{"id":26034,"date":"2024-08-22T03:18:06","date_gmt":"2024-08-22T09:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-high-football-season-in-turmoil-before-opening-game\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:32:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:32:38","slug":"aztec-high-football-season-in-turmoil-before-opening-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/aztec-high-football-season-in-turmoil-before-opening-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Aztec High football season in turmoil before opening game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=d7f2f538-9490-5fee-9e7b-e9cc52094875&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Aztec High School football head coach Nic WIliams talks with the parents and supporters regarding the pending investigation into his suspension on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at Aztec Municipal Schools Administration building. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Aztec High School football head coach Nic WIliams talks with the parents and supporters regarding the pending investigation into his suspension on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at Aztec Municipal Schools Administration building. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>AZTEC \u2013 Parents and players representing the Aztec High School football team showed up Wednesday afternoon at the offices of the Aztec School district to support current head coach Nic Williams while the school district held meetings behind closed doors to determine the fate of the coach and other members of his coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>More than a dozen football players, most of whom were accompanied by their parents, angrily sought answers from the board, which met privately with Williams who was put on paid administrative leave by the district earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>In what was called a \u201cpredetermination meeting\u201d with Williams and members of the board on Wednesday, the only news to come out of the meeting is that Williams will have a chance to defend himself against running a dangerous drill during a recent practice.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=d0edc597-61f3-51bc-83b8-3507e716b80f&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Lorenzo Mu\u00f1oz, Aztec High School student athlete, states the suspension of Tigers football head coach NIc Williams is unfair with Tri-City Record sports editor Steven Bortstein on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at Aztec Municipal Schools Administration. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Lorenzo Mu\u00f1oz, Aztec High School student athlete, states the suspension of Tigers football head coach NIc Williams is unfair with Tri-City Record sports editor Steven Bortstein on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at Aztec Municipal Schools Administration. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>That meeting has not yet been scheduled, leaving many on the team to believe Williams will not be on the sidelines on Friday night when Aztec opens its regular season at Fred Cook Memorial Stadium against Rio Grande High School.<\/p>\n<p>An updated team roster on Maxpreps.com, which appears to have gone through numerous changes both before and after the Wednesday afternoon meeting, currently contains no one\u2019s name on the active coaching roster. There had been as many as 11 names listed as either head coach or assistant coach before the roster was updated again late Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Aztec High School athletic director David Sweet denied there was a change at the head coaching position and that access to changes to the Maxpreps roster could only come from himself and Williams.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N29Nezv8X-A\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OQjlMUnOTzA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_JPPcML-DhU\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere has not been a coaching change at this time and I did not implement that,\u201d Sweet wrote in a text message to the <em id=\"emphasis-9436774b31032dda3f63208d7d7f9c61\">Tri-City Record<\/em>. \u201cMe and coach Williams should be the only two people who have access to Maxpreps to make a change like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Players, many of whom have spent at least one or two seasons on the Tigers, voiced their frustration as they awaited answers from the board as to the status of their head coach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unfair what\u2019s happening to (Williams),\u201d said senior quarterback Angelo Griego. \u201cHe\u2019s the first coach that we\u2019ve had in awhile that\u2019s believed in us and has given us a chance. Previous coaches haven\u2019t given me a shot and now they\u2019re trying to take it away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-blockquote\">Watch the interviews at the Tri-City Record\u2019s YouTube channel, at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@tricityrecordnm\" id=\"link-3566c940d3d9405304db5b87842dea2c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@tricityrecordnm<\/a><\/div>\n<p>Williams was not informed of a coaching change at the Wednesday meeting and had no knowledge of the status of the rest of his coaching staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s for the administration to communicate with the public,\u201d Williams said. \u201cAll I know is that I\u2019m on administrative leave right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than a handful of players who showed up in support of their head coach have suggested that they will not play on Friday if Williams isn\u2019t on the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis guy believes in us and these coaches are building us to not only be better players but better men,\u201d said junior wide receiver\/strong safety Jace Archuleta. \u201cI appreciate our whole coaching staff and there\u2019s just not going to be a football program if (Williams) gets fired.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In spite of the suggestion that players will not participate on Friday night, Williams wants his team to play and to win the first game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love this place and I love these kids,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI wanted to make sure these kids were well-coached and make sure this community is happy. I want them to stay strong and play like you\u2019ve never played before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=295a6615-0453-5637-bdd8-3f8a6de62b5f&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" alt=\"Numerous concerned parents, athletes and students await and line outside the main entrance to the Aztec Municipal Schools Administration Building for the Aztec Municipal Schools board meeting pertaining to the suspension of head football coach Nic WIliams on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at Aztec. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Numerous concerned parents, athletes and students await and line outside the main entrance to the Aztec Municipal Schools Administration Building for the Aztec Municipal Schools board meeting pertaining to the suspension of head football coach Nic WIliams on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at Aztec. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Williams awaits word from school board regarding future as head coach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1707,799,28,2693,1870,642,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-aztec-high-school","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-coaches","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26034"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79197,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26034\/revisions\/79197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26034"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}