{"id":424325,"date":"2026-09-02T21:24:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424325\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T21:24:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:24:35","slug":"at-ysleta-high-generations-still-come-home-to-hutchins-stadium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/424325\/","title":{"rendered":"At Ysleta High, generations still come home to Hutchins Stadium"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe Martinez was a junior wide receiver at Ysleta High School in 1997 when the football team last claimed a district championship, sharing the title that year with Riverside High School.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight years passed before the Indians won another. This time, Martinez was their head coach.<\/p>\n

Ysleta defeated Riverside 61-50 at Hutchins Stadium last October to clinch the District 1-4A championship, completing a 9-0 start and giving Martinez his first district title in a decade as the school\u2019s coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Ysleta begins a new season with a chance to defend that title amid another milestone: a school year marking 100 years since it became an accredited four-year high school.<\/p>\n

But until this summer, there was uncertainty over whether the Indians would get to defend their championship at home.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ysleta High School head football coach Joe Martinez played as an Indian during his own high school career, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Drainage problems beneath the decade-old artificial turf at Hutchins Stadium had warped portions of the playing surface, prompting safety concerns and a $1.8 million replacement and remediation project. District officials initially expected the work to keep Ysleta away from Hutchins for at least a portion of the 2026 football season.<\/p>\n

Instead, the project moved ahead of schedule. Ysleta Independent School District officials said the stadium will be ready when the Indians play their first home game Friday, Sept. 4, against Burges High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids, they deserve it,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cYou know, they work really hard and the community gets to be part of it. We\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work at Hutchins is part of a districtwide effort to maintain athletic facilities.<\/p>\n

\"\"Workers lay new turf in Hutchins Stadium at Ysleta High School, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

YISD budgeted $3.1 million this summer to replace turf at its six other high school football fields. The existing fields date to another districtwide investment a decade ago, when YISD installed artificial turf at all seven of its high school stadiums as part of a $430.5 million bond program approved by voters in 2015. Turf and lighting projects across the district cost more than $14 million at the time.<\/p>\n

Those projects are among nearly $72 million in deferred-maintenance needs YISD identified this summer, ranging from roofs and air-conditioning systems to buses and athletic facilities. In June, trustees authorized the district to pay up to $65 million for eligible deferred-maintenance projects with tax notes that will be repaid through future revenues over 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n

The investments come as YISD contends with declining enrollment and a financial crisis<\/a>\u00a0 \u2014 pressures that require district leaders to balance costs against the needs of students.<\/p>\n

At Ysleta High, that balancing act carries particular significance.<\/p>\n

Its historic Trost-designed campus dates to 1929. Hutchins has stood at its center since 1939, with subsequent generations of campus buildings growing around the stadium.<\/p>\n

And generations of families have grown around the school.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ysleta High School head football coach Joe Martinez played as an Indian during his own high school career, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Martinez is one of them. He grew up in the surrounding community, attended Ysleta, played football there and eventually returned to coach. Many of his players come from the same neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the prospect of spending a portion of this season away from Hutchins bothered Martinez more than he initially let his players know.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn private, I was a little upset, not for myself, but just more for them, because this means a lot to them to play on this field,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n

Hutchins at heart of Ysleta<\/p>\n

Hutchins Stadium has occupied the center of Ysleta High School for nearly as long as the campus itself.<\/p>\n

The first section of the $50,000 stadium opened Sept. 15, 1939, in time for Ysleta\u2019s season opener against Ranger High School, a campus located in Eastland County about 80 miles west of Fort Worth. The completed stadium was dedicated that November and named for C.A. Hutchins, then president of the Ysleta school board and one of the school\u2019s prominent supporters. The stadium and an accompanying school addition cost $100,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"Hutchins Stadium, at the heart of the Ysleta High School campus, was orginally built in 1939. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Its design made the stadium part of the school in more than a figurative sense. Concrete seating covered spaces used for athletic offices, vocational agriculture and shop classes, band activities and ROTC storage. As Ysleta High expanded in the decades that followed, new buildings increasingly surrounded the field.<\/p>\n

