Families are taking a closer look at Dallas ISD and discovering strong choices close to home.
Across Dallas ISD schools, students can participate in innovative programs, enroll in AP courses, and take classes for college credit. No matter the path they choose, teachers are committed to strong academics, supportive environments, and programs designed to help every student thrive.
Join us at Dallas ISD’s More Choice Expo.
Your choice. Your future. Choose the best.
Saturday, April 11
9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Automobile Bldg. @ Fair Park
LEGACY STARTSHERE!
Public transportation powers an economic engine that produces returns and creates jobs.
From 2022 to 2024, the 37 development projects near DART light rail stations created a total of 9,422 new jobs and $724.2 million in wages for workers in the region.*
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ABOUT THE COVER
The sign outside of Oak Cliff’s art-reuse shop, Pegasus Creative Reuse. Photography by Lauren Allen.
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Jason Cuccia
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Jeremy Moore
PIL ATES F OR A LL
Oak Cliff Pilates founder Amanda Mecsey keeps her role as instructor while juggling three locations
Story by
VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Photography by AMANI SODIQ
FROM SMALL GROUPS OUT AT KIDD SPRINGS PARK to three Dallas locations with over 40 certified instructors, Amanda Mecsey lives for Pilates.
The workout wasn’t always her go-to. Mecsey is a former college athlete who played soccer throughout her life while living in Arizona.
She discovered Pilates in her home state before the trend started catching on in the early 2020s.
“There was a new studio — I was before everybody’s time — like 12 years ago. It was brand new and I started going and I was like, ‘What is this? I love it,’” she says. “I loved the way it made my body feel, getting my core back after being a mom. My joints felt good after injuries from soccer. I fell in love with the workout and then just became passionate about helping people after that.”
Created by circus tumbler Joseph Hubertus Pilates, the practice was shaped by his work with injured soldiers while taken into custody as an “enemy alien” during World War I. After the war, in early 1919, he continued to formulate his ideas on fitness and conditioning, according to the Pilates Method Alliance. He continued to develop the method and invented an apparatus to address physical dysfunction or injury as well as condition the body, which eventually became known as the Universal Reformer.
“I WANT EVERYONE TO COME IN & FEEL LIKE THEY’RE A PART OF THE
STUDIO
”
Using the reformer is just one of the styles of Pilates. The exercise can use a variety of methods, such as mat or floor Pilates, which can include balls, blocks and rings.
Moving to Dallas for her partner’s former job, Mecsey eventually found a studio home in Plano. She later purchased her own equipment, such as the reformer, experimented with different styles and earned her certificate to teach.
Starting in 2016, she led Mat Pilates in Kidd Springs Park, held private sessions for Reformer Pilates in a spare room in her home and eventually had enough of a following to become an instructor at a local gym.
In June 2021, she decided to start her own studio called Oak Cliff Pilates (OCP).
“As time went on, I decided that I wanted to open my own studio in Bishop Arts just because I had lived there for 10 years, and I love the neighborhood and we needed it,” Mecsey says.
With OCP, she imagined a boutique studio, serving friends and family, but word got out fast.
“After that, I was just growing, growing, growing. I think I started at five instructors, and I was at 10 instructors, and the studio was just getting bigger and bigger.”
Now she’s navigating two expansions, one in Uptown and one in Lower Greenville. Along with increased employees, she’s trying to keep her engagement with clients strong and classes accessible.
“We really want to promote, I guess I would say, not the rich girl sport that Pilates can become. I’m very big into keeping the price down so that it’s affordable for everybody,” she says. “I also am very big into just all body shapes and sizes. Everybody is welcome. I want everyone to come in and feel like they’re a part of the studio, not come in and feel intimidated.”
SEVEN DAYS AFTER RANDALL BRYANT WAS SWORN IN AS THE YOUNGEST-EVER CHAIR
of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board, the city councils of Farmers Branch and Highland Park voted to call a withdrawal election from the transit agency. A day later? Plano called its own exit election after a unanimous 8-0 decision by its city council. Irving and, most recently, University Park have since called withdrawal elections, threatening a catastrophic loss in funding for the agency as their exit would cut DART’s sales tax revenue by close to a third.
Member cities have been locked in a tense and often standoff-ish fight over DART’s governance structures and funding inequities in recent years. Officials say taxpayers are contributing far more than they’re getting out and haven’t been given a fair voice on DART’s 15-member board, of which the City of Dallas holds seven seats. Legislative efforts supported by suburban member cities over the summer include House Bill 3187, the unsuccessful sow-called “DART Killer” bill.
