El Paso Matters – Opportunity amid financial strain: Eastwood High football trip to California moves forward

Eastwood High School’s football team returns to Southern California this week for a second matchup with national powerhouse St. John Bosco — a trip underwritten largely by external support and boosters as the Ysleta Independent School District continues to face deep financial challenges.

This June, the board adopted a $420.2 million budget with a $22.2 million deficit for 2025-26, the district’s fourth consecutive year with higher expenses than it expects to make in revenue. 

The Troopers’ first outing against the Braves took place Aug. 30, 2024, at Panish Family Stadium in Bellflower, California. Eastwood lost 71-14. Two months before the game, the Ysleta school board approved a $408.2 million budget with a $17.2 million deficit for the 2024-25 school year.

The Troopers will return to the Los Angeles area for the second game in the two-year series Friday, Aug. 29 — a trip that comes as YISD has chewed through savings amid steep financial challenges, but continues to stress the importance of protecting student opportunities, much of which is funded through outside sources. 

Ysleta ISD Superintendent Xavier De La Torre said the philosophy behind scheduling these experiences is intentional. 

“As we’ve had these conversations over the past year about inadequate funding … we would do everything possible to insulate our students, our faculty, and our staff from anything that would dilute the experience and the exposure,” De La Torre said. “And I think this is an example of our commitment to that promise, and that is that students, staff, coaches will never know that we’re having to tighten our belt and make some very difficult decisions at the central office.”

Eastwood head football coach Julio Lopez — a Montwood High School graduate who played at the University of Texas at El Paso from 2009 to 2011 — said matchups such as these are part of a deliberate strategy he has engaged in since his arrival at Eastwood in 2015 to face higher-caliber teams.

The Troopers visited Plano in 2019, Smithson Valley in 2021 and Southlake Carroll in 2022 and 2023. 

Lopez said the benefits of these opportunities extend beyond the scoreboard — exposure for players seeking college opportunities, chances for coaches to scheme against elite competition, unique experiences for parents traveling alongside the team, and even professional-level opportunities for Eastwood’s career and technical education students. The group that traveled to California included more than 60 student-athletes, coaches, student trainers and a student broadcast team praised by Bosco staff for its quality. 

“That is the philosophy behind how we schedule,” he said, noting that few El Paso programs are willing to face Eastwood. “If I scheduled a 4A or I scheduled a 5A … and I beat them 70 to zero, 50 to zero, we’re the villain.”

YISD Athletic Director Martin Segovia added that Eastwood has also faced reluctance even from schools in its own class. Eastwood is one of seven schools in El Paso that comprise District 1-6A. Class 6A is the University Interscholastic League’s highest classification, representing schools in Texas with the highest student enrollment (2,275 and higher). All other El Paso schools compete in Class 5A and below. 

“We had it all on the board,” Segovia said. “Week 1 available. We had three local teams and none of them would take it.”   

Lopez said that’s why Eastwood has turned to scheduling premier programs outside of El Paso, even if securing those games requires effort.

“It’s a negotiation,” he said. “These are the best teams in the country. … It’s just kind of a constant negotiation because you are losing a home game, essentially. These teams don’t travel (to El Paso).”

Last year’s trip offered an example of those benefits. Eastwood wideout Jude Walker provided one of the few highlights in the loss to Bosco during the second quarter, hauling in a 58-yard pass before snagging a one-handed, 14-yard touchdown against a defender now at Georgetown. He finished with 126 receiving yards and two scores, performances that Lopez said helped earn him a scholarship offer from UTEP.

“Definitely an eye-opener,” Walker said. “You see guys that play the next level. They’re bigger, faster, stronger, so it just kind of helps us know where we match up and what we need to improve on.”

Lopez said those lessons go beyond the field. He views games like these as preparation for life outside El Paso. 

“When you leave Eastwood, when you get into this level, this mindset of thinking should carry you beyond,” he said. “Whether you play college football or not … you’re going to have to go sit in an interview and win those people over and not be scared of the competition sitting in the waiting room. You’re not going to fear any situation.”

District leaders have stressed that extracurricular opportunities such as Eastwood’s football travel are sustained through a mix of booster contributions, agreements with high schools and their respective partnerships, and the same $3,500 travel allocation given to all YISD athletic programs.

“This is truly more than football,” Lopez said. “It’s providing our kids — our players, our student trainers, our broadcast team — if we can provide them with that type of opportunity to play against the best, to challenge themselves, to me, it really is about the experience.”

Managing the trip

The trip carried a total price tag of $21,885.96, according to documents shared with El Paso Matters. Charter buses cost $12,726.08, meals totaled $2,575.88 and the hotel bill reached $6,584. 

Those expenses were largely offset by a $10,000 payment from St. John Bosco, an additional $2,500 the California school provided for meals and the $6,584 in hotel costs covered by the Eastwood High School Football Booster Club. The remaining balance was absorbed by the standard $3,500 travel allocation that every Ysleta ISD athletics program receives.

De La Torre said the philosophy guiding those choices is to protect student opportunities. He describes it as a covenant with the community.

“A lot of things would be considered in the form of cost avoidance or budget reduction before we begin to even talk about eliminating or abbreviating the experiences that we want our students to have,” De La Torre said. “They’re the core of our work. They’re our reason for being.”

District officials say athletics travel, including Eastwood’s California trip, is managed within budget guidelines and supported by external funding such as booster contributions. 

“The operational budget and the budget that the Eastwood High School football program is relying on, they are unrelated,” De La Torre said. “At Eastwood High School, you have a great group of parents, adults, civic leaders, business leaders, that work tirelessly to raise monies for a variety of athletic programs. These volunteers work diligently … and it’s a relationship that we not only enjoy and that we appreciate and acknowledge, but that we rely on.”

