Editorial
I share these words with all those who choose to read them, and I do hope they are received with the same caring sincerity with which they are imparted. Make no mistake, however, the words that follow have but one intended recipient: Zac Flores. I write this to you, Zac, because not only did I remotely attend the UIL State Executive Committee meeting that heard your appeal this week, but I am also uniquely suited for sharing a perspective on your situation that no one else can.
Let me begin by sharing a bit of history about the UIL State Executive Committee Chair Mike Motheral. This is the gentleman who presided over the meeting — and the committee — that heard your case.
Mike Motheral was a former coach who later became the superintendent at Sundown ISD. As an administrator, he had the final word on disciplinary actions taken against students on a case-by-case basis. While his role as the UIL State Committee Chair gives him only a single vote and not total authority, his words, recommendations, and actions carry a good deal of persuasive power.
This week that committee voted unanimously to uphold the previous decision and deny your eligibility. And as a Sundown administrator 31 years ago, Mike Motheral outright expelled another student from a program that was also a driving force in that student’s life.
I know this as an irrefutable fact in Motheral’s history because the student he expelled... was me.
I share this truth with you now because despite the fact one of the people I admire most in this world, for years has shared nothing but praise for the man, I have always viewed Motheral as an overtly strict disciplinarian with the flexibility of a sledgehammer.
It was a surreal situation to look up at a computer screen and see the face of a person that you hadn’t seen since they were kicking you out of extracurriculars thirty years ago. It further tested my reality to watch this same person in action while he listened to the testimony for both cases that preceded yours.
I witnessed him adhere to the rigidity of the rules when the circumstances dictated while embracing an understanding that the spirit of the law is greater than its letter, proving some situations call for the extension of grace over punishment.
He then applied common sense, candor, and correction to all involved as the committee deliberated your case, and even in the denial of the appeal, he expressed encouragement and allowed for dignity.
As I watched each case, listening to the testimony and evidence presented, weighing the information with a dedicated practice of unbiased reporting, I found myself in agreement with the committee at each turn. I was also presented with a question: What so dramatically changed to have me in lockstep with a man I so vehemently disagreed with all those years ago?
I had to face the fact that this man, Mike Motheral, had not changed. What changed is that this man, Jeff Hurt, was no longer a child.
It would be cliché to compare it to a veil being lifted. It was more like a Scooby-Doo ending where the monster’s mask was pulled off to reveal only a person in disguise. In my case, Motheral was in a disguise I had put him in because of my perspective on how he affected my life when I was a 17-year-old kid.
Age is the perspective lens through which life is quantified. Wisdom is a tool for comprehending the present, one only attained through a lifetime of experience. The two are symbiotic, not synonymous.
I know that sounds heavy, but what it means is that just because a person is old, it doesn’t make them wise. Nor does it suggest that a person cannot have wisdom
Jeff Hurt, Editor and also be young.
Despite being 30 years your senior, it wasn’t until this week that I gained a bit more wisdom, earned only through the impossible reflection of your situation and my own. You and I share a connection in that we have each been held accountable by the same person, a man who has done nothing more than assuring the accountability for our actions.
Whether you admit guilt or profess innocence is immaterial, as you know the truth, and because of it, there is no one in a better position to determine the justness of the committee’s decision. As for myself: Guilty as charged... and it wasn’t my first offense. I was a challenging pupil.
Guilty or innocent, agree or disagree, those decisions are final. Yet through it, you will nonetheless grow during this experience.
The question isn’t that you’ll grow.
The question is what you’ll grow.
Zac, you can foster feelings of resentment, or you can embrace the obligation you have to yourself to develop your maturity, spirituality, integrity, and personal accountability. What I am saying is that even in this time of personal suffering, you have been given a gift. My prayer for you, Zac, is that unlike myself, I hope you don’t wait 30 years to open it.