On Febuary 11, the City Council voted to give up Dallas’ DART majority vote in an effort to appease other member cities.
At just 38, Bryant’s new role marks his fifth time serving on a board, commission or committee representing the City of Dallas. He’s also previously served as the chairperson of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce and been a member of Dallas Citizens Council and the North Texas Commission. Since 2012, he’s owned and operated Politics United Marketing, a political and policy strategy firm that has managed 75 candidate campaigns, political action committees and referendums at local, state and federal levels. He faces an uphill battle as he and the rest of the DART leadership team race to reach agreements with member cities before March 18, the deadline for municipalities to call off exit votes.
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST TRAIN RIDE?
I remember opening day right here. We took the Red Line down to the Dallas Zoo on opening weekend and had the
experience. Seeing it from a young age, how impactful it was, living with great-grandparents in their 70s and 80s and being able to use a service like this to alleviate the pressure of them having to drive across town — for me, that was very important.
We just opened the Silver Line and it was almost the exact same feeling, a fresh experience. The train was completely clean. Every new rider has a new perspective for us, and I think it’s important that we continuously keep up with the cleanliness and the safety and all those components that are very important to the first impressions of the rider’s experience.
WHEN WERE YOU CALLED TO CIVIL SERVICE?
My grandmother did a lot of that same work. She was a consultant for Ron Kirk when he first ran in 1995 and again, my grandmother lived in Oak Cliff. My great-grandparents, her parents, lived in Hamilton Park at the time. And at 7 years old, she walked into the house (where he lived) with a box of literature. And Hamilton Park is 750 homes, and she said, ‘Have the whole neighborhood flagged by Sunday.’ That was me at 7 years old.
CITIES LIKE PLANO AND IRVING HAVE RAISED CONCERNS OVER FUNDING INEQUITIES, AMONG OTHER ISSUES. ARE THEY JUSTIFIED, IN YOUR EYES?
I think all issues are justified. I’ve tried my best to have an attentive ear to those issues. Even prior to the withdrawal elections, the No. 1 thing I said I want to accomplish in these two years was fundamental changes to our governance and funding structures. It takes collaboration with both DART and all of our member cities, not just the ones that potentially have high-level issues. We have to be considerate of the cities that are also going to be impacted. And so we can’t do things that try to solve issues for a number of cities, whether they’re the majority or the minority, but then penalize those that have been allies or supporters at the same time.
At 38, the youngest-ever chair of the DART board faces an uphill battle
Story by AUSTIN WOOD | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
So that’s kind of a balancing effect. My approach has been to truly try to understand. I’ve met with the cities that have called for their withdrawal elections directly and am trying to continue that dialogue with them. Now, they’ve taken their measures, and they have said that they will rescind them prior to March 18, if some compromises are agreed upon. And I think right now, it’s just ensuring that we fully understand what it is that they are looking to get out of the system going forward.
CRITICS OFTEN POINT TO CRIME AS A MAJOR CONCERN, WHAT CAN DART DO?
Let me deal with that one for just a second. DART moves about 170,000 people per day across 700 square miles and throughout 13 cities. We are essentially a moving city of 170,000 people. So (in 2024), we had three murders. Per capita, that’s less than any other city in DART, including Highland Park. When you look at those numbers, I get it, they are sensationalized at the moment. DART has riders, we don’t have residents. And so I think we need to be working collaboratively together on addressing some of the more systemic issues that then create opportunities for crime. And we’re going to continue to do our part, but it has to be more in collaboration with our cities where our riders originate from.
WHERE ARE YOU DRAWING YOUR OPTIMISM FROM?
I have to just believe that this will all work out for the benefit of the people that we serve. And so I think that our member cities, the council members and the mayors and the managers that represent them, are taking a hard look at sources of revenue. They explicitly state this within their resolutions. All of them said that the state’s continual compression on their ability to grow their budgets is a fundamental element to why they are looking at these withdrawal elections. Nowhere in there do they say anything about ridership, crime, unhoused populations, the No. 1 thing that they pointed to is a funding source. I understand that. I’m cognizant of it, and I’m sensitive to it. I think right now, my focus is trying to figure out, how do we balance their desires for needing more revenue without limiting our abilities to operate or financially plan for the future?
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
ONE SMALL STEP FOR CARTER HIGH SCHOOL
After finally seeing a leadership change, concerned members of the Carter community are not jumping for joy just yet
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ | Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
Rather than taking shots at the shooting machine or lifting weights, they were given a free period. Instead of changing into their gym clothes in the locker room, they sat there waiting for the next class.