Hutchins also became the setting for one of the most notable wins in El Paso high school football history. In the first round of the 1960 playoffs, Ysleta upset heavily favored Odessa Permian 31-21, defeating a program that would later gain national fame through the book and film \u201cFriday Night Lights.\u201d Junior John Folmer starred at linebacker for Ysleta, including two fumble recoveries that helped preserve the win.<\/p>\n

For more than five decades, Ysleta remained the only El Paso County team to have beaten Permian. Montwood High School finally joined the Indians in 2012 with an early-season 34-30 victory over the Panthers, then beat Permian again in Odessa the following year. El Dorado High School also defeated Permian in the first round of the state playoffs in 2012.<\/p>\n

Today, Principal Amelia Garcia describes Hutchins as a centerpiece of the campus.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ysleta High School Principal Amelia Garcia shows off the school\u2019s auditorium, the largest in the Ysleta Independent School District, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really, really special and important is it\u2019s one of the only stadiums that is nestled within the campus,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of a centerpiece to the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrangement has helped make Hutchins a gathering place for people whose connection to Ysleta extends well beyond their years as students.<\/p>\n

Garcia noticed it when she attended her first football game after coming to Ysleta. Alumni gravitated toward their traditional section of the stadium, she said, and continued showing up regardless of whether they had children attending the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the alumni gravitate to that area on Friday nights and just the outpouring of support that they have, you know, whether they have students here or not, they\u2019re always here,\u201d said Garcia, a Riverside High School graduate. \u201cIt\u2019s the glue that holds Ysleta High School together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin Segovia, YISD\u2019s athletic director, said athletic events are among the places where parents, alumni and other residents most visibly encounter their neighborhood schools.<\/p>\n

\"\"Director of Athletics for Ysleta ISD Martin Segovia shows the new turf field at Ysleta High School on Aug. 25, 2026.All seven YISD high schools received new turf fields. (Alberto Silva Fernandez\/Special to El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, in athletics, are the front porch of education,\u201d Segovia said. \u201cThis is where people come. They come to gyms, they come to stadiums. They can\u2019t just come to a classroom. But they work simultaneously. They work well together. So, when we\u2019re doing well, academics do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growth alongside an older community<\/p>\n

Ysleta High School\u2019s roots extend beyond the centennial it is preparing to celebrate.<\/p>\n

The community surrounding it is older still. Ysleta traces its history to the Tigua people who arrived in the El Paso area following the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The settlement developed around the Ysleta Mission and remained for generations a distinct agricultural community in the Lower Valley.<\/p>\n

In 1926, Ysleta High received state accreditation as a four-year high school. Before that, the school offered three years of high school coursework; adding a fourth year meant students from the Ysleta community no longer had to travel to El Paso to complete their education.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ysleta High School\u2019s Hutchins Stadium received a new turf ahead of the 2026-27 school year. (Alberto Silva Fernandez\/Special to El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

The community changed, too. Ysleta became part of El Paso in 1955 after an annexation opposed by local voters, while the Ysleta Independent School District retained its separate identity.<\/p>\n

Today, the school continues to maintain ties with Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, and reminders of its own history remain throughout the campus, from the original building to Heritage Hall and traditions passed among generations of students.<\/p>\n

Henry Reyna, a 1995 Ysleta graduate and past president of the Ysleta High School Alumni Association, said those traditions have taken different forms across generations. Through the alumni association\u2019s efforts on social media, he has encountered graduates whose years at Ysleta stretch back to the 1950s and \u201960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve kept people interested in Ysleta and now people share their stories, their experiences,\u201d Reyna said. \u201cIt\u2019s connected a lot of people with people that they lost contact with, but it\u2019s also connected people with other people that they\u2019ve never met. All of a sudden, that little portion, it opens doors for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you talk to people from different generations, it\u2019s a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Students fill the hallways of Ysleta High School as their lunch period begins, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

A new generation carries Ysleta\u2019s expectations<\/p>\n

For Ysleta\u2019s players, the school\u2019s history is accompanied by a more immediate expectation.<\/p>\n

They are the defending district champions.<\/p>\n

The Indians finished the 2025 regular season 10-0, ending a 28-year wait for a district championship before their season ended in the playoffs. Much of that team returns this fall, including senior quarterback Rodrigo Martinez and senior wide receiver AJ Guzman.<\/p>\n

