother Nature decided she had other plans.
Not surprisingly, with only 14 players on its varsity roster, stamina was an issue for Denair.
“I thought we were a little gassed, but that’s what you expect with the numbers we have,” Armas said.
The lack of depth became an even bigger issue before the game when wingback Jayden Hensley hurt his knee in warmups and couldn’t play. Armas expected to learn Monday how serious the injury might be.
“We had no backups for that position,” he said. “We took one of our wide receivers, Angel Rosas, and moved him to wingback. Every play, one of our coaches would have to tell him what to do. ‘Angel, you’re going to line up on the right and block No. 3.’ ”
The roster issues were exacerbated with 3 seconds to play in the first half when one of Denair’s linemen got into a shoving match on the Big Valley sideline with a player he was trying to block. The officials ultimately kicked both players out of the game – meaning each will have to sit out three games before they are eligible to play again.
Coupled with Hensley’s injury, the means Denair has only 12 players left who started practice last month. Armas said there are no reinforcements coming from the JV team – which won its game 21-8 – but that two guys who played on last year’s team and initially were not going to play this season changed their minds. After passing physicals, they were expected to join the team at practice Monday, bringing the Coyotes back to 14 eligible and/or healthy players.
The new players are required to have 10 practices before they can play a game, giving them just enough time to be ready before Denair plays at Riverbank on Sept. 1 (the Coyotes have a bye this week).
Without a doubt, though, the biggest memory from the season opener will be the lightning and how it dramatically affected everyone’s plans Saturday night.
“It was the first time I’ve ever had a game called like that,” Armas said. “It was weird.”
This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: I come from a family of three, and have two dogs
School: District office
Subject taught: Speech language pathology
Experience and education: I have a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and am currently enrolled in a master’s program at West Coast University.
What attracted you to Denair? Initially, coming from a small town myself is what attracted me to Denair; however, the amazing team and students I work with has kept me here!
What most inspires you about teaching? Watching little minds grow, create, and build on their strengths/challenges.
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? Taking on my new role as a SLP and
challenging myself.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? Play-based therapy, as it builds on a variety of different communication skills as a whole.
What do you want your students to remember? That they can do anything they set their minds to and that nothing is ever too hard!
How can parents support what you do? Keeping in contact with me to build and provide the best services possible.
What would surprise people about your job? The paperwork.
What do you do for fun? I enjoy hiking, camping and spending time with loved ones.
This is one in a series of Q&A’s with employees new to Denair Unified in 2023-24.
Family: Three brothers (I am the only girl).
School: DECA
Subject taught: Kindergarten Dual Language Immersion
Experience and education: Graduated From Stanislaus State.
What attracted you to Denair? The culture and small community of Denair. Working here feels like you are working with your family. It is one big support system.
What most inspires you about teaching? Seeing the children grow in all aspects. Being in kinder, you get to see it all. Students come in with little to no skills; at the end of the school year, they are expert mathematicians, readers, scientists, historians, thinkers and much more!
What is a challenge you look forward to tackling this year? The challenge I look forward to tackling this year is having all my students speaking fluent Spanish by the end of the year.
What is your favorite teaching tool or activity? My favorite is my behavior clip chart, which tracks children’s behavior by moving each child’s name up or down the chart throughout the day.
What do you want your students to remember? I want my students to remember that it is OK to struggle at first, but with hard work and dedication, they will exceed.
How can parents support what you do? Being part of the Dual Language Immersion program, parental support is greatly appreciated and helps translate to their child any reinforcement that is needed. Working as a team, parents and teachers need to collaborate to ensure their child is better equipped for academic success.
What would surprise people about your job? You know you belong at your job when it warms your heart to arrive at your job and see so many different smiles that can lighten your day.
What do you do for fun? For fun, I like traveling and going to the beach.
There is no avoiding the obvious when it comes to the Denair High varsity football team. In a sport that requires 11 players at a time on offense, defense or special teams, Denair has 14 players on its roster. Total. Ninth-year head coach Anthony Armas has more assistant coaches next to him on the sideline than extra players.
It’s far from what any team would wish for, but it’s a familiar spot for the Coyotes. In 2016, they began with 16 healthy players, but finished a couple of games with just 12 because of injuries.
“We’ve done it before. It’s not ideal, but this is what we’ve got,” acknowledged Armas, whose team will begin its 2023 season Saturday night at home against Big Valley Christian of Modesto. Kickoff is at 7:15 p.m. at Jack Lytton Stadium.
Armas attributes the low numbers this season, in part, to the lingering effects of COVID. The members of this year’s senior class were freshmen when the pandemic struck. Many of them did not play football then and never took up the sport after the restrictions were lifted. Armas thinks that explains why there are only two seniors – Landon Borges and Jonathan Coronel – on this year’s roster. They are joined by 10 juniors and two sophomores.
“Our junior class is about normal, but this senior group hurt us,” Armas acknowledged. “After this, our numbers will be fine. Our lower levels are good, probably the best we’ve ever had.”
The junior varsity roster includes 35 freshmen and sophomores, backing up Armas’ confidence about the future.
But other than assuring the varsity get reps in at joint practices, all those younger bodies won’t help Denair this year.
“We have some talented kids, but no depth across the board. If anyone goes down, it’ll be tough,” admitted Armas, who doesn’t try to sugarcoat the obvious to his players. “We keep telling them, ‘The calvary’s not coming. This is it.’ ”
Obviously, with the low numbers, every Denair player is expected to go both ways. Many of the players never come off the field during the game.
Borges, the quarterback, also plays safety. Junior center Eduardo Zacarias also is a defensive lineman. Junior Jesse Ruelas will start at fullback and outside linebacker. Sophomore Even Coronel will be on the offensive line and also play linebacker. Sophomore Ernesto Silva plays tight end and defensive line.
Armas said such a small roster influences how he coaches during the game.
“Sometimes, I’ll call timeout just to give them a break,” he said of his players. “I tell them to let me know if they’re cramping up.”
Armas appreciates the attitude the players have, despite the thin roster.
“It would be real easy with the numbers to fold up and shut down, to feel sorry for themselves,” he said. “They take it as a challenge. Especially this junior class. They’re very tight. Still, you have to kind of hope we get a little lucky. That’s every year with football. You hope you don’t get bitten by the injury bug.”
The season opener this week was moved to Saturday because of a field trip Big Valley is taking Friday. What that sets up is a full day of football on Saturday between the Denair and Big Valley programs – from the youth level all the way through the varsity. The youngest kids start at 9 a.m., with other games to follow at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., the JVs at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 7:15 p.m.
After Big Valley, the Coyotes will have a week off before traveling to Riverbank on Sept. 1. They were supposed to host Bret Harte of Angels Camp on Sept. 8 for varsity and JV games, but because Bret Harte doesn’t have a varsity team this year, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors from each school will meet in what will be considered a JV game.
Denair begins its Southern League schedule on Sept. 15 at home against Ripon Christian.
Last year, the Coyotes finished 2-8 overall and 1-6 in league play – the lone SL victory coming in the final game of the season at Waterford.
Armas said it’s hard to set firm goals, given the size of the roster and what could happen if too many players get hurt.
“It’s really week to week,” he explained. “Our goal this week being the first game is to execute, minimize mistakes, minimize penalties and turnovers, make sure we get lined up right. We could say we want to make the playoffs, but that’s putting the cart ahead of the horse. We just need to stabilize things for now. If we get to the final weeks of the season and the playoffs are within reach, we can adjust then.”
