See the top 10 high school stadiums in Arizona
The Republic’s high school sports reporter Richard Obert lists his 10 favorite stadiums around the state of Arizona.
The Republic
North High School in Phoenix suspended its football coach, Mark Mejia, after school officials learned he failed to report a traffic accident this summer while driving several players to a summer training event.
Mejia confirmed the reason he is not leading Phoenix North’s football team this high school season is due to not immediately reporting to school officials the accident.
Driving his 7-on-7 players in a minibus to Maricopa in late June to Just Chilly’s Flight Club passing tournament, Mejia said he rear-ended another car that had a player from another team.
He said both vehicles pulled over after the accident. He said there were no injuries and neither party felt it was necessary to call police.
“They were going to the same tournament, and they said, ‘Hey, let’s just get to the tournament and we’ll exchange information,’ ” Mejia said. “They got there. It’s a Saturday. The parents said, ‘Hey, the kids are fine. Let’s just play football.’ We played, we’ll take care of this on Monday.”
Because he didn’t inform North officials immediately following the accident, Mejia said he was suspended. Initially, Mejia said he was suspended from leading the football program for five years. He said he appealed it and spoke at the Phoenix Union High School District Governing Board meeting, where it reduced the suspension to two years.
Richard Franco, PXU district spokesman, said the district “does not comment on personnel matters and cannot share details or information connected to this employee matter.”
“It’s unfortunate,” Mejia said. “There was a lot of people who spoke on my behalf to try to get the position back. But the district felt, because I didn’t follow protocol, that I didn’t have the kids’ safety at hand, they deemed that was it. They tried to justify afterwards saying, ‘We didn’t go after your teaching (job).’
“From their standpoint, they felt that the kids were supposed to have medical attention before being allowed to play in the tournament. But everyone was totally fine. There were no injuries, no nothing.”
North baseball coach A.J. Liebau was assigned to lead the program three weeks ago. Everybody who was on Mejia’s coaching staff is back.
“I told them, ‘Nobody else should be penalized,’ ” Mejia said of his staff. “I was the only one on the bus driving. I said, ‘Hey, I take full ownership of it. I’m not trying to hide from it.’ “
Mejia said he is helping coach at Phoenix Brophy Prep this season, working with the tight ends.
Richard Obert has been covering high school sports since the 1980s for The Arizona Republic. He also covers Grand Canyon University athletics and the Arizona Rattlers. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:@azc_obert