GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
La Joya High football coach George Espinoza was reassigned following the end of the 2015 season, La Joya ISD athletic director Victor Garza confirmed Tuesday.
The Coyotes finished an injury-plagued year 3-7, missing the playoffs as a result of a 20-7 loss to La Joya Juarez-Lincoln in the team’s regular-season finale.
“We’re just going in a different direction with the program,” Garza said. “We appreciate the efforts from coach, and district says we need to go in a different direction.”
Espinoza said he had no indication a reassignment might be in his future before being called into a meeting with Garza and principal Antonio Cano on Nov. 10.
Espinoza was not allowed to speak to the players after the decision was made, he said.
“The principal just told me they wanted to take the program in a different direction,” Espinoza said. “I said, ‘What direction do you want this program to go?’ To me, we’ve been improving the past four years.”
Espinoza took over the program before the 2012 season, inheriting a team with just 48 players on the roster and a 7-33 overall record since the La Joya ISD split after the 2007 season.
The Coyotes suited up 65 players for his second season and 135 for his third, during which the team went 4-6 to secure its first playoff berth since the split.
While injuries derailed the 2015 varsity roster, Espinoza spoke highly of La Joya’s two JV teams and its freshman squad when the season came to a close, looking optimistically toward the future.
Espinoza finishes his tenure with a mark of 10-31.
“We just felt that we were going in the right direction,” Espinoza said.
Espinoza said he was assigned to one of the school’s alternative campuses and that he plans to apply for the open head coaching jobs at McAllen Rowe, Edinburg High and Donna North.
He said he’s received an outpouring of support from parents and students both inside and away from the football program.
“Well, I have to keep my head up,” Espinoza said. “What I’m doing is feeding off all the positives that I’m getting from the community, the kids and the coaches within our district.”