This was Nia Caroll-Walker’s experience during her final years at David W. Carter High School, the very school where Tokyo Olympic qualifying athlete Sha’Carri Richardson graduated just six years before. Nia attended Carter all four of her high school years, graduating in spring 2024. She grew up playing basketball and volleyball, along with some time spent on the track during her freshman and sophomore years.
But during her third high school season, she started to notice a discrepancy when it came to Carter girls’ athletics.
“It started around junior year where girls’ athletics, it wasn’t a thing no more, so we just had a free period,” she says. “And they didn’t even want us in the gym or anything. There was nowhere for us to go. There had been times where, like some of the folks, they’d still allow us to sit in the locker room because they knew we didn’t have nowhere to go. My problems with Tyson, it started with his staff.”
Troy Tyson is the former principal of Carter. He left the campus last year and moved into a new role within Dallas ISD following the publication of demands from a group known as The Dallas Carter High Coalition (DCHC) Project.
The group recently gained traction following years of concerns brought up regarding Tyson on the campus. In a letter sent to Dallas ISD Superintendent of Schools Stephanie Elizalde on Oct. 7, 2025, The DCHC Project called for immediate action, citing a “hostile, abusive work environment,” “unprofessional, abusive conduct,” and Title IX violations.
The group’s letter was sent just one day after a parent says they submitted an official request to the Texas Education Agency for a formal investigation at Carter regarding the denial of equitable
opportunities for female student-athletes that are required under Title IX. Following a FOIA request submitted in November, TEA responded that they “wished to withhold certain information it believed to be confidential or excepted from disclosure,” the Texas Attorney General decided, per Section 552.116. In an email to the Oak Cliff Advocate, a spokesperson for Dallas ISD wrote “the athletics department is not aware of any current TEA notice of violation or investigation for the Carter HS Girls’ Athletic program.”
The group sent another letter on Oct. 30, 2025, to Elizalde following the immediate action taken at Woodrow Wilson High School. The group highlighted the difference in demographics between the two campuses (with African American students making up more than half the student body at Carter and less than 10% at Woodrow) and how former Woodrow principal Chandra Hooper-Barnett was removed within just two working days pending a review of allegations. Hooper-Barnett was accused of holding a meeting exclusively of Woodrow’s Black students, who were allegedly criticized for their impact on the school.
“That’s not happening in the southern sector … we’ve been doing this for two years,” alumnus and Parent Teacher Association member Stephen Poole says. “This isn’t something that’s new. But when you had an issue with Woodrow, where you have (7.3%) African American, you immediately jumped on it. But when we as a community have been saying to you, we’ve been presenting information, regardless if the people who feel like they’re afraid, they presented information, you didn’t remove him.”
Miata Caroll-Walker, Nia’s mother, first noticed issues with campus leadership because of the communication problems she was experiencing.
“That freshman year, for the most part, everything was OK. From sophomore year, you’d start seeing changes. ‘Oh, now school starts at this time.’ I said, ‘She’s a returning student. I’m not receiving any communication,’” Miata Caroll-Walker says. “Even their web -
few
spent two years
Pictured from left to right: Miata Caroll-Walker and Nia Caroll-Walker (front) and DCHC Project members ReJohnna Lindzie and Jason Whiteside (back). These four are just a
of the voices that have
advocating for change on the Carter High School campus.
Summer STEM Camp for Girls: Explore, Learn & Grow
“THEY WERE FINALLY GIVEN WHAT THEY WERE DUE, THE MINIMUM WHICH COULD HAVE OBVIOUSLY BEEN IN PLACE.”
site was not up to date; I think they finally made their website somewhat up to date around the spring of her junior year, just some things, but there’s still a lot of things that still weren’t up to date, including dress code policies.”
Staff members at Carter were getting on to Nia and her teammates consistently, specifically about wearing slides, she says. She would bring the shoes in a separate bag to keep in the locker room and use them after practice, rather than throughout the school day.
“I don’t carry the shoes with me around school nowhere; they’re still getting on to me about that, and the other girls as well,” Nia Caroll-Walker says. “And they’d let the boys slide, but with the girls, it was always hard on us.”
Miata Caroll-Walker would go to look for the policy to better understand the issues her daughter was facing, but the school’s website lacked details. After several incidents involving her daughter getting in trouble for other items, such as wearing Crocs or a purse, Miata Caroll-Walker would be directed to social media, which made her frustrated as the school website still lacked the official policy of Tyson’s campus.
“(Tyson) acts as if he’s a warden at a correctional facility; he treats the children as if they’re inmates. There are so many things that are completely depleted out of Carter, away from Carter, under his administration,” Miata Caroll-Walker says.
