MCISD AD Letty Ibarra to retire
On June 25th, Mission CISD’s Athletic Director Leticia Ibarra will officially retire after 26 years with the district and 39 years in education at both Mission CISD and La Joya ISD. Many know who Letty Ibarra is, but for those who don’t, you’re in for a great story.
Ibarra, the second oldest of five and oldest amongst her sisters, is a Mission native who graduated with the Mission Eagles Class of 1980. Ibarra was very well known for her contributions to the Eagles volleyball team. This earned her a scholarship at the collegiate level to play at the Laredo Junior College in Laredo, Texas.
Following two years of playing volleyball and one year playing tennis, Ibarra found herself making the decision of transferring to East Texas State University which is now known as Texas A&M Commerce in Commerce, Texas.
Ibarra finished and graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in 1984 and her Masters of Science in 1985 from East Texas State University. Despite a limited job market, Ibarra found herself coaching in east Texas at Gilmer ISD, a 3-A district where she coached at the junior high level. She coached every sport that they offered for both the 7th and 8th grade teams.
After a year at Gilmer ISD, Ibarra returned to Mission to coach the junior varsity volleyball team for four years under the tutelage of coach Carmen Martinez. This experience allowed her to receive an opportunity to coach at the varsity level at La Joya High School. There, she teamed up with her sister, Diana Lerma.
Lerma, who is currently the Mission Veterans head volleyball head coach, looked up to her sister despite only being one year younger than her. In their high school days, Ibarra showed Lerma the ropes and convinced her to play alongside her on the volleyball court.
Progress Times spoke to coach Diana Lerma about the transition over to volleyball. Lerma was a cheerleader at the time while Ibarra was in volleyball. Ibarra convinced Lerma to join by saying, “We get free hamburgers.” The rest is history.
However, it wasn’t just the hamburgers that did it for Lerma. She informed us about growing up with Ibarra, “We were a competitive household. As a high school player, she was my number one competitor. Everything she did, I wanted to top it and vice versa.”
After Lerma finished her collegiate career her goal was to coach, just like her sister. Lerma told us, “She was always somebody that I looked up to and I knew that would be the next step.” She continued to say, “I would see the response and respect that she would get for the endless hours that she worked. I wanted to try it out.”
After Ibarra transferred from Mission to La Joya to coach, Lerma followed and became her assistant head coach.
Ibarra and Lerma worked together for eight years and helped make La Joya High a respectable volleyball program. They were successful in doing that as they took their teams to the playoffs and put La Joya on the Valley’s volleyball map.
In 2001, with an already outstanding resume, Ibarra returned to Mission High School to become the Eagles head coach for the varsity volleyball team. Seven years later, Ibarra threw her hat into the race for MCISD Athletic Director and despite being one of the two finalists, she did not get that position.
It wasn’t until she stepped down as the Eagles head coach and coached for four years at Trevino Middle School in La Joya that she would be given an opportunity to come back to Mission ISD as the P.E. Health Coordinator.
After six years at that position, Ibarra was poised to fill in the position for Mission CISD’s Athletic Director after the retirement of Joe Sanchez. Ibarra became the first woman in Mission CISD history to be named Athletic Director. Lerma told us, “She opened the doors for many. She’s the type of person that you can throw to the wolves and she’s come back leading those wolves. She’s broken down doors for a lot of individuals to have that belief. If there are any women who want to do great things, she’s the example.”
Seven years later, she’s announcing her retirement. Lerma told us, “I can honestly say that she’s my inspiration, my motivation, and somebody who taught me the ropes of being the person that I am today. Her love has been giving back to the community and giving back that same love that was given to her. She would do everything in the best interest for the kids. That’s what her motto was.”
Lerma went on to say, “Those are the things I love about her. Not because she’s my sister, but because she’s a person that should be highly respected and because of everything I’ve become is because of her.”
She finished off by saying, “I’ve known her as my sister, my teammate, a college player, an opponent, a coach, my coordinator and now she’s going to retire as my Athletic Director. She was able to inspire, not only me, but many other people. It is sad to see a hard worker like her retiring. I know what she’s made of and I know what she’s done and what her passion is. I know she’s going to miss it.”
Progress Times spoke to Letty Ibarra about her ensuing retirement, “It’s bittersweet. It feels amazing, so amazing to where I ask myself: ‘Where did the time go?’ Every stage and every level of this process to get me where I’m at, I would not change anything. It was well worth it.” Ibarra went on to say, “I’m truly blessed, and I can’t stress this enough, truly blessed with individuals who truly impacted, not only my life but my sisters and my family’s lives along the way. Only God knows.”
Individuals such as Coach Carmen Martinez, Coach Eliseo Pompa, former Athletic Director Roy Garcia, and of course her mother. An emotional Ibarra told us, “My mother was very instrumental in being a guiding light for us and especially for us girls.” Her mother would tell her and her siblings, “It’s a tough life. Nobody said it was going to be easy, but you gotta be able to work for whatever it is you want. Don’t expect anyone to give you anything and as long as you’re able to work and keep striving for what you want, at the end of the day, you can always say you gave it your best shot.”
Her mother was not only her biggest critic, but her biggest fan and heavily advocated for Ibarra to continue her collegiate career despite the sacrifices that would need to be made. Her mother asked Ibarra to turn around and face her younger sisters. When she did, she told Ibarra, “That’s going to be your reason why you cannot mess up.” Ibarra continued, “I was blessed to go off to college. I made sure that I got after it and I made sure that I was not going to fail. The rest is history.”
We asked Ibarra about how she would define her legacy, “You always hear that saying: Find something you love doing and you’ll never work a day in your life. As I’m sitting here having this conversation with you, I’m thinking to myself ‘39 years, Where did the time go?’ I keep catching myself repeating ‘39 years, 39 years, 39 years’ but I just loved every aspect of going into the education field and more so my love for coaching.”
There are not a lot of people who can replicate Ibarra’s hard work and dedication to her craft for 39 years, but to whoever will be filling in those shoes, she says, “‘It’s not a job that is impossible to do and we have a program that’s going into the right direction. Myself in my position, I’ve been blessed with great people around me like Danny Longoria and David Gilpin as well as our female coordinators Edna Clemons and Kathy Howell. At the end of the day we know it’s all about the kids, we want to be the best so that we can provide them the best opportunities for success.” She went on to say, “I’ve always told the coaches: Success breeds success, so we have to continue to work hard and find a way to reach these kids about hard work and to keep working.”
Our final question for Ibarra was how she felt about being able to retire from Mission CISD as a Mission native. She told us, “My hometown? Are you kidding me? To me that was the ultimate goal. That’s all I wanted to do: Come back home and pay it forward.” Ibarra went onto say, “I’m very blessed to be impacted by very influential individuals who impacted many lives themselves. I can’t thank enough people who have impacted my life to make all of this possible. This is who I’ve strived to be: Someone who can hopefully impact these kids and make them want bigger and better.”
Her final message to the community, “I’ll always be around. I’m always going to be here. Whatever they need, I’m going to be there just let me know. It’s been quite a ride.”