District Roundup
Roosevelt, Bullard have New Coaches
Roosevelt High School hired Atnaf Harris as its new varsity head football coach and Bullard High School has hired Tim Amundsen as its new varsity head basketball coach. Harris is a 1997 Edison High School graduate and played for Fresno State before joining the National Football League. He currently works as a probation officer for the County of Fresno.
After Harris' football playing career ended due to injury, he returned to Fresno with his wife and has a variety of coaching experiences at high schools in the area. He is regularly involved in several community service activities within the Fresno area, volunteering at group homes, the Poverello House, and local parks and recreation sites, and works with organizations such as: "Real Men Read," a literacy project founded by the NFL Players Association; "Just Us," with a mission to galvanize the people in the community to work together to effect change; and the Believe & Achieve Football Camp, an annual free football camp at Fresno State.
Amundsen is a three-time section title-winning coach and was a Bullard assistant last season. He previously was head coach at Central High School for two years, Clovis East High School for nine years and Hoover High School for four seasons. He has a 309-152 record and eight league titles over a 15-year career. Amundsen won Division I titles in 2007, 2008 and 2010 while at Clovis East.
Speech and Debate Group Names Castillo Top Leader
Carlos Castillo was honored as the 2016 middle school principal of the year by the National Speech and Debate Association in June at the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Salt Lake City. Castillo was honored for helping develop a debate and speech program when he was principal at Wawona Middle School, prior to taking over at Bullard High School last year.
The association is the largest speech and debate organization serving middle school, high school, and collegiate students in the United States. Students and coaches make nominations for the awards and a panel of coaches selects winners.
Special Citizenship Oath Ceremony held for Fresno Adult School Students
A special citizenship oath ceremony was held for about 100 residents, including students from Fresno Adult School on June 18 at Fresno State University's Satellite Student Union. The event featured dance performances and video success stories of Fresno Adult School students prior to the ceremony.
Fresno Adult School hosted the event with some of its partners supporting residents through the naturalization process, including The Maddy Institute, Fresno County Public Library and the Central Valley Immigration Integration Team.
Hoover Alum Hired as Fresno State Softball Coach
Fresno State University announced July 5 it had hired ex-Hoover High School softball star Linda Garza as its softball coach. Garza, a 1997 graduate of Hoover, was a four-year starter at UNLV and was the head coach at UC Riverside when hired to be the Bulldogs coach. She earned seven varsity letters at Hoover, starring in basketball as well as softball.
Edison Student Selected for Summer Research Internship
Isabelle Plumb from Edison High School was among 11 students from the central San Joaquin Valley out of 92 applicants selected to take part in the 29th UCSF Fresno Summer Biomedical Internship Program (UCSF Fresno SBI). UCSF Fresno SBI pairs selected students who are entering their senior year of high school with faculty members at UCSF Fresno to work on research projects for two months over the summer. The program is aimed at providing students with hands-on biomedical research experience while introducing them to careers in health and medicine.
Students' projects focused on cancer, gender bias in medical education, genetic medicine, inflammatory bowel disease, pulmonary hypertension and surgery. The students will present their research findings Wednesday, Aug. 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the auditorium at the UCSF Fresno Center. The students conducted research at Fresno State University, Community Regional Medical Center and the UCSF Fresno Center for Medical Education and Research.
Students Compete in National Forensics Event
Samira Abed, Katie Bordona and Harneet Kaur from Edison High School and Jordan Waters from Bullard High School competed in June in the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Salt Lake City. Bullard coach is Milla Smith and Edison and Computech coach is Nicole Jennison. A new debate club from Computech Middle School also sent students to the competition.
District Opens Pools for Community Swimming
The district opened pools at Fresno, Edison, McLane and Roosevelt high schools for community swimming over the summer, providing a safe place to cool off and have fun. Pools were open through Aug. 13 through a community swim program provided by Fresno Unified and America's Kids Swim School.