One example she pointed out was the lack of connection to the PTA. Tyson would not allow the group to meet on campus, which she says was due to the organization trying to hold him accountable and led to depleted funding for student programs, like the girls’ basketball team.
At another point during Nia’s high school career, Miata Caroll-Walker met with leadership in Dallas ISD, Tyson and two other parents, where they discussed the athletics decisions, resources the campus lacked and dress code. Still, following that meeting, changes were not made.
Miata and Nia Caroll-Walkers’ experiences are just one of several stories like those documented by The DCHC Project over the last couple of years. It wasn’t until fall 2025 that the campus began to make changes, with Tyson now off campus and Interim Principal Vickie Mitchell stepping in.
“She’s been visible, more visible as just a principal in the hallways
and just doing her regular duties, but visible and supportive at the actual games. At the actual events, supportive of the coaching staff, particularly, the female athletic coaching staff,” former Carter teacher and member of The DCHC Project ReJohnna Lindzie says.
Lindzie confirmed that the girls’ athletic period has been appropriately assigned, with girls’ basketball coaches able to work with the athletes during the same athletic period. Additionally, girls’ athletics is also able to access resources that they lacked previously, such as the weight room and shooting machine.
According to a study published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, strength training programs are effectively used to prevent acute and overuse sports injuries.
Jason Whiteside, a parent of a current student-athlete on the girls’ basketball team, had been advocating for his daughter to gain access to that equipment on more than 20 separate occasions. Now that the access is granted, he still hasn’t seen a big jump when it comes to changes in the team over the recent season.
“I’ve seen improvements on the court; they’re up at the school a lot, so I would figure they would be in the weight room and doing what they need to do,” he says.
Lindzie says it’s important to note that this change was a very slow process to receive what should have already been in place.
“There’s an improvement on the courts, but in terms of seeing a big shift, I guess the bottom line is, a lot of the damage has been done, especially for the girls that are seniors,” she says. “You don’t build an athletic body in a month. That’s something that’s conditioning, that’s ongoing, and they’re just now getting access … they were finally given what they were due, the minimum, which could have obviously been in place.”
Still, the changes signal a shift at David W. Carter High School under Interim Principal Vickie Mitchell. A spokesperson for Dallas ISD noted that “the search [to fill the position] is ongoing.”
Correction/Update: This article has been updated from the original version, which appeared in the March print issue. One statement from Dallas ISD was moved to earlier the article (from the end to paragraph seven) and the response received from the Texas Education Agency information request has been included. The phrase “With no action from the district” was removed from paragraph eight. The Oak Cliff Advocate strives for accuracy and clarity in all matters.
Last April, Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. performed at a sold out concert at the Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum. The group performed hits from their latest studio album, Romance , which earned two nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. A year earlier, in 2024, Hozier’s song “Too Sweet” topped the Billboard Top 100, making him the first Irish singer-songwriter to have a No. 1 song since Sinéad O’Connor in 1990.
The Irish hot streak hasn’t just been confined to the music industry either. Irish actors like Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy have won awards and landed films smashing box office debuts. In 2023, the Los Angeles Times coined the term “Green Wave” in an article referring to the fact that a single Irish-led film, Banshees of
Inisherin , earned nine Oscars nods at the 95th Academy Awards. American tourism to Ireland has surged over the last decade, and despite some leveling out since the start of the Trump Administration, remains strong.
Back in Texas, the so-called Green Wave hasn’t missed Dallas, as evidenced by the Fontaines D.C. show last spring.
Peter Kenny, owner of Lochland’s Irish Pub in Lake Highlands and the Dubliner on Lower Greenville, says he’s been glad to see his native land enjoying so much popularity in his adopted home.
“I do love to see it. I love seeing the Fontaines D.C. being the great band they are. They keep breathing it out,” Kenny says. “I’m sorry I missed them in Dallas.”
Kenny is originally from Dublin and moved stateside in
the ’80s. After a few years working in bars around town, he opened the Dubliner in 1994. Peter and his wife, Cheryl, now run it and Lochland’s as part of a family enterprise, having previously operated Capitol Pub in Uptown for over a decade.
He’s been in the pub business for over 40 years and says it’s the people who keep bringing him back.
“I just love to see everybody enjoying themselves and having a good time. I like the vibe of it. Kind of grew up in it,” he says. “Whether it’s people enjoying just hanging out and talking and different people meeting each other. Over the years, even at the Dubliner, we’ve had a lot of people even get married there. People who’ve got engaged there.”
The craze for all things Irish has been good for pub owners.
