DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
Earlier this year, Edinburg High baseball coach Robert Valdez sat down with senior Jaime Alvarado.
Alvarado, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound infielder/pitcher, had options available to play college baseball in Laredo, Austin or Beeville, just outside of Corpus Christi. After much discussion with Valdez, Alvarado chose Coastal Bend College in Beeville.
“We looked at rosters that were there for each school the previous year,” Valdez said. “Is he going to have to wait a year or two to play, or will he play right away? That matters.
“If they have to wait, you get these kids who are used to being the big dogs on campus and who are back to being the small fish in the pond once they’re in college. They get homesick, they don’t know how to deal with what is perceived as failure, their grades suffer and they end up back home.”
Valdez knows. A 1988 graduate of Edinburg High, he went the junior college route because his preferred destination, Pan American, had too many underclassmen outfielders. He went to Bacone College in Oklahoma and then returned home to play, and eventually serve as an assistant coach, for the Broncs.
Valdez is generous with his experience and time in helping his players get to the next level. But not all Valley high school coaches have been. Former Valley great Roberto Garza, of Rio Hondo, said he did not have help in his recruiting process that eventually led him to Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he was able to serve as a walk-on because a Rio Hondo alum worked as an equipment manager and knew of Garza’s talent.
“I had no idea what to do and how to do it at the time,” said Garza, who had a stellar career for the Javelinas and has spent the last 10 NFL seasons as a center for the Chicago Bears. “Nobody really showed me or explained to me what the steps were… (Rio Hondo coaches) didn’t really concern themselves with getting kids into college for sports at the time. For them, it was about the results on Friday night, and that was the extent of their jobs.”
And then there are coaches like Valdez, or Mission Veterans Memorial football coach David Gilpin, who, every season, compiles a prospect sheet with a player’s football stats, test scores, measurables, GPA, contact information, and his own evaluation. Gilpin sends the sheet out to colleges in Texas he thinks the athlete could provide a service to. He’ll then send it out to surrounding states if he’s not getting the response he’s looking for.
“I feel a tremendous responsibility to these kids for all the work and effort they put into what we’re asking them to do,” Gilpin said. “If a kid wants to go to the next level, I will do everything in my power to assist him.”
Edcouch-Elsa coach Joe Marichalar has helped send seven players to play college football during his two-year tenure at the helm of the Yellowjackets.
He remembers his days as an all-state linebacker for Edcouch-Elsa during the late 1990s. He was discovered by a Sul Ross State coach at an all-star showcase after his senior season, played two years there, and then transferred to Texas A&M-Kingsville where he finished his college career as a special teams player and backup inside linebacker.
“There was no recruiting process,” Marichalar said. “My journey was an independent one. A lot of things were done on my own. That’s why it’s a driving force for me today.
“Now that I’m in a position to help, that’s what I try and do for my guys, get them opportunities.”
WHOSE JOB IS IT?
Should it be considered a coach’s responsibility to help get his players to the next level?
Not necessarily, said Alandra Speights. Alandra is the mother of McAllen Memorial senior running back Trevor Speights, who has nine offers from colleges, including Stanford, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Missouri. Alandra and her husband were the ones to send out Trevor’s highlight tapes and information to colleges and drive him from camp to camp during the summers.
“Parents think it’s the coaches’ (responsibility),” Alandra said. “It’s not. When Trevor was 8 years old, he went to a football camp in Pharr. They talked to the parents and stressed how it was important for the parents, not the coaches, to get their kids exposed. I took that to heart. Going through the process, you realize it would be tough for one coach to do that. I’m sending out emails, always making calls, just doing whatever to get coaches in contact with Trevor.
“The coaches could do better as far as playing bigger schools outside the area, that exposure in front of big crowds, against schools outside of our element. But that’s the only thing coaches could do more of.”
Sean Patterson’s son Shea was an All-Valley football player two years ago as a freshman at Hidalgo. Now entering his senior season at IMG Academy, Shea, a verbal commit to the University of Mississippi, is the No. 9 overall player in the Class of 2016, per CBS Sports’ 247sports.com. Sean moved his family to Louisiana after five years in the Valley because of a job transfer, but he still gets calls from Valley players and parents asking for help in their own respective recruiting processes.
Sean is careful not to speak negatively of the Valley or its coaches. But he attends a plethora of camps each year with Shea and sees no representatives from the Valley.
“If a coach works hard enough to get every kid to be on a plan to play college football, he benefits,” Sean said. “That means his kids are disciplined, getting good grades and they’re going to play for something more than just a bi-district playoff game. But if you don’t have your high school coach working for you, it’s really tough.”
