RGVSPORTS.COM
The girls coach of the year honor, set to be handed out at the eighth annual RGVSports.com & Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame awards ceremony, is down to four finalists.
PSJA North’s Randy Bocanegra (girls basketball), San Benito’s Elias Martinez (softball), and Los Fresnos’ Marissa Wood (girls soccer) and Becky Woods (volleyball) are in the running for the distinction, which will be handed out at a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. on June 9 at the Col. Philip J. Yeckel Memorial Auditorium on the campus of Marine Military Academy in Harlingen.
The ceremony will be free of charge.
For a third consecutive year, RGVSports.com and the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame are teaming up for the award ceremony honoring the best performances of the 2014-15 season in Rio Grande Valley high school athletics.
Bocanegra is in contention for the prize after leading the Lady Raiders to a 30-5 overall mark, including an 11-1 record in District 31-6A. Under his guidance, the program won their first district title and were the only girls basketball team in the Valley to advance to the third round of the postseason.
With Bocanegra, the RGVSports.com All-Valley Girls Basketball coach of the Year and 31-6A coach of the year, PSJA North banded together to make up for its lack of size and depth. The starters logged heavy minutes, and the team formed an identity as an outshooting squad, covering up for its deficiencies.
After defeating New Braunfels Canyon last week, Martinez’s San Benito softball squad earned its second trip to the state tournament in three years, all under Martinez’s watch. They’re the Valley’s only softball team still alive in the postseason.
With him, the Lady Greyhounds won the District 32-6A title and were consistently ranked all year among the top teams by RGVSports.com.
In only her first season at the helm, Wood led the Los Fresnos girls soccer team to a District 32-6A title and a 12-2 record before advancing five rounds in the state playoffs. The Lady Falcons finished with a 27-4 overall mark after losing 2-1 to San Antonio Reagan in the Region IV-6A final.
It marked only the third time a Valley girls team has reached a regional final in soccer. Wood led the Lady Falcons to a No. 1 standing in RGVSports.com’s end-of-the-season rankings. She was selected the RGVSports.com All-Valley Girls Soccer Coach of the Year, and the all-district coach of the year, as well.
Woods, the longtime volleyball coach at Los Fresnos, is coming off a season in which she led her team to a District 32-6A title. The Lady Falcons won 37 games, posting a 13-1 mark in district before advancing to the fourth round of the playoffs.
Woods was also named the RGVSports.com All-Valley Volleyball Coach of the Year.
2014-15 RGVSports.com & Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame awards
Girls coach of the year finalists
Randy Bocanegra, PSJA North (basketball)
Elias Martinez, San Benito (softball)
Marissa Wood, Los Fresnos (soccer)
Becky Woods, Los Fresnos (volleyball)