In 2019, owner Alan Kearney based the West Davis Street pub Cannon’s Corner on one he owned in South Dublin. Kearney is best known for creating “true traditional Irish spots” like the Crafty Irishman in Downtown Dallas and The Playwright in One Arts Plaza.
“I appreciate the history has been well cared for, which is important to me coming from Ireland, keeping the same culture and tradition of the area,” Kearny said of our neighborhood in a previous Oak Cliff Advocate article.
Ireland native Feargal McKinney runs three businesses across Dallas with opening of The Old Monk in 1998, The Skellig in 2015 and Spider Murphy’s in 2021. He expanded into our neighborhood with Old Monk Oak Cliff in 2024 and the upcoming sister bar Kilmac’s, just a couple doors down.
Zach Offord, general manager at Cannon’s Corner, says the homey feel of an Irish pub is what he believes has contributed to the rise in popularity.
“We know your life, so it’s more like family kind of situation,” he say “Whereas other bars can be a little more standoffish, we just really like to grasp and keep hold of this, like you’re family when you walk in that door. And I really think that’s kind of the Irish pub way.”
Offord says Guinness sales have increased, but also Irish whiskeys. At Cannon’s Corner, people often explore beyond the Jameson.
Like everybody knows James, right? I can go, ‘Oh, well,
there’s also this, it’s really good, too,’” he says. “And they’re like, ‘Oh, this is better.’
I’m like, ‘Well, yeah. There’s other ones other than the one.’ And so yeah, I think that becomes very popular very quickly.”
Aside from well-executed marketing campaigns, Kenny also attributes the Guinness’s newfound popularity to more developed palates.
“I think, because of all the brew pubs and everything else, people drink good beers these days, whether it’s hazy IPAs or stouts or bourbon barrel stouts,” Kenny says. “And they realize Guinness is not this big high alcohol by volume beer. It’s like 4.2%.”
“It’s a good beer. It tastes well, and it’s not super alcoholic. You know, look at these IPAs, and they’re 7-8%.”
While it may be the poster child, Guinness isn’t the only Irish beer on taps in Dallas. Smithwick’s (the W is silent), a red ale, regularly comes in behind Guinness sales at the Dubliner and Lochland’s.
Sales of Irish whiskey, long second fiddle to Bourbon and Scotch in the States, have seen an increase in sales in the last few years, he says. Jameson has done well, as always, but Kenny also says neighbors are expanding their tastes.
“There’s a lot of good Irish whiskeys, whether it’s Teeling and Red Breast and Midleton and they go on and on,” Kenny says. “It’s exploding, the Irish whiskey market.”
However, pubs aren’t just for those imbibing, Cheryl says.
“We have a lot of people that actually don’t drink at all, they just like that camaraderie,” she says. “And I think that you hear of people traveling all over the world, and they always seek out an Irish pub wherever they go.”
The Kennys will hope for the trend to continue as they gear up to host St. Patrick’s Day events at both pubs this month. Preparations begin a year out, and Peter laughingly admits his staff probably “get tired of listening to Irish music.”
Dallas, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be escaping the Green Wave anytime soon. Victoria Hernandez contributed to the reporting of this story.
DALLAS COWBOYS OF SUMO
The North Texas sumo wrestlers want to come back
to Oak Cliff
Story by
VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Photography by LAUREN ALLEN
Jonathan Flowers arrived at practice well over a year since he last heard the booming voices and hits to the mat in a makeshift dohyo ring, created with rope and duct tape, for the Dallas Sumo Club.
He says he joined after years of just working out individually, later playing rugby with some of the guys he worked out with at the time, but couldn’t always make it to those practices.
While reading the manga series Hinomaru Sumo, he drew the comparison of sumo wrestling to rugby as the two both use down and forward motions.
“And I’m like, this is Texas. There’s a sumo team somewhere,” Flowers says. “Lo and behold, I found Dallas Sumo Club in May of 2021, and I saw a cowboy hat (on the club graphics) and got hooked.”
For a good year and a half, Flowers says he was one of the main competitors and coaches of the club, but life got in the way and led him to stray.
“I had some stuff happening at the house. I met these guys, and they’re my people, even if I’ve not been here in years, they’re still like, ‘Hey, I’m glad to see you. Let’s go,’” he says. “We’re not the best on the planet. We’re not in the best shape, but we come in here, we do our thing.”
Corey Morrison and Siggy Sauer founded the club in January 2021, transitioning to a nonprofit in August 2022. As a cinematographer, Morrison says he was attracted to exploring sumo because of the aesthetics, tradition and culture.
