Going into his second year, Mineral Wells High School athletics director and head football coach Gerald Perry has come under fire by players for his handling of the team’s quarterback competition.

MINERAL WELLS, Texas — A high school football coach’s decision to name his son starting quarterback for the 2015 season has many of his players—and now former players—up in arms.

Mineral Wells High School coach Gerald Perry recently moved his son’s competitor for the quarterback position, Trent Guinn, to backup slot receiver, effectively ending the competition for the role of starting signal caller.

At a Mineral Wells ISD school board meeting Tuesday, thirteen people, including Mineral Wells High School student-athletes, spoke out against the decision, insisting that Guinn did not get a fair shake.

Each speaker was given three minutes at the podium, as a standing-room-only crowd of more than 80 people looked on.

Last week, nine Mineral Wells players, including several starters and an all-state cornerback, turned in their equipment and separated themselves from the program in support of Guinn, who they say has been treated unfairly by Perry in ways beyond the quarterback competition.

Last season, Perry’s first in Mineral Wells, Guinn was switched from quarterback to receiver while then-sophomore Tristan Perry played as second-team quarterback to senior first-teamer Caleb Acosta.

Alec Ortiz, a senior member of Rams football team but not among the nine who opted out last week, was the first to speak. He said there were other members of the team who support the protest but were unable to attend the school board meeting.

Ortiz said the players were not protesting and speaking out against Coach Perry because they “are not getting their way. We are doing this because this is the only way we can be heard and understood.”

He stated, “We love our coaches and our staff, but this quarterback battle has been one-sided the whole time.”

All-district junior running back Johnny Morales is one of the nine players who last week turned in his equipment and separated from the team.

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen,” Morales told the board Tuesday. “We sat down and listened. We were brushed aside as if it didn’t matter. Nothing was changed. So we took a stand.”

Morales said growing up, children are constantly told to do what is right.

“We are determined,” he said. “We believe in what’s right. That is how our parents raised us. I thank God for that. We are a band of brothers. The values each of us stand for are honesty, equality, kindness and compassion and treating people the way you want to be treated. That is all we ask for, equality and a fair chance. I can tell you right now Trent Guinn never had a fair chance.”

Morales said when Perry arrived in Mineral Wells he made a lot of promises, some of which he said the coach has fulfilled and others he hasn’t.

“I, along with all eight of my brothers, who are standing against a corrupt system, have seen Trent Guinn treated unequally since Coach Perry got here,” stated Morales, saying Guinn had outplayed Tristan Perry in practices.

“Now, Tristan Perry has no competition,” Morales said. “It all seems a little familiar from last year. We have had enough of seeing our brother get bullied and pushed around and treated unfairly by Coach Perry.”

He said Perry declined to listen to the players when they went to him with their concerns and displeasure over his decision about the quarterback position.

“He brushed it off, now we are taking a stand,” said Morales. “Although many would label us as quitters and say we are just a bunch of spoiled teens who didn’t get our way that is not the case at all. We have sat idly by and watched as one of our closest friends has constantly had has spirits and hopes crushed by Coach Perry. We can’t be silent anymore.”

Senior linebacker Max Grider, one of the original nine protesters, talked about Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and George Washington as “people who made a stand against the overruling power of unfair treatment.”

He said the players watched Guinn last season go through the difficulties of being switched to receiver.

“I don’t think that it’s a family tie issue,” said Grider of the Perrys. “I don’t think it has anything to do with (Tristan Perry) being a relation. I think (Coach Perry) didn’t expect competition to be here.”

Stefan Sandoval said Coach Perry has “bullied, intimated and manipulated (Guinn) to crush his spirit.”

“Our friend Trent Guinn is being treated unfairly and has been since the arrival of Coach Perry, specifically by Coach Perry and only Coach Perry,” Sandoval stated.

Two-way player Cameron Weiss said, “I have played on both sides of the ball and I can clearly see which quarterback has the better talent.”

He said the competition for the starting quarterback position was never fair.

“It is obvious the coach’s son was favored from the beginning,” he told the board. “It would be different if his son came in and outplayed Trent but that wasn’t the case at all. All we asked is that Trent be given a fair opportunity to fight for his position. We are not quitters. We are protesting to take a stand in what we believe in.”

Guinn’s parents, Donna and Tony Guinn, also addressed the board. Donna Guinn said the players’ protests and speaking out was not just about her son, “but the entire athletics program.”

“We are here at this place not because of a one-time coach’s decision on a starting quarterback, but the actions leading up to the situation with the damage done along the way,” she said. “I think both kids we are talking about have been forgotten in this and both kids have suffered in this. They have both been put in a position where no one wins.”

She said the family at one time put their home up for sale and considered moving to another school district, but said her son did not want that.

“He said, ‘This is where God wants me, mom. I’m not afraid of competition, and I’m not going to run.’

You can’t argue with that,” Guinn told the board.

She said they were assured by offensive coordinator Chris Olson of a fair quarterback competition this year. She said it was Olson who informed her son of Perry’s decision to name Tristan Perry the starter and switch Trent Guinn back to a receiver position.

Guinn told the board of a tape recording in the possession of MWISD Superintendent Gail Haterius  and asked other school board members listen to it, but she did not elaborate on its content.

Tony Guinn said the family met with Coach Perry two hours before Tuesday’s meeting and asked for a fair, head-to-head competition and to let “the best man win.”

He said the family was told Trent Guinn would have a chance to compete as a receiver.

“Everything could be fixed and these boys could be playing football again if they would just let them compete,” Tony Guinn said.

Starting defensive end Andy Garcia tried to speak about the situation, but was too overcome with emotion and returned to his seat.

Two female high school athletes, Chandler Ortiz and Gabrielle Gutierrez, also addressed the board on behalf of Trent Guinn and the protesting football players. Parent Amy Ortiz continued reading Donna Guinn’s prepared comments she was unable to read because her time had expired.

Approached after the meeting, Coach Perry declined comment, as did Haterius.

David May writes for the Mineral Wells (Texas) Index.