This past Thursday night in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, few expected an incident to occur that would result in “Edinburg” trending on Twitter, and one particular moment that had nothing to do with the final score finding its way onto Sportscenter.
In a terrible turn of events in the first half of a playoff play-in game between Edinburg High School and Phar-San Juan-Alamo High, Edinburg defensive lineman Emmanuel Duron was ejected from the contest after receiving back-to-back unsportsman-like conduct penalties, which included shoving an opposing offensive lineman to the ground, exchanging words with head referee Fred Gracia and attempting to hit the opposing quarterback after the play had been blown dead. It is hard to know what was going through Duron’s head, but following the ejection, he foolishly charged back onto the field, a slew of teammates and coaches sprinting behind, attempting to stop the inevitable. Seconds later, he plowed into Gracia, severely injuring the 58 year old referee, who had to be carted off the field.
Edinburg won the contest 35-21, but the following day, Edinburg CISD removed the team from the playoffs, stating, "The district has decided to remove the Edinburg High School football team from the playoffs after an unexpected incident involving a student that occurred during a football game on December 3, 2020. We extend a sincere apology to the referee and his family. On behalf of the Edinburg CISD Board of Trustees and administration, we apologize to the athletes, staff, and our school community.
"We will take the appropriate disciplinary action once we understand the facts and circumstances underlining this incident,” the statement continued. “The district takes these matters very seriously; however, we cannot comment further on a pending investigation."
It was a serious incident indeed, as Duron was charged with Class A assault and released from jail on a 10,000 dollar bond Friday night.
As for the investigation mentioned, the Texas Association of Sports Officials has begun looking into the matter, calling the hit "another vicious and deliberate assault ... on a TASO Football Official by a player who had just been ejected from the contest."
The UIL equaling condemned Duron’s actions but at the same time praised Edinburg CISD for making a quick decision.
"We applaud the Edinburg CISD administration for addressing this situation swiftly and taking appropriate action in removing themselves from the playoffs and for dealing with the student involved in the incident," the UIL said in a statement.
There are two situations here. One is the hit itself, to which I believe every person would condemn and agree that Duron needs to be punished in more ways than just being kicked off the team. This rises to a higher level than a mistake made by a high schooler. This has to do with right and wrong, respect for authority, and it certainly was not a mistake. As he charged onto the field, Duron’s intent was clear.
But the second incident is the removal of the team from the state playoffs, something that, in my opinion, is unnecessary and unfair, as they punished the entire 63-man team for the actions of one individual player. The other 62 players did nothing wrong, but are being punished like they too, went out and hit the referee.
I get it, action needs to be taken so this does not happen again. Justice needs to be given to Gracia and his family. However, what does cancelling the rest of the season for the other 62 players, possibly their final chance to play high school football, or reach the playoffs, do? What kind of lesson will that teach the rest of the team? That just because all season the coaches and administrators talk about “controlling what you can control” that will not really affect things when one teammate decides to commit a crime?
Players and the community took to the streets to protest the decision over the weekend, with senior Franciso Coranado saying,”I don't believe that the rest of the team should be punished for something that one individual did. We maintained our composure and we played a tough football game. And we ended up winning our game. And we believe that we should be able to play in the playoffs."
Now let’s be clear, according to Edinburg CISD, the UIL would have removed the school from the playoffs had the school district not made the decision itself. Regardless, the other players and coaches had no involvement, as far as we know, with Duron’s decision, meaning that despite working hard all season towards the goal of the playoffs, Duron ended that for the rest of his team, a poor decision to say the least, but not one that should come as a surprise being that something similar happened on the soccer field last season, when Duron was suspended for the remainder of the year.
That only aids in making the case to evaluate Edinburg High’s playoff bid. The problem was not the program, the coaching staff, his teammates. It was Duron himself, he had a history of incidents like these, and it seems to me that it is only fair to reward the kids who did not let the bad calls, the ups and downs of not only this one game, but the whole season, by reconsidering the decision.
It has happened that high school players get into trouble off the field, even serving time behind bars for it. But I haven’t ever heard of an entire team getting thrown out of the playoffs because of that one player’s actions. Why should this be any different? Just as there needs to be justice for Gracia, there needs to be justice for this team. Why should they be forced to live with the consequences of one bad apple?
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