By ANDREW CRUM | THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
The coaching vacancy at Port Isabel wasn’t open very long once again.
The Port Isabel Independent School District issued a press release Tuesday to announce that it had hired a new athletic director/head football coach, Jason Strunk.
According to the press release, Strunk began his coaching career as an assistant in 1996 in Pennsylvania with three years at Nazareth and six more at Northampton before making the jump to the collegiate level as a linebackers coach at Muhlenberg College before coming a head coach at a college in Plant City, Florida.
Most recently, after a yearlong stint at Purdue University as the offensive quality control and assistant offensive line coach in 2010, Strunk returned to the high school sidelines in 2011 where he held the head football coaching position at Lubbock High School. Strunk led Lubbock to a playoff berth in his second season, the school’s first since 1975, but had an 11-60 overall record during his tenure.
Now Strunk will take over the program that Jaime Infante left when he resigned last month after just one season. Infante had a disappointing 2-7 season that had many growing pains throughout, including a transition to a new offensive system and injuries to at least three quarterbacks and other key players, but the Tarpons still nearly made the postseason.
A loss in their district finale ended the frustrating season and six months later, Infante turned in his notice. He’ll complete his contract that ends at the end of June.
Infante took over for Monty Stumbaugh, who wasn’t retained at the end of his contract two years ago despite the success he brought to the field with numerous district titles and nearly a playoff berth every season in 15 years at the helm.
Strunk will certainly have his work cut out for himself after becoming the third coach in the last three years for Port Isabel. After another change at the top, the Tarpons will surely experience changes with coordinators and other coaches in the next few months as they seek a playoff berth for the first time since 2016.
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.