MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
On Monday evening, Michael Ramirez sat in his home in Frisco, where he popped open his desktop computer and signed into his Skype account.
From there, the former Brownsville Lopez coach fielded questions from the Hidalgo Independent School District’s board of trustees through a video conference, convincing them to select him for the top football post and athletic director openings.
Ramirez served in a similar capacity the past two seasons, coaching at Carrollton Turner, an academically driven school with a Class 6A football program that has struggled to cobble together wins.
In his first season there, Ramirez went 0-10. The following year, they opened with a 3-0 record, snapping a 27-game losing streak.
They averaged 61 points through those non-district battles. And even though they were unable to sustain that momentum through district, the Lions finished 4-6 overall — exceeding their combined three-win total from the previous seven seasons — giving Ramirez reason to feel encouraged about the turnaround.
“I think we were going in the right direction,” Ramirez said. “I can’t say anything negative about Turner. They were extremely good to me. I think what it ultimately came down to was, I live 30 minutes away (from Turner). My kids go to a different school district. So, personally, it was family decision to get my family in a smaller school district, where they’re 5-10 minutes away, and it’s easy to go to their games, and easier to get to mine, and be more involved with school and what they do.”
That was the primary reason, he said, he chose to accept the position, which was approved 7-0 by the board of trustees Monday, including other incentives, such as becoming the school district’s athletic director — a promotion from his athletic coordinator duties before at Lopez and Turner.
Still, there was a cloud looming over the position.
On Jan. 12, then-coach Taihi Jones was reassigned after two seasons on the job, which included a 4-7 record and postseason appearance in 2013, followed by a 1-9 campaign in 2014. That left an opening for Hidalgo’s fourth coach in the previous five years, though it didn’t deter Ramirez from pursuing it.
“I think having that track record wasn’t intimidating,” Ramirez said. “The district really wants to commit to a program and an athletic director and head football coach. I think we’ve got to do a good job of running a program that’s high integrity and high respect, and you won’t have that turnover.”
Ramirez isn’t expected to arrive in the Valley until Monday. At that point, he’ll finalize the paperwork to assume his new post. In the coming weeks, he plans to make the nine-hour, 550-mile drive (each way, three or four times) to complete the move to the Valley.
Even then, he feels he’s behind schedule. Installing a new coach in March or April means the Pirates have lost four months without his tutelage.
“We’re definitely behind a little in what we’re trying to do,” he said. “Implementing a new system, that all takes time. It’s pretty difficult to get it done from April to August, when everyone’s doing it from November to August. But that’s what I’ll be selling to the kids, that we have a lot of catching up to do. We can’t waste a minute. We can’t waste a second.”