By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
New Los Fresnos head coach Rebecca Valdez saw the potential in her team from Day 1.
And her team went out and showed its first-year coach what she already knew.
Valdez led the Lady Falcons to a 27-win season, including their first postseason trip in three years. Her team relied on its defense, hard work and grit to get the job done and in the process broke its brief postseason drought.
For her successful season, Valdez earns the distinction as The Brownsville Herald’s 2018 All-Metro Coach of the Year.
“It’s a huge honor especially coming in as a first-year head coach,” Valdez said. “I’m excited to be blessed with this opportunity here and to be honored with the All-Metro award is pretty nice.”
Valdez credits coach Kim Edquist, the long-time Los Fresnos coach that retired after last season, for building the foundation with the young team.
“I think Coach Edquist did a great job last year with them, but they just lacked experience,” Valdez said. “This year was bringing them back to have that confidence, having that year of experience and building upon what was already here.”
Valdez said that her senior captains Britney Ruiz and Jessica Fuentes were ‘the heartbeat of the team’ and that the younger classmen played for the senior class to get them to the postseason.
Although it was clear to Valdez about the team’s potential, the transition to a new coach wasn’t easy for some of her players.
“I was mad at first, I wouldn’t acknowledge her,” junior point guard Jovanna Adame said of coaching change.
But once they understood that the goals were the same and the focus on defense was similar to Edquist, it was much better.
“She came in with the same mindset as Coach Edquist wanting to win and believing in us,” Adame said. “We’re together as a team, everyone has to put in the effort.”
Senior forward Jessica Fuentes noticed the differences, too.
“I feel like she was tougher,” she said of her new coach. “It was different … she was tougher on us.”
Despite which player’s thought which coach was tougher on them in practices and the like, getting back to the postseason was the only thing that mattered.
“It felt really good, I was very happy,” Fuentes said. “I hope they win district next year.”
It all started with defense. Valdez used a defensive approach where each player played a certain part.
“I pushed a lot of team defense and holding each other accountable,” she said. “Everyone has their role on our defense.”
After experiencing the growing pains of being a new coach along with some success this season, Valdez is confident they’ll achieve more next year.
“I feel like next year I’ll be more confident in myself … hopefully that feeds off to my kids,” she said. “I’m excited, I think Los Fresnos is a great place to be. We’re going to come back stronger; we have a good core coming back.
“I think we’ll have even more success in the future with the legacy that those seniors left.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.