Fort Worth-area teams will have a new look as longtime coaches hang up the whistle

With a brand new year comes brand new coaches.

It happens all the time and retirement was the word for four longtime Fort Worth-area high school head coaches this summer.

Byron Nelson

Byron Nelson’s Howard Putter leaves the game of soccer with 32 years of experience and more than 500 wins. He started the boys soccer program in 2011 and brought home a state championship in 2014.

Ryan Dunlevy is the new coach for the Byron Nelson boys soccer team. He was the head girls soccer coach at Coppell for the past 5 seasons.

Putter also coached at El Paso, Keller Fossil Ridge and Keller.

Putter also started the program at Fossil Ridge in 1996 as the Panthers went 16-6-1 that season. Putter spent 14 seasons there amassing 250 wins. Their best season came in 2004 when they went 28-3-1.

Putter retires with a 562-181-67 career record and ranks sixth in all-time wins in Texas.

His teams made the playoffs 30 times and he reached state twice, winning it all in 2014 with Byron Nelson and a state semifinal appearance in 1988 with El Paso.

That season, El Paso went 22-2 overall and 14-0 in district play.

Putter won district coach of the year 16 times and his teams won 16 district championships. He was named NFHS coach of the year in 2015.

Byron Nelson went 13-5-2 this season and reached the regional quarterfinals.

Mansfield

Number 16 on the most career wins list in Texas is Mansfield boys soccer coach John Fazekas, who also retired following the 2021 season.

Fazekas won 430 games in 33 years. He had spent the past 20 years leading the Tigers.

Also coaching at Irving MacArthur, Fazekas’ teams went to the playoffs 24 times and won 10 district championships. He took Mansfield to the state tournament in 2012.

The Tigers won 285 games in 20 years with Fazekas’ at the helm. They went 16-7-3 this season.

Assistant coach David Ellis was promoted as Mansfield’s next head boys soccer coach.

Joshua

The Joshua softball program has only known one head coach, Traci Bransom. She announced her retirement after the spring season. She started the program in 1995 and spent 27 years at Joshua ISD.

The Owls went to the playoffs 18 times, including this season when they finished 14-12-2 overall and 9-3 in district play. Joshua has won 15 bi-district titles with Bransom and reached the regional quarterfinals twice, and regional semifinals once.

Ashley Benson is the new coach at Joshua. Benson graduated from Joshua in 2008 and played for Bransom. Benson had spent the past four seasons leading the softball program at Granbury.

Arlington Martin

Arlington Martin’s Tracy Perez-Petersen has led the volleyball program for 16 years and won a state championship in her first year in 2005. She spent nine years before that as an assistant on the team, spanning 25 years with the Warriors.

Assistant coach Rhonda Dunn takes over the program as the season nears in two weeks.

Under Perez-Petersen, Martin went 499-184 in 16 years.

Martin starts the 2021 season as the four-time defending district champion. The Warriors have gone 56-1 in district play during that span.

The Warriors also reached the regional finals in 2017 and posted a 41-6 record. They went 21-6 last season.