“I really wanted to find somewhere where we could practice that kind of represented that more. We were in a small Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) gym with paper-thin walls that when our guys hit it … there’s a huge chance you’re going to go tumbling out of the ring and into the wall, and you’re just going to smash through that wall of cheap sheetrock,” he says. “So we’re like, ‘Why don’t we take it outside?’”
Outside happened to be at our Kidd Springs Park, which Morrison came across while working as a director of photography on a project.
“We found a little area right over by the Kidd Springs Recreation Center in the Japanese garden, just over this little bridge, and there was a big Ginkgo tree,” he says. “We started practicing under that. We had a lot of people join us for that. All the time, people in the mornings would just come, they’d be walking their dog or riding a bike or just jogging, and they’d be like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ And they’d stop and watch us half-naked dudes beating the crap out of each other early in the morning.”
Morrison says the outdoor practices in Oak Cliff helped bring more exposure to sumo in Dallas.
“Sumo in the U.S. has had a huge problem catching steam. It is now, finally, but it’s had its ups and downs, and I think a lot of the reason of that was because it was always done in places where there was already existing martial arts like BJJ, karate, MMA, boxing, stuff like that. It was tucked away in those gyms, but (we are) doing it out in a public park where people could see it,” he says.
Other appearances around the Metroplex have helped bring in club members, which fluctuates numbers-wise depending on the season.
Rick Garza came across Dallas Sumo Club with his brother at a demonstration held at Rollertown Beer Works in 2022. The pair came for the release of a Japanese lager, but ended up in the ring themselves.
“So we’re there, watching them do the demo. Easily a few beers in. Finally, Corey is like, ‘Anybody think they can get in there and beat any of us? Just come sign the waiver,’” he says. “So me and my brother just looked at each other, didn’t say nothing and walked straight over there.”
Finding the club totally by accident, the siblings have a wrestling background that they were prepared to use, even if it had been years.
“I didn’t do anything until I joined the sumo club from high school until then. I mean, I would still work out here and there, but nothing as intense as this. This is very intense,” Garza says. “Even before, wrestling was pretty intense, but this is still a head-to-toe body workout. Your fingertips are tired at the end of practice. Toes are tired. It’s a great workout.”
Obed Centeno has been with the club for three years, having discovered the group after learning about their ties to a local anime convention.
He’s competed throughout Texas in San Antonio and Houston, along with Dallas, which has brought changes to his skill level and body.
“I have physically, it’s a workout,” Centeno says. “So, definitely weight loss, and also I never thought I’d be competing, so technique wise, also I’ve gotten better along the way … It’s fun, it’s all ages, shapes and sizes. It doesn’t matter if you’re 400 pounds versus 150 pounds, there’s no judgment here.”
The club not only competes locally, but has made strides with global appearances at the amateur level, sharing the name of Dallas Sumo. One of the women in the club, Mell Miranda, recently brought home a silver world medal from the team tournament portion of the World Sumo Championship in Thailand. Other club members have also made visits to the home of professional sumo in Japan.
However, for Dallas Sumo Club, the time at Kidd Springs was never the permanent home. The club ended up utilizing a facility in Arlington for just over a year before coming back to Oak Cliff and practicing out of Malicious Grounds.
Morrison described the wrestling and BJJ gym just off of South Cockrell Hill Road as dark and brooding, a wonderful place with concrete walls that eased their worries of smashing through. However, the gym shut down in July 2025. At the time, the club had been working on creating a traditional dohyo in the backyard of the gym.
To Morrison, Oak Cliff has always felt like Dallas Sumo Club’s home, and he says they hope to return one day. More recently, the group has practiced in more northern parts of Dallas, such as Tietze Park and Glencoe Park, but nothing that sticks like the former spot in the neighborhood.
“We want more people to join. We’re trying to expand American sumo as it is,” Garza says. “We’re trying to make it giant. Dallas Sumo Club, we want us to be the Dallas Cowboys of sumo.”
THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING
SOC seniors reflect on closing out their high school careers as state champions
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
South Oak Cliff High School has set a standard for their football team: make it to the state championship. The Golden Bears set even higher goals when they became a back-to-back state champion team, the first to do so in Dallas ISD history in 2021 and in 2022.
That was the program that this year’s team seniors entered as freshmen. They fought hard throughout a two-year title drought, but before closing their high school football career in 2025, they were able to earn another championship title.
Brison Ramsey-Brooks, Ja’Marion Phillips and Mikail Trotter were three of those seniors. Each of them felt the highs and lows of the pressure that came with fighting for a state title, but ultimately came out of their time at SOC with a story of victory to tell.
BRISON RAMSEYBROOKS, NO. 55
Known to his teammates as PEAB0, Ramsey-Brooks says that coming into the program as a freshman was really fun.