For Guzman, staying at Ysleta was a choice.<\/p>\n

By middle school, he said, he knew students interested in athletics could begin considering where they wanted to play in high school. But after getting to know Ysleta coach Joe Martinez and playing alongside friends who also planned to attend Ysleta, Guzman had little interest in going elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew meeting him, meeting all my buddies, knowing from Martinez, I knew I was set to stay here. This was my journey, this was where I was gonna stay my destiny,\u201d Guzman said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Senior wide receiver AJ Guzman chose to attend Ysleta High School because of his family history and early ties to head coach Joe Martinez, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

Quarterback Rodrigo Martinez, who is not related to his head coach, lives about a two-minute drive from campus. He recalled arriving at summer workouts before seventh grade having little experience playing organized football and feeling intimidated by the older players around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Martinez is one of the best people in my life. He\u2019s so important to me because I was scared to come out here for summer workouts,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd he was the first one to come up to me and tell me, \u2018Don\u2019t be scared. Just come out here and work.\u2019 And ever since then, he\u2019s always believed in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior said he now embraces being the player teammates turn to when they need direction.<\/p>\n

\"\"Senior quarterback Rodrigo Martinez looks forward to defending Ysleta High School\u2019s district champion status, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s cool. Being that leader that the team needs, people need help and I\u2019m there to help them. That\u2019s what I really like about this, is the leadership, for sure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Joe Martinez, the challenge now is taking a group that made history last season and convincing it that the accomplishment does not guarantee anything this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we just keep getting better bit by bit every single day, every single week, every single game, it\u2019ll prepare us for anything,\u201d he said. \u201cThese guys can play with anybody. When they play to their potential, they\u2019re the best team in the city. There\u2019s no doubt that we can run the table again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Ysleta High School Indians warm up during practice as they prepare to defend their district champion title in the 2026 season, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

The next 100 years<\/p>\n

For all the attention the centennial will bring to Ysleta High\u2019s past, Garcia said she wants the anniversary to point forward, too.<\/p>\n

The school has adopted \u201cA Century of Excellence, A Future Without Limits\u201d as its centennial theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know education doesn\u2019t get any easier,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s challenging for all, but the people that reside within this building educating students are in it for the right reasons. They\u2019ve got the heart for it, and they\u2019re here to leave that legacy, whether it\u2019s because their children are coming to school here, whether they want future family members to come here or simply just because they are so invested in the success of this school in the Lower Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Ysleta High School head football coach Joe Martinez runs a hand through the new turf in Hutchins Stadium, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

The more immediate future will arrive on a Friday night when the Indians return to a field where generations of students have played, performed and gathered since 1939.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell them, \u2018Look, guys, it\u2019s not about you. You\u2019re part of something greater than yourself. Look at the stands. Look who\u2019s here. They don\u2019t even know who you are, but they\u2019re cheering for you,\u2019 you know?\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI think that inspires them to play hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Senior quarterback Rodrigo Martinez directs his teammates as he prepares to run a play during practice, Aug. 17, 2026. (Corrie Boudreaux\/El Paso Matters)<\/p>\n

El Paso High School Football Games: Week 2 Schedule<\/p>\n

Week 2 games involving El Paso-area schools. All games begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Times listed are in Mountain Time.<\/p>\n

Thursday, Sept. 3<\/p>\n

Bel Air at Socorro at SAC II, 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Pebble Hills vs. Chapin at Irvin High School, 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Andress at Americas at SAC I, 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Anthony at Cobre, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Friday, Sept. 4<\/p>\n

Coronado at Odessa, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Eastlake at El Dorado at SAC II<\/p>\n

Canutillo at Eastwood<\/p>\n

Franklin at Midland Lee, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Montwood at Del Valle<\/p>\n

Burges at Ysleta<\/p>\n

Hobbs at Parkland<\/p>\n

Hanks at Bowie<\/p>\n

Riverside at Irvin<\/p>\n

El Paso at Clint<\/p>\n

Jefferson at Austin<\/p>\n

Alpine at Fabens, 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

Mountain View at Horizon<\/p>\n

San Elizario at Cathedral<\/p>\n

Van Horn at Tornillo<\/p>\n

To see more high school football schedules by district, click below:<\/p>\n

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