RSS FeedUTSA football good for Coker, San Antonio and Valley
McALLEN — He shook hands, posed for photos and signed autographs.
Larry Coker’s celebrity status was well in tact at Jackson’s All-American Sports Grill on Thursday. And if not for the calendars establishing that it’s 2010, many would have thought it was 2001 and Coker was fresh off his lone football National Championship at the University of Miami.
Coker led the Hurricanes to a win against Nebraska in the 2001 Rose Bowl for the national title. Coker and the Canes had a chance to repeat the next season but lost the Fiesta Bowl to Ohio State in double overtime. Miami never regained the same level of success under Coker and after the 2006 season, Coker and Miami parted ways.
The veteran coach served as an analyst for ESPN until 2009. That’s when UTSA announced that Coker would serve as the Roadrunners first ever football coach.
McAllen and even San Antonio are a long way from Coral Gables, Fla. and The U, where Hurricane Football is a way of life.
Superintendent tells Mexican residents attending US schools: Prove ...
&Mdash; Students living in northern Mexico have skirted residency requirements to attend U.S. public schools for generations, but when the superintendent in one Texas border town got word that about 400 school-age children were crossing the international bridge each day with backpacks but no student visas, he figured he had to do something.
The community is connected by a bridge to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, and like most border cities, the towns operate in tandem, with U.S. citizens and green cardholders living, working and shopping on both sides. All of it is legal, but public school attendance by children living in Mexico is another issue.
"We had several van loads (with Mexican license plates) pulling up at the schools and kids getting out. It's like 'C'mon, it's obvious what's going on,'" said Kelt Cooper, superintendent of the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.
He directed district officials to stake out the bridge and warn students they could face expulsion if they don't prove they live in the district — a move that's brought complaints from civil rights groups and support from anti-immigrant proponents.
"We have a law. We have a policy. We follow it," said Cooper, whose spent most of his life near the border and is uncomfortable with attempts to make him a cause celebre for either side of the immigration debate. "I'm just doing my job."
Like parents elsewhere who send their children to a better school across town, some parents living in northern Mexico send their children to American public schools believing they are safer and offer better education. Many also hope a U.S. education will provide better access to American colleges and universities.
Immigration status isn't an issue in these cases. A decades-old Supreme Court ruling prevents school officials from even asking about citizenship. Regardless, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, students who use the bridge enter the U.S. legally because they are U.S. citizens, permanent residents with green cards or Mexicans with student visas. Those visas are used by Mexican students who pay tuition, primarily at parochial schools.
...Texaplex - by David Winans
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