With many of the details surrounding the Anzar High football
team and its inaugural season expected to be hashed out over the
course of the next several weeks, the Hawks may already have a name
for their home turf.
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA
With many of the details surrounding the Anzar High football team and its inaugural season expected to be hashed out over the course of the next several weeks, the Hawks may already have a name for their home turf.
The Aromas-San Juan Unified School District is considering naming the football field at Anzar “Barragan Field,” in memory of the late Raymond C. Barragan, who helped fund the baseball field at Anzar and who also purchased uniforms for the team.
He passed away on Feb. 7, 2008 — three years ago to the day on Monday.
Follow Free Lance Sports on Twitter.
His son, Andrew Barragan, is currently the varsity manager for the baseball team at Anzar, although it was him and his family who donated $25,000 to the Football Fundraising Committee last year, a donation made in the memory of his father.
Although many of Raymond Barragan’s previous contributions to Anzar were on the baseball diamond, Andrew Barragan said the sizable donation to football is just something his father would have done anyway.
“He always wanted to be a part of starting something … and I think it was a perfect opportunity,” said Barragan, who came to the decision after approaching his mother, brother and sister.
“We all agreed that we’re doing what dad would have done,” Barragan added. “We’re picking up where he left off.
“He would have done it, too.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Raymond Barragan later moved to San Ardo before graduating from King City High in 1954. His connection to San Juan Bautista came in his late teens, when he would box pears in the fields where Anzar is today.
It was in the 1960s when he helped establish Pop Warner in Gilroy, as well the Golden Valley Little League.
“He was always involved in stuff like that,” Andrew Barragan said. “Again, he wanted to be the first to do it.”
The action item to name the field after Barragan appears on the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting, which is scheduled to be held at 6 p.m. at the Aromas Library, located at 365 Vega Street.
Meanwhile, another item, on the consent agenda, is expected to open the process of hiring a coaching staff for the football team.
Superintendent Willard McCabe said he expects to open the hiring process following Wednesday’s meeting, with the goal of having the positions filled by March.
“The program will hinge on a good, quality coaching staff, who will provide the best opportunities for our kids,” McCabe said.
McCabe also noted that the San Juan Bautista high school, which will play 8-man football next season, has been accepted into the West Bay Athletic League, which will include a total of five teams, one being Gilroy’s Anchorpoint Christian.
And games will be played on Friday night — under the lights, of course — as local farmers have donated light standards “to light up the entire field.”
“We’re real enthusiastic about getting started this fall,” McCabe added.