Many Valley coaches establish the initial contact between athletes and colleges. Edinburg Vela boys basketball coach Lalo Rios, for instance, will ask players to give him a list of 10 colleges they’d like to play for. Then he’ll make a highlight tape and send it out.
“We’re in the field of helping kids, in any shape and form,” said Rios, who knows how hard it is to get recruited in the Valley after he chose to walk-on to Pan American in 1995 after a stellar high school career at Edinburg High. “One, it makes the program look good, and, two, not all these kids have the experience and knowledge of what it takes to get to the next level. If I can help, I will.”
Sharyland High football coach Ron Adame has his players make their own highlight tapes and personal profiles through Hudl, a popular sports video content service. Adame and his staff provide the film and use their network to get the word out on players.
“It has to be a joint effort,” Adame said. “During the summer months, for example, beyond strength and conditioning, the contact we can have with our boys is limited (per UIL regulations). And so the combines and the camps and the showcases, which are big, are going to have to come from the athlete and the parents.
“It’s not the sole responsibility of the coach. It’s not the sole responsibility of the kid or parent. If we all get on the same page and do our part, it betters the opportunity.”
IN REALITY
Gilpin has been on both sides of the recruiting journey, as a parent and a coach. He said the biggest obstacle facing most parents he talks to is reality.
“Understand those full athletic scholarships are few and far between for our kids here in the Rio Grande Valley,” Gilpin said. “So many times, parents have a skewed vision of what their child is going to do. (University of Texas coach) Charlie Strong is not sitting in my office looking for a kid that he can get at 4 to 5 inches taller, 3 to 4 tenths of a second faster, elsewhere.”
Gilpin’s daughter Shania was an All-Valley volleyball player during her career at Mission Veterans Memorial. During the spring of Shania’s junior year three years ago, Gilpin made a highlight film and player profile and sent it out to every college in Texas.
“Exactly what I do for my football players,” he said.
The Division I schools said, respectfully, Shania was too small. Gilpin appreciated that.
“I needed that honesty,” Gilpin said. “I need to know what levels to look at for my daughter to play volleyball. It wasn’t about talent, it wasn’t about work ethic or commitment. It was size. Why would they recruit a 5-foot-8 or 5-9 outside hitter when they can go get a 6-1 or 6-2 player with the same vertical?”
Gilpin narrowed his focus to NAIA, NCAA Division III schools and NCAA Division II schools. Almost every DIII school he contacted was interested in Shania, as well as a few DIIs.
Shania will be a sophomore outside hitter for Texas A&M-Kingsville, a Division II program, this upcoming season.
“I took the initial steps,” Gilpin said. “I didn’t wait for a college to call or send a letter. I reached out to them. A parent can be doing the same thing I’m doing as a coach. Any parent can put together a highlight film or get film from coaches, and they can send it, too.”
Polo Gutierrez was born in Laredo and grew up in Corpus Christi. Now UTSA’s running backs coach and lead recruiter in south Texas, he said high school athletes looking to get recruited should not be dependent upon their coaches.
“The only reason I got a Division I scholarship (to play football at New Mexico State) is not because these coaches were pushing me like crazy,” Gutierrez said. “It was because my father, he had boxes and boxes and boxes of VHS tapes and he would send them out all over the country.
“It goes down to being your own promoter and putting yourself in the best situation, and now it’s a lot easier and less expensive to make a Hudl highlight tape and send it through email. It doesn’t cost anything.”
FIND A WAY
More and more, Valley coaches are starting to take pride in getting their players to the next level.
“It’s one of the reasons I got into this business,” Valdez said. “The enjoyment and satisfaction I got as a college player just getting on the bus to play 30 days of tournaments … I thought it’d be something to give a student-athlete of mine the opportunity to experience those things, not only from an athletic standpoint, but to become an educated individual to provide for their families.”
Just as Valley players and parents are becoming better educated in what the recruiting process desires, so are coaches. Edinburg Vela football coach Michael Salinas recently had a junior-senior camp day at Texas A&M-Kingsville, his alma mater. He invited all the Valley coaches and players to the camp.
Some Valley coaches take a prominent role in their kids moving on to the next level. Others don’t.
“It’s unfair for me to say what other coaches do and why,” Valdez said. “But I do know that the successful teams, they find a way to get their players to the next level.”
For more stories, videos, photos and graphics covering recruiting in the Valley, visit themonitor.com/recruiting