Segovia added that Eastwood’s support is the same afforded to dozens of other teams across the district. 

“(Eastwood’s) trip is allotted the $3,500, just like volleyball or cross country or anyone else who’s on the rotational schedule to go,” Segovia said. He noted that about 60 groups operate under that system each year, adjusted after an 11% cut to the department’s travel budget.

In addition to Eastwood’s football team, other YISD programs are scheduled for competition in distant venues. The Ysleta High School volleyball team competed this weekend in a tournament in Hawaii. The Parkland High School volleyball team travels to a tournament Aug. 28-30 in Florida. 

For Eastwood, the confidence carried home from the California trip last year showed up early. 

The Troopers came away from the game against Bosco with no injuries and Lopez said he was able to play nearly every player on the roster. They won their next two games against Chapin and Odessa High, but the momentum didn’t last. Eastwood dropped four of its final five district contests and missed the playoffs with a 4-6 record.

Lopez said the uneven finish underscored the thin margins his team faced. Injuries began mounting for the Troopers in the second half of the season. 

“It was a year that was very weird in a lot of respects,” he said. “At the high school level, you run into some injuries that there are some you can overcome. There are some you can’t. And just when you have enough of them, it really depletes your depth, and it’s just hard to overcome.”

This year’s return trip to Bellflower will follow a similar blueprint. Eastwood has again budgeted for charter buses, hotel accommodations and group meals, with a $10,000 guarantee from Bosco, documents show. Booster support is expected to also help cover costs. 

The coaching staff has also emphasized preparation to ensure players are less affected by the grandeur of facing one of the nation’s top-ranked teams. 

“I do think there was a little bit of shock and awe last year,” Lopez said. “I just don’t think we’ll have to deal with as much of that this year.”

For Lopez and district leaders, those details are as important as the game itself. The goal, they say, is not just competition but immersion — allowing athletes, families and students in support roles to experience what big-time football feels like on and off the field.

Facing the nation’s best, by design

If last year’s matchup against St. John Bosco was daunting, this season’s rematch may be even more so. High School Football America ranked Bosco the No. 2 team in the nation heading into 2025. 

Lopez acknowledges the steep challenge but insists games like these fit into a deliberate long-term philosophy, which he implemented immediately upon being named the head coach at Eastwood in 2015. 

The strategy has yielded results, Lopez said, including a berth in the Class 6A Division 2 regional semifinal round of the state playoffs in 2021, a game the Troopers lost to Prosper. 

It was the second time a school from El Paso advanced to the third round of the 64-team playoff — known as the Sweet 16 — in the UIL’s highest classification. Del Valle qualified for the Sweet 16 in 2001. 

“We have to do things differently,” Lopez said. “If by Year 11 now, it was not working, well, one, I have a great enough relationship with (the athletic director) that he would tell me. Number two, you would see it in the results. … Our method has been proven.”

The head coach describes the goal not necessarily as winning outright, but as calibrating his players’ preparation against elite competition. 

This year, Lopez believes his team will be less rattled by the moment. 

“I think going back up now, year two, it won’t be as much of a shock,” he said. “You’ve got to kind of withstand the storm at the beginning. You’ve got to settle into the game and then, midway through the third, if you look up and we’re within two scores? Stuff gets real at that point. You’ve got a shot.”

Players such as wide receiver Jude Walker and defensive end Joaquin Tagle echoed that sentiment, saying the team has rebuilt its culture after a difficult 2024 campaign. 

“We’re gonna have a lot of young guys this year, so we’re just trying to always reload,” Walker said. 

Tagle added, “We want to go undefeated, honestly, and just go out there and do what we do.”

A wider trend in El Paso football

While Eastwood’s football team is the only one playing outside of Texas or New Mexico, it is not the only El Paso football program looking beyond the region for competition. Other schools are also taking on extensive travel in 2025, though the details vary by district.

Eastlake High School will travel two consecutive weeks early this season to face Odessa Permian on Sept. 4 in Odessa and Liberty Hill on Sept. 12 in Andrews, Texas.

Socorro Independent School District officials said the Falcons’ upcoming trips will be funded entirely through district allocations for pre-district travel. The Permian trip is expected to cost about $7,270 while the Liberty Hill game will cost about $7,060.

The Eastlake Booster Club is not contributing funds. The host sites will cover operational costs and officials through gate receipts. Andrews was chosen as a neutral site for the game against Liberty Hill to alleviate the travel burden for both teams. Liberty Hill is located about 37 miles northwest of Austin. 

The El Paso Independent School District did not provide information in response to questions about Coronado High School’s Sept. 12 trip to face the Oakridge School, located more than 600 miles away in Arlington, Texas. 

The extent to which these trips are supported by district budgets, booster fundraising or outside agreements varies across El Paso. Ysleta ISD officials stress that, in their case, the model used for Eastwood mirrors what is provided to dozens of programs each year, even amid financial strain.

For Lopez and his players, the immediate focus is less about policy and more about opportunity. 

“We’ve just gotta do what we do,” Lopez said. “Last year, people kind of threw some doubt our way, like, ‘I don’t know about Eastwood.’ And, so, for us, I think it’s gonna be an easy camp to let them know, ‘Everybody thinks you’re going to go four-and-six again, like last year.’ What are you going to do about it?”

For Walker, the answer is simple: “Just show Eastwood is the top dog again. We’re gonna come out, compete and try to win.”

The post Opportunity amid financial strain: Eastwood High football trip to California moves forward appeared first on El Paso Matters.

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