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Newman Smith High School Coach Crystal Perez now has a Dallas Cowboys jersey with her name on the back.
For Perez, a huge Dallas Cowboys fan according to former Newman Smith Principal Dr. Stephanie Jimenez, the custom jersey and football from the Dallas Cowboys, presented by former Cowboys offensive lineman Joe Looney, Cowboys mascot Rowdy and Reliant mascot Hugo were icing on the cake.
The Cowboys and Reliant surprised Perez on Wednesday, Dec. 17, with those gifts and a $5,000 check in recognition of her leadership, dedication and impact on students as part of the Cowboys Class Acts program. Perez is assistant athletic director and the head coach for girls’ soccer and girls flag football at Newman Smith. The Fall 2025 season was the first season for girls’ flag football at Newman Smith, and that program was also underwritten by the Cowboys.
A Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District (CFBISD) alum, Perez has coached at Newman Smith for 13 years. She said coaches have a slightly different effect on students’ lives than teachers because of the nature of sports on their lives, learning about how things are going for them, how different things affect them, how their home lives are going.
“I want someone here to be here for them,” she said. “It’s all about time. It’s not just me. It takes a whole village.”
“Crystal Perez is the salt of the earth. She lives her mission of giving back every day right here at Newman Smith,” Jimenez said. “She was the right person to take on the girls’ flag football team. She embraced it right from the very start. She is a pillar of our Newman Smith community.”
The Newman Smith sports community was recently talking about the needs of the student athletes and considering organizing a fund-raiser to help buy equipment for the teams, Perez said. The grant from Reliant and the Cowboys should postpone that difficult task.
Perez said her athletes need cleats, gloves and bags for game day. “We’re going to use it to buy as much as we can for these kids,” she said.
For Perez, the recognition was never the point – the students were. The real reward will be seeing her athletes step onto the field better prepared and more confident, knowing someone believed in them enough to invest in their success.
The jersey may carry Perez’s name, but her legacy begins with the young women she coaches every day.
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