Uncategorized

Phoenix School To Be Named After Pat Tillman

Balsz Elementary school located at McDowell Road and 44th Street – mere miles from the famed ASU Sun Devil Stadium –  has received official permission from the Tillman family to rename the new middle school going there after Pat Tillman, former ASU and Arizona Cardinals linebacker. For anyone not familiar with who Pat Tillman was, he left an active and successful professional football career after the September 11th terrorist attacks to join the army. Unfortunately, three years later he lost his life in an unfortunate friendly fire incident while serving in Afghanistan.

Months ago, administrators made the decision to transition this location to a new middle school, that would offer a mixture of traditional education along with special electives and extra-curricular activities to their students. They are hoping to create not just a new school, but a new foundation of principles for their students. With this, they decided that there was a need for a name change in the school’s transition, and they wanted it to be meaningful. After discussing it for a few months, they settled on Pat Tillman as the man who they wanted to represent all they hoped to achieve in their new school.

The school administration would not move forward without the approval and permission of Pat Tillman’s family, however. They have now finally received that blessing from the Tillman family, and plans to transform the school are underway. Dr. Chad Smith, the school’s principal, is overjoyed at the opportunity to infuse his school, teachers and students with the exemplary character that led the administration to settle on Tillman’s name. They are planning to put up quotes that honor his fighting spirit, and to intertwine that spirit into every facet of the school, from clothes the name of their Mascot being the Warriors.


Teachers and administration at the school have showed much support for not only the chosen name of the new middle school, but also for the idea behind the school. As a school looking to give kids who have few role models in their life someone to look up to, and as a new curriculum looking to more realistically prepare children for their high school careers, they truly feel that Pat Tillman’s spirit can only help them moving forward.

There has been some push back among Phoenix residents who are not in support of naming a school after Pat Tillman. Those opposed point to his conviction of a felony for a violent assault that occurred in his high school days. They may forget that the judge in that case lowered that conviction to a misdemeanor upon learning a felony could affect his scholarship to ASU. They may also forget or downplay that it can never hurt to teach children that sometimes people need a second chance in life. With the second chance that the judge and court granted to Pat Tillman, there is no doubt that he made good on it. He often referred to the experience and stated that it was a turning point for him, and that he learned more from one bad decision and the grace showed to him than anything else in life.

No matter where you fall on the issue, teaching children that you can make a huge mistake in your life but work hard and come back from it in today’s world can’t hurt. Maybe hearing his story and learning that Pat Tillman openly talked about his mistake and the way he changed from it can help the students at Pat Tillman Middle School form a foundation of fighting spirit that is sorely needed in today’s world.