Marco Sanchez looked sharp in a tailored suit and tie when the
school board appointed him principal of Gilroy High School Thursday
night. But as an Olympian, he’s as at home in a wrestling suit as
he is in a business suit.
Marco Sanchez looked sharp in a tailored suit and tie when the school board appointed him principal of Gilroy High School Thursday night. But as an Olympian, he’s as at home in a wrestling suit as he is in a business suit.
The Greco-Roman wrestler who represented Puerto Rico in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta said he’s looking forward to heading up a school that just rounded out another top-notch year on the wrestling front, having won its seventh straight Central Coast Section title in February. Oddly enough, the team won the championship at Independence High School in San Jose – Sanchez’s alma mater.
“We will have two comprehensive high schools next year and I look forward to a respectful rivalry and collaboration in both the academic and athletic arenas with Mr. John Perales,” he said, shooting a smile at Perales, who will be principal of Christopher High School, opening this August.
Graduation from Independence certainly wasn’t the end of the educational road for Sanchez. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in sociology at Arizona State University, a master’s degree in education at the University of Phoenix and a Ph.D. in organizational leadership at Northcentral University.
The bilingual educator comes to Gilroy with more than a decade of classroom and administrative experience under his belt. A former intervention and physical education teacher and a project coordinator for at-risk students, Sanchez also assumed leadership roles as assistant principal of two large comprehensive high schools – Elk Grove High School south of Sacramento and an Arizona high school. He is currently principal of Lodi Middle School and expects to be situated at GHS by late July.
“This is going to be a new era at Gilroy High School,” Superintendent Deborah Flores said before introducing Sanchez to the school board. “We are very thrilled that he chose to consider Gilroy. It’s my honor and great privilege to welcome him.”
Flores and a small committee interviewed 10 candidates – a total of 40 applied for the position – and two board members participated in a second round of interviews. Sanchez was both committees’ top choice, Flores said.
Sanchez will bring his own history of wrestling success to the school. He was three-time CCS and Mid-Cal champion, two-time All-American and the University National Champion, among other titles.
After Flores announced his appointment, and before making the two-hour drive back to Lodi, Sanchez lingered in the district office lobby, chatting with outgoing GHS Principal James Maxwell and Mary Ann Boylan. Boylan was GHS assistant principal and was recently appointed principal of the T.J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy. The trio immediately began talking about all the work to be done, the new principal’s arms laden with the GHS T-shirts and a bag of garlic Maxwell gave him as a gift during the board meeting.
Sanchez will move to the Gilroy area sometime this summer with his wife and his 6-year-old son, he said.
“It’s going to be a great year for all of us,” Sanchez said.