“It was hard work, fun, but we just knew that it was work that was going to have to be put in for us to come back and win just like our older brothers did,” he says. “So we put in that hard work. Blood, sweat and tears.”
Hard work coming without the ultimate reward of another state championship was tough throughout his high school career.
“That first loss, it hurt, but it didn’t hurt me at the same time because I was just now coming up. I got years left,” he says. “Then that second loss, that hurt me bad because I was like, ‘Come on, what up?’ It’s all I got. We can’t go out like this. Then we came into this year (2025), and we came out on top.”
He credits his success at SOC to the staff that pushed him: linebacker coach Domenic Spencer, offensive line specialist Zach Collins, assistant coach Kyle Ward and of course, head coach Jason Todd, just to name a few.
“They played a really big part of this. And I believe in them. I feel like they’re going to come back next year and do it again.”
Ramsey-Brooks says the brotherhood as teammates helped the Golden Bears reach the ultimate goal.
“The hard work we put in together, the blood we shed together. Everything we went through together, that made us. That made our bond closer,” he says. “The stuff on the field, off the field, we always bonded to make sure we all were locked in.”
Ramsey-Brooks finished up his senior year graduating early in December 2025, with a commitment to join the offensive line at Texas Southern University in Houston.
“It’s always the underdog, if you’re an underdog, always believe in yourself,” he says as parting advice for the SOC freshmen coming into the program next year. “Bet on yourself no matter who (is) against you.”
Photos courtesy of Dallas ISD.
MIKAIL TROTTER, NO.2
The 2025 state championship game earned Trotter the Offensive MVP title, but coming into the SOC program he says he didn’t know what he was really getting into.
“I knew it’s from my ’hood and stuff like that. But I ain’t really know too much about state,” the running back says. “I just know I came to be a dog because I came from Duncanville. And I ended up coming over here to have better opportunities.”
Trotter is currently earning his associate’s degree early through the P-Tech dual credit program at SOC and will graduate in May. As of National Signing Day, he will be playing for the Northeastern State University Riverhawks next season. From his time playing football
here at SOC, he says that the 2025 state game was probably one of his best and that team brought him more than just a title.
“(To the freshman coming in) I would say South Oak Cliff, they’ll be your man, and you always have a family no matter what. They got your back,” he says. “Argue, fight us — at the end of the day, y’all still going to be brothers, and the culture is just like your fathers’.”
JA’ MARION PHILLIPS,
NO.7
When the linebacker known as “The Joker” came into his senior season this year, he started out with a low moment. What Phillips thought was a jammed thumb at a preseason practice ended up needing surgery and led him to miss three months.
“Throughout the season, like when it first happened, I was down … I ain’t never had
no real injuries so I didn’t know what to feel like,” he says, “I thought it was over.”
However, when it came to playoffs, he was finally able to play six games for his senior year leading up to his early graduation in December to head to Baylor University. Because of those games, he was named The Dallas Morning News’s 2025 Defensive Player of the Year.
“After a while, I gave it to God. I started reading the Bible, started praying to him every day, started going to church sometimes,” he says. “And then I just started putting in the vital rehab work and stuff and getting ready to come back. And then it worked out.”
Being able to get back on the field meant even more with the state championship on the line for the fourth time in his high school career.
“All the hard work that we put (in),” he says. “All the long nights, the fussing with the coaches, arguing with each other, the fights on the field, everything that we have done for the past year, leading up to that point, has paid off, and it helped us win.”
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The most, the latest, the largest & loftiest
Lake Cliff Amusement Park, Greater Dallas’ old playground
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Decades before the opening day of Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington in 1961, there was already a wellknown little amusement park right here in Oak Cliff.
Lake Cliff Amusement Park, surrounding the freshwater lake, opened on June 16, 1906. The resort sat up on the hill overlooking the Dallas skyline, packing in a slew of attractions in just over 4 acres. Promoters shared that they imagined the space to be clean and high-class in every way a 20th century enterprise could be.
One of those promoters had a hand in the founding of Oak Cliff, Charles A. Mangold. He served as the managing director of the Lake Cliff Co. and was hard to miss among the attractions as he was a “tireless worker and as energetic as a locomotive.”
The amusement park described many of the attractions to be “the most,” “the latest” or “the largest and loftiest.”
Two years into operations, the best hit its worst. The Trinity River flood of April
1908 led the river to crest 52.6 feet, killing five people and leaving 4,000 people homeless. With the flood, the streetcars were submerged, making it difficult for those outside of Oak Cliff to return to the amusement park.
