Riviera Independent School District Athletic Director Arturo de la Rosa offered his own reason as to why he will soon step down from his position, a few days after Superintendent Ernest Havner broke the news in a letter to the editor in this past Sunday’s Kingsville Record. In that letter, Havner wrote that De la Rosa - who has been with RISD for approximately 28 years - was retiring from coaching but would remain with the district solely as an educator.

“I could probably (completely) retire right now but I am not going to; my daughters are still in school and I am going to take care of that first,” De la Rosa said.

De la Rosa will be the second highly visible coach to discontinue his duties at RISD in recent years. Former baseball skipper Lee Roy Gonzalez, now in Robstown, resigned from the district during the summer of 2008 after months of wrangling with school board trustees. Though De la Rosa is totally stepping away from coaching, he has no intention of leaving RISD.

“Basically I am retiring entirely from coaching, but I am going to stay and teach,” De la Rosa said. “I am stepping down mainly because I think this is the perfect time for me to do so. This program was nothing when I took over and we have built it up to a fair program; while it still needs improvement, but I really believe this is a good time to step down.”

When he took the AD job, De la Rosa was already aware of the long hours and extensive duties that came with it.

“I have worked alongside my assistants sometimes for seven days a week,” De la Rosa said. “It never mattered to me how hard the work was but my decision allows me more time to spend with my family.”

With high turnover more of the norm in many school districts these days, De la Rosa has stuck to RISD like crazy glue through three decades.

“I started working here as a paraprofessional in 1977, which to me was how I started my own personal book,” De la Rosa said. “I was a paraprofessional for 17 years before graduating Texas A&M-Kingsville with a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies. I then became certified to teach elementary education (grades first through sixth) and also in Spanish (sixth through twelfth).”

De la Rosa was asked to fill in as AD almost four years ago when RISD brass reassigned then honcho Bobby August.

“I was the interim athletic director with no pay raise or anything but I took the chance that the board wanted me to finish out the year,” De la Rosa said. “Right now I just feel it is time to finish writing my book, so I will close it now and move on.”

Wanting his athletes to hear the news from him first, De la Rosa informed them just before they departed for Christmas break.

“They were probably surprised as many of them did not expect this,” De la Rosa said. “I had several kids later come and personally thank me and say that they loved me and appreciated everything we went through throughout the years.”

Havner will present names of qualified candidates within the district during a meeting on Jan. 13, 2009.

“We have to post it within our district for ten days, which I did before the Christmas break, and if there is a qualified candidate then I can make that recommendation to the board,” Havner said.

“The board can then decided whether to hire someone within the inside or go outside. We would then go through the interview process if they board decides to go outside, we would select a few candidates and then I would take my recommendation to the board,” he said.

De la Rosa’s contract last year was reworked to allow him to continue teaching should he ever chose to discontinue coaching, the superintendent said.

“Our contract system we set up last year was a dual system, which means if you give up one position, like coaching, you also have to give up your second position which is teaching,” Havner said.

“When we did our contracts last March we went to what is called a supplemental contract for Coach Artie, which meant that he could always teach and step down from coaching instead of giving up both,” he said.

“When you get to be our age, you start looking at the future, and Artie is a home town boy, so we set it up so he could still teach in the event he would ever want to resign his coaching position,” Havner said.