BY SAUL BERRIOS-THOMAS | STAFF WRITER
As the sun rises over football fields across the Rio Grande Valley, coaches are already hard at work preparing for when a horde of football players comes rushing onto the green and white gridiron.
The responsibilities for a football coach go far beyond what fans see on Friday nights, and even beyond what players see at practice every day.
There are hours of film review, the formulation of game plans, the briefing and debriefing of assistant coaches.
The workload is even greater when a coach is coming into his first year at a new school. Just ask new Edcouch-Elsa coach Bradly Chavez.
“I think the biggest thing is I have had one week off since January,” Chavez said. “I’ve been in it, day in and day out, with these kids. I was telling someone earlier today, that this is the first week I was able to see my daughter for a full week, which has been really good. She came to the complex, and she’s been here all week.”
Time with family is carved into the heavy work schedule. Chavez’s daughter still lives outside of the Valley, so seeing her has become more difficult to manage. Time off is a rarity, and a luxury new coaches are not afforded.
Three new coaches have taken positions in the Upper Valley this year — Chavez, Joe Marichalar at Donna North and Damian Gonzalez at Edinburg North.
“As soon as I got hired, it was hit the ground running,” Joe Marichalar said.
Marichalar was reassigned by Edcouch-Elsa after last season, and Chavez was brought in as his replacement. On Jan. 9, Marichalar was hired to be the new football coach and athletic coordinator for Donna North. The coordinator part is par for the course around the Valley, but it was a change for Marichalar. E-E’s school district has an athletic director who handles those responsibilities.
“There were no 101 classes on this or that. You go, and you dive right in,” Marichalar said. “Sink or swim, let’s go. Some of the people already in place, you rely a lot on them. You read up on things, you research things, and you call people you have built relationships with, who are doing it right now. You get in that urgency mode, and you get in there and try to learn.”
During a new coach’s first year, that urgency is make or break. Hiring the right assistants, building the right foundation and setting the right standards are things all three new Upper Valley coaches pointed to as being key to the first few months at a new school.
“The main thing is that if your kids buy in, then your chances of being productive increase,” Marichalar said. “You have to find those signs that show they have bought in. I think that is the main thing for me. I went in there and I told the kids, we have this vision, and this is what we are trying to do. This is where we are trying to get, and these are the steps we need to take in order to get there.”
Marichalar couldn’t be sure his players fully understood what he was saying. Then, as he went to repeat his mission, he began to nod his head with excitement. As he looked around, players started nodding along, one by one. When Marichalar saw that, he said he knew they understood.
“I think that contact is super important, having these one-on-one conversations, building different relationships,” Marichalar said. “We all speak the same language — the language of the game.”
For Chavez, moving in from outside of the Valley made things more difficult. Chavez’s most recent job was at Kingsville Santa Gertrudis.
“When you are dealing with people, everyone has a different background,” Chavez said. “I’ve been blessed to travel a lot and experience a lot of different cultures. I was able to work at a low-income school my first year. My second job was a slightly different demographic, so I have had the best of both worlds.
“Every kid is going to have a different situation, but just letting the kids know you are genuinely there for them, and you are not just there to meet some quota or to just win games, but that you care about them beyond football. I think once they understand that, they start to buy in. And from there, it’s just about starting to get to know each other — what we like and don’t like, and what we will do and what we won’t do.”
Gonzalez’s challenge was learning the finer points. Gonzalez was an offensive coordinator for years and learned under former North coach and current ECISD athletic director Roy Garza.
“He gave me my first job,” Gonzalez said of Garza. “He’s been a big mentor to me. I learned how to do things right and how to run a successful program. I think he has given me the blueprint on things we need to do to be successful.”
However, this is Gonzalez’s first time as a head football coach. Gonzalez was the head baseball coach at Edinburg North before he took the football job. He said he learned a lot of the intricacies of running a team with the baseball team, but there were still some differences.
“The biggest thing for me was having so many coaches to oversee,” Gonzalez said. “Overseeing every aspect of the program was another adjustment. … We are talking about 200 athletes that I am overseeing, and then on top of that you are talking about all of the other sports, as well.”
Another thing all three coaches believed was very important in the first year was creating an identity for the team.
“I said this when I was hired at Donna North, what they are getting is the refined me,” Marichalar said. “I entered the head coaching career at a young age. I think I was 31 at the time. Now I’m 38. What they are inheriting is based on my experience at previous schools. … I want to motivate and encourage and empower our kids, so that they get it done. Because they have been hearing it for so long, you know, ‘Donna North, they don’t have a shot,’ and so on and so forth. I’m not going to believe any of that. I am just going to go out there, and make sure our kids work hard, and that they are prepared.
“Our motto is ‘Roll Tribe, Chief Pride.’ Our theme is, ‘Build your house ONOS.’ ONOS is ‘one nail one swing.’ One step at a time. Enjoy the process. Don’t rush nothing. Take it stride by stride.”
Chavez also stressed the identity of the team.
“We wanted to make sure our kids knew where we were coming from, and to make sure they understood the expectations and standards, not only academically, but also how you handle yourself day in and day out,” he said. “The second thing is getting to know all of our kids. Coming in as outsiders, we wanted to get to know our kids, our families, and their lifestyles, so that was another one of those things we really worked on. … Wins and losses will come. I know the expectations and the standards here. But, I will be much more satisfied with a kid who knows I care about him, and is getting a high school diploma, and he is going on in life to become a successful young man.”
Gonzalez’s team identity pulls from what he knows best: offensive line. That unit, which he coached during his time as a coordinator, and his defensive line will be key for the Cougars in 2018.
“I asked our lines to stand up, and I told them that we are going to be physical up front,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve been on teams that were successful, and I have been on teams that were not. The one common factor has always been that when you are successful, you are strong up front.
“We are going to come out and play hard. We are going to be prepared when we enter the field, and we will not quit no matter what. We will come out every week ready to play. We are going to represent Edinburg North and the city of Edinburg well.”