Bad luck struck again when a fire broke out in March 1913, destroying the skating rink, the Shoot-The-Chutes ride and grand entrance gate. This led to Mangold selling the park to the City in 1914 for $55,000 (the equivalent of about $1.8 million today).
With that money, the Casino theater was moved to Fifth and Crawford Streets and was renamed the James P. Simpson Studio. It later burned to the ground in 1929.
Throughout the ’30s, beautification efforts added rose bushes and gardens, paired with the pergolas, a pavilion, the pineapple fountain and retaining walls to the 44.5-acre community park, which remain today.
With the introduction of Fair Park as the site of the World’s Fair in 1936, the
’40s of Lake Cliff pivoted to a sports focus. Expansions were made to include seven tennis courts, a pair of softball diamonds, a single baseball diamond, a handball court and volleyball court all circled by a paved perimeter path. A decade later, the City included a pool and to go with the bathhouse built in 1921, but the pool closed in 1958.
Maintenance for the park in the 21st century includes a 2007 bond project to renovate the pergolas, pavilion and vintage playground equipment using $1 million. Additionally, Friends of Lake Cliff Park updated the rose gardens based on the ones added in 1934.
In September 2014, Lake Cliff Park celebrated its centennial since the City’s purchase.
Twelve years later, there are no released plans for the future of Lake Cliff, but there have been murmurs of changes to come. Maybe folks can try to bring back “The Greatest Amusement Park in the Southwest.”
Entrance to Lake Cliff Park post card from 1910. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Based on a pamphlet produced in 1906 for the park’s opening year, here’s a list of the “Epitome of Lake Cliff’s Attractions” available prior to closure:
MYSTIC RIVER — A weird and wondrous journey through whirlpools, maelstroms and quiet rivers with realistic features of the world’s wonder places. A beautiful view of the Trinity River, the Lagoons of the Gnomes, Venice at Night, the Royal al Gorge, Old Plantation, Palace of the Doges, beautiful electrical displays and Canals of Stygian Blackness — the most realistic attraction ever seen in the South.
SHOOT-THE-CHUTES — Over 125,000 people have ridden these chutes during the season of 1906 without an accident. All of the newest improvements, gentlemanly attendants, a laugh provoker from start to finish. Pictured right.
OPEN AIR CIRCUS — The management of Lake Cliff Park offers daily to its patrons a series of sensational acrobatic feats and serial exhibitions by the world’s most famous artists.
ROLLER COASTER — A wild ride up hill and down dale; through forest and glade, valley and mountain top, giving a bird’s eye view of Lake Cliff and the skyline of the City of Dallas together with a reproduction in perspective of world-famous scenery. Opens to the public with the opening of the 1907 season.
CASINO — The theatre had a seating capacity of 2,500.
NATATORIUM — The largest bathing pavilion in any inland town in the South. Seventy dressing rooms. Water gauged from 18 inches to 30 feet in depth.
CAROUSEL — The delight of the children and the older folks as well.
TENNIS COURTS — The largest and most complete tennis courts in the country. Six complete courts.
The place where all the state tournaments are held.
RESTAURANT —
Lake Cliff’s Restaurant was described to have everything from oysters to crackers and cheese and coffee; the established eatery was said to have everything one could find in a firstclass restaurant.
BASEBALL GROUNDS — A completely equipped diamond, set apart for the use of city leagues and amateur ball games.
SKATING RINK — The skating rink accommodated 2,000 skaters on the floor and seating accommodations for 2,500. Three sessions, with military band music, were available daily.
TROLLEY CARS — A novel and highly entertaining world trip in palace cars through the world’s historic scenes.
PENNY VAUDEVILLE — An amusing, interesting and instructive amusement parlor. The latest machines and the latest pictures.
CASINO BAND AND ORCHESTRA
— The management of Lake Cliff and
its patrons are extremely fortunate in having the Casino Band and Orchestra, a musical organization second to none in this country, the individual members of which have for years met with the unqualified approval of all who enjoy firstclass concert music. Its repertoire is practically unlimited and its instrumentation complete. These band concerts are free to all.
CIRCLE SWING — This wonderful steel swing, with its myriads of electric lights, is the largest one South of Chicago. It takes you for a sky-scraping tour and gives you the real sensation of a “trip in a balloon.”
JAPANESE VILLAGE — A revelation and perfect unabridged realization of the Kingdom of the Mikado and the Chrysanthemum. Now in course of construction and open to the public with the season of 1907.
BOATING — A beautiful lake of 30 acres, equipped with 50 steel boats and launches. The delight of all ages.
FERRIS WHEEL — A source of never-ending delight to